Archbishop Hickey's Ten Point Plan
Derived from The Record, June 28, 2001
with additional observations
Here are words of our Archbishop that are well worth pondering:
"When I was a young assistant priest, most of the Catholics in the parish went to Mass and brought their children with them. All attended Mass every Sunday, and many found their future spouses there.
Fifteen years later the young started to disappear from Mass as the seventies-style secularism began to bite. Parents complained they had very little authority over them any more, but the parents still came.
Another firteen years later those young people were married with children of their own. Few parents were coming to Mass, and, of course, their children could not make it on their own.
The drift from the Church has begun in earnest, and with it the knowledge of the rituals and practices of the Church -- few religious pictures on the wall, no grace at meals, Church attendance reduced to first reception of the Sacraments, Easter, and possibly Christmas.
Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor of Westminster said recently that we are living in 'a world without a father -- no-one to tell us what is right and wrong, no-one to tell us that we matter, that we are forgiven and cherished, no-one to tell us that we are loved.
A culture that denies God for long will find that the desire for God will break through powerfully, because we cannot live for long 'within the lie'. Our unstable post-modern culture can deconstruct as quickly as it came into being". These are hopeful words.
The ten priorities are as follows:
1 Personal Holiness:
This is the first
essential, without which nothing can be achieved. God is all powerful, but
we, each one of us, must open our minds and hearts without
reservation to the working of the
Holy Spirit. It is not enough to recite prayers. It is an
act of the will, a personal commitment.
Holiness is
not a popular word today. It is at variance with everything that secular culture tells
us. Many of us may not want to be holy. It can so easily be
confused with being sanctimonious -- the sin of
the Pharisees! We do not want to be seen as hypocrates.
That is not
what holiness is about! A soul that sincerely desires to become holy wants no audience
except God. There is no room for judgementalism, or a holier
than thou attitude, when we open our souls
to the Divine Physician, to be healed of all the imperfections that abound there,
without our even being aware of them. If we think
that we are without sin, "there is no truth
in us". If we think that sin does not exist,
or does not matter, we are wasting our time in
claiming to be Christian.
Once we decide to do it God's way, miracles begin to happen. Oh, we
are such doubting
Thomases! But anyone who has been open to interior
conversion knows that it is true. Yes, we
need ongoing interior conversion every day of our
lives! It is the only way to true peace.
What are the
means of achieving personal holiness?
2 Lay formation:
The Second Vatican Council has emphasised that Christian formation is for all the
baptized,
not just for the clergy and
religious. Oh how this admirable principle has been misunderstood and
misrepresented! Translated into secular values, it
has been perceived as a power struggle,
our "democratic" rights, not our
responsibilities. What we get out of it, as distinct from what
we put into it. That is not religion, it is the politics!
-- and a false perception of politics in general,
and of democracy in particular. A just society is to
be obtained by bringing Christian values
into politics, and not the reverse!
Archbishop Hickey has
stressed that Christians are called to be active in the world, in all
areas that affect the welfare of human beings. "The
values they bring", he says, "are justice, moral
integrity, resepct for life, solidarity with the poor and
compassion for the suffering are
urgently needed". True indeed! We have to swim
against the current, and can not accept a mentality
that denies us freedom of speech on religious grounds.
3
Family Life:
We are living in a
society in which war has been declared on the family. Contrary to a thoery
with which we are continually indoctrinated by
secular humanism, the family has its roots in
Natural Law, and there can be no substitute. In
post-modern philosophy, we are told, Natural
Law has been "superseded". It has not, and
can not, be disproved. It is rejected merely because
it is unpopular.
A perception of individualism
in the Christian context is based on our uniqueness in the plan of
God, and our dignity as creatures fashioned in His
image and likeness. The secular perception
of individualism, on the other hand, is the dogma of
the "Me generation", based "doing it my way",
that the only rights that are important are "my
rights", and the will that must be done is "my will".
Such principles inevitably have a huge detrimental
effect on family life.
