Archbishop Mark Coleridge says he faces his retirement on Thursday with “very mixed feelings” of loss, anticipation and what he calls the “sneaky working of grace”. Source: The Catholic Leader.
After being installed in 2012 and leading the Brisbane Archdiocese for 13 years, Archbishop Coleridge admits he will miss much of the life of a bishop.
“I happen to like much of what I do or even most of what I do as a bishop,” he said. “So, I’m going to miss a lot of that stuff.”
At the same time, he looks forward to a slower pace, no longer being “slave to the diary in quite the same way.”
He expects his future will include teaching, which he calls “probably the thing I do best in life”, as well as writing, retreat work and the small joys of self-sufficiency – doing his own shopping, filling the car with petrol and enjoying a bayside bungalow of just the right size.
It will be only the second time in his life he has lived alone, having preferred to live with others throughout his ministry. But he was “not daunted by it or intimidated in any way” and is rather “quite looking forward to it” as the date approaches.
The transition has not been without difficulty. Sorting through his personal library proved unexpectedly emotional.
He said his extensive collection “tells the story of my whole life” with books dating back to his undergraduate university days.
Culling 19 boxes of biblical scholarship for Trappist monks and donating a third of his library to Lifeline brought “a sense of loss, almost bereavement,” but also a certain freedom.
“If you get rid of stuff, it does lighten the burden,” he said. “We think we need stuff; we need very little, in fact.”
As he prepares to hand over leadership to Archbishop-elect Shane Mackinlay, Archbishop Coleridge leaves the archdiocese with a simple message, one he has come to believe in more through his episcopacy – “it is God’s Church.”
“You do your best and God does the rest,” he said.
FULL STORY
Archbishop Coleridge reflects on his life of ministry with ‘mixed feelings’ and faith in grace ahead of retirement (By Joe Higgins, The Catholic Leader)
