Corpus Christi Catholic Community

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.