Executive Officer’s Report: October 2019
The southern silky oak (grevillea robusta) is in bloom at the moment and it looks spectacular. 
I was just thinking the other day that our celebration of All Saints and All Souls Days in spring should remind us of the theology that with death, life is changed – not ended (1 Cor. 15:51-52). Our poor cousins in the Northern hemisphere celebrate these feasts in the ever increasing cold, dark and desolate setting of winter where it must feel like light and life is being extinguished. All around us plants are flowering and bursting with new growth. This is a time of year when hope and optimism seem to come easy.
Within the universal Church I also see reason for hope and optimism. The Amazonian Synod has seen honest discussion of issues with consideration of a wide range of responses. If you want more detail on the content and process of this Synod, you may want to look up Australian Marist Brother, Mark O’Connor’s letters from the Synod.
Most of my October was spent preparing for the AMPJP workshop to be held on 01-03 Nov 2109. On 10 October 2019, I also travelled to Sydney to join executives from CRA, ACBC, Implementation Advisory Group and the Australian Catholic Centre for Professional Standards to review progress on the whole of Church annual report to the National Office for Child Safety. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse required institutions to report on their progress in implementing the Royal Commission’s recommendations over a five year period. In our full day of meetings we also discussed the possibility of a successor process to Towards Healing and The Melbourne Response. There will obviously be many more meetings and wider consultations on both these issues. I think it is a sign of the new way of being Church that is emerging – more inclusive, more accountable, more transparent, more collaborative, and with humility working for shared responses.
Roll on spring…
31 October is the feast day of Venerable Nano Nagle (1718-1784), founder of the Presentation Sisters. The International Presentation Association says of describe Nano:
Tireless in service, Nano spent her days teaching the children, and her nights caring for the sick and the elderly, bringing them food, medicine and comfort. Captivated by the spirit of the poor she served, she often visited with them late into the night. Lamp in hand, she would return home making her way among the winding lanes. Before long, Nano became known as the “Lady of the Lantern.”
Both Kildare Ministries and Mercy Partners steward schools that were previously in the care of the Presentation Sisters. Below is a reflection on Nano Nagle by Raphael Consedine pbvm:
To Nano Nagle
Take down your lantern from its niche and go out!
You may not dwell in firelight certainties,
Secure from drifting fog of doubt and fear.
You may not build yourself confining walls
And say: ‘Thus far, and thus, and thus far shall I walk,
And these things shall I do, and nothing more.’
Go out! For need calls loudly in the winding lanes
And you must seek Christ there.
Your pilgrim heart
Shall urge you still one pace beyond,
And love shall be your lantern-flame.
New events listed on the website:
-
- 28 October 2019 Diploma in Business (Governance) BSB50715 (Melb and Sydney)
- 06 November 2019 Catholic Theological College Open Day
- 11 November 2019 Diploma in Business (Governance) BSB50715 (Perth)
- 6 December 2019 Safeguarding in International Contexts
New website content:
The public news section of the AMPJP website now has the following posts:
- St Francis of Assisi as a role model (03 October 2019 – also accessible to AMPJP General and Council members)
- Dignity in the Final Journey (24 October 2019 – also accessible to AMPJP General and Council members)
The member section of the AMPJP website now has the following posts:
- Executive Officer contact details (08 October 2019 – only accessible to AMPJP General and Council members)
