The head of a team that looks after the welfare of clergy in the Parramatta Diocese will lead a new national committee that aims to improve the standard of clergy care around Australia. Source: Catholic Outlook.
Mark Buhagiar has been elected chair of the National Network of Clergy Care Coordinators, a committee of the Bishops Commission for Evangelisation, Laity and Ministry.
The committee held its first meeting last month.
According to its draft terms of reference, the committee will work towards “the spiritual, physical, psychological, social and emotional flourishing of the clergy” by fostering collaboration and developing resources that can be shared between dioceses.
Dr Buhagiar said the committee grew out of a loose network of clergy care coordinators around Australia formed in 2008.
The coordinators would get together every year to swap stories and hear from external speakers, but over time, they realised they needed a more formal structure to better support each other and to help dioceses that didn’t have the same resources to look after their priests.
“It’s a fairly unique role that we have because we have a health background but we’re doing a lot of the social side of things as well,” he said. “We also have to understand the structure of the Church.
“When people say ‘what’s your job?’ I go, ‘well yesterday I spent the day as a removalist and today I fixed a computer problem in the morning, and I have to go and accompany someone to a specialist appointment in the afternoon’.”
He said his priorities during his term as chair of the committee included improving available resources so any diocese could access specific information, such as how to help priests after returning from hospital, maintaining healthy lifestyles or planning different care options for older age.
His second priority would be to investigate how care is provided for those in religious orders, which could result in partnerships with dioceses. The third priority for the committee was to work with the dioceses that don’t have any formal support services for their clergy.
FULL STORY
Clergy care to get greater attention with new ACBC committee (By Antony Lawes, Catholic Outlook)