Further there are so many
sociological factors that place the family under stress, resulting
in unprecedented levels of breakdown. The
Archbishop's plan has a focus of making family life
an integral part of Catholic life in general. This
calls for offering help for marriages in
trouble and marriage preparation and enrichment
programs. Also the right of the parent as
primary educators needs to upheld and proclaimed.
4
Sacramental Life of the Church:
Here is a fusion
of a need for both personal holiness and community participation.
"Any tendency to trivialise the sacredness
of the Mass is to be resisted", says Archbishop
Hickey. Further "Parishes need to be welcoming
communities", where the Mass and the
life-giving Sacraments are central. They are to
be inclusive of people from all walks of life,
with special care for those with disabilities, for
the poor, for people of different ethnic
origins, for strangers, for single people and for
lonely souls".
5 Catholic
Education:
Many Catholics perceive this as a crisis area, in view of the fact that in WA about
95% of young Catholics leave the Church when they
leave school. Educators in Catholic
Schools have a mammoth task in being true to their
calling. The loss of a knowledge of what
the Church teaches, which was noted above, has had an
impact on teachers and parents alike.
A crisis in vocations to
religious life has resulted in volunteers working for the love of God,
and not for pay, being replaced by paid workers. Such
workers for the most part are committed
to their role, but are fighting a losing battle
against secular values. Sadly those who still remain
in religious orders have in the main given up their
role as educators.
Concerned Catholics
eagerly await the outcome of the Visions and Goals project of the Catholic
Education Commission of WA, which is based on the
recent Mandate and Terms of Reference
laid down by our Bishops. The Mandate identifies a
crisis in faith and morals among Catholics,
especially youth.
"Our goals of
Catholic education", says our Archbishop, need to be clear and consistent with
the growth of children the the faith, relying on teachers
whose own faith is evident to the
students, and whose teaching is even more effective because
of the witness they give".
6 The
Evangelising Church:
In this area Archbishop reinforces a principle which he
formerly identified in urging
all parishes to participate in spreading the
Good News to all within the parish boundaries,
and not to be content with confining efforts to
looking after their own members.
"To be
missionary in our own country", he says, "is still a novelty to us". It is
a work that
needs to be shared by the family, the parish
and the school. "We must hava a special care for the
'far-away' Catholics, and reach out to them
like Christ did for the lost sheep".
7
Vocations:
"Every baptised person has a vocation. We need to call forth
young and idealistic men to
be priests or deacons, men and women to be
committed religious, and every member of the Church
to be aware of his or her vocation to spread
the knowledge and love of God in the circle in which
they live, work or mix".
In some parts of the world vocations to the priesthood and religious life are on the
increase. These vocations may be seen to have
their roots in vocations of the laity to make
a courageous commitment in daily life to say Yes
to God, and No to secular ideology that
runs counter to His plan for us all.
Religious vocations are nurtured in families and societies
where there is a vibrant prayer life, and no
confusion about our priorities as Christians.
8 Fidelity to the
Truth:
Such confusion is identified by Archbishop Hickey as a factor in a loss of Faith.
"Many of the Church's teachings are
dismissed as irrelevant [due to] the pressure of
secularism". There is such
widespread hopelessness of those "yearning for the liberating
truth that only Christ can bring. We must
be wary of current fashions of spirituality,
being careful to discern what is genuine
and what is mere novelty in contemporary movements".
9 Witness to
love:
Love is a word that is grossly misused in society. True love in its many
forms has no
place for self, but is devoted to the
good of its object. The greatest good is union with God.
"The Church is a Church of sinners,
yet the forgiveness and conversion that takes place
within the Church should be an example to
the world of how we are to live as brothers
and sisters".
10
Solidarity with the Poor:
The Church must hear the cry of the poor, who are victims of all manner of social
injustice, and must speak up
on their behalf, no matter what the risk.
Jesus came to bring the Good News to the poor. "This is an essential part of
the
mission of the Church and of
every true follower of Christ", says our Archbishop.
"Brothers and sisters
must care for each other, and share their time, companionship
and goods".
Conclusion: Archbishop
Hickey hopes to bring all these priorities to a proposed
Diocesan Synod, after discussing
them at various levels throught the communities.
Surely such an opportunity is to be
greatly welcomed.