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DEDICATION OF THE LATERAN BASILICA, YEAR A
From the Pastor
Dear Friends,
The Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
We celebrate this weekend, the dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome,
which is the cathedral Church of the Pope as Bishop of Rome. Our readings
point to the Church as the living people of God. Our Parish Forum two weeks
ago reminded us that we are the Church, and as I promised last Sunday here
is part 2 of my presentation to the forum held on October 26.
PARISH FORUM - PART 2
One of the challenges that I did not anticipate were the problems
surrounding the need for the Parish to submit a Development Application to
have the Parish Centre recognized as a place of worship. This issue was not
addressed in the parish report and I have found it one of the most worrying
problems I have faced in twenty-three years of priestly ministry. At first
sight it seems to be no more than a legal technicality, a mistake that
should be easily rectified. Yet even now with a decision in the Parish’s
favour, we are left with conditions to the consent that are unreasonable and
unworkable and that have health and safety implications of parishioners
inside Corpus Christi Parish Centre. Luckily, I have found great support
from the members of the parish Management Committee and the Pastoral
Council, along with other committed Parishioners, and they have been ready
and willing to work at getting these unreasonable conditions to our Parish
activities overturned. The DA approval also contained plans for the
improvement of the Parish Centre with the view to making it more a ‘Church’
and less a multi-purpose centre. These plans were drawn up before my
appointment and came out of a parish consultation conducted by the
Management Committee led by Fr Paul.
The Sunday Eucharist lies at the heart of any Parish and therefore must take
first priority as regards the life and mission of the Parish. As a priest I
have always tried to celebrate the Mass as my prayer and not a performance
of any kind. I have also tried to make my own a principle of liturgy
annunciated in the General Instruction, namely: The Priest must remember
that he is the servant of the sacred Liturgy and that he himself is not
permitted, on his own initiative, to add, to remove, or to change anything
in the celebration of the Mass. (N. 24, GIRM). Such a principle can be
challenging to both laity and priest alike and certain changes in the way
Mass is celebrated that will effect us all must be approached with the
education of the whole community being undertaken. With this in mind I will
attend an ongoing formation of the clergy day this Wednesday with Archbishop
Mark Coleridge of Canberra/Goulburn on changes to the GIRM at Parramatta.
Archbishop Coleridge is a member of ICEL the international liturgical body
responsible for English liturgical texts world wide.
I believe and try to put into practice what Vatican 11 called the full,
active participation of all Christ’s Faithful in the liturgical life of the
Church. I am personally grateful to the many and varied lay ministers who,
not only make our Sunday Eucharist possible, but make it vibrant and
meaningful. I look forward to welcoming many new parishioners into these
essential liturgical ministries and to offer them training and support with
the experienced help of our Pastoral Associate, Sr Merlyn. Corpus Christi
has and continues to operate smoothly thanks to our dedicated and
professional Parish Team who offer genuine pastoral care to people who make
contact with our Parish at the ‘coalface’. I thank them for this dedication.
We need you collectively and the parishioners who are not here today to
continue to support our common parish mission, to recommit yourselves to
active involvement in some aspect of Parish ministry, and above all to
continue to pray in thanksgiving to Almighty God for many people, past
present and future who are Corpus Christi Parish Community.
God bless.
Fr George.
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