Australian Bishops Conference President and Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe has discussed the challenges facing the Church in Australia in an interview with renowned Vatican journalist Gerard O’Connell. Source: America Magazine.
Archbishop Costelloe discussed the challenges of building structures and changing the culture to eliminate sexual abuse, and the Church’s commitment to being a synodal, missionary church in a country where multiculturalism, social cohesion and improving the situation of its Aboriginal peoples, are all works in progress.
About 20 per cent of Australia’s 28 million people are Catholic, and the same is true of Perth. The archdiocese has some 500,000 Catholics, served by 150 priests in 100 parishes. The religious orders of women “have been very significant in this archdiocese and in Australia generally,” Archbishop Costelloe said. He mentioned the Josephite, Good Samaritan, Presentation, Mercy and Dominican sisters.
“They have done extraordinary work, but their numbers now are diminishing and many are quite elderly.”
Archbishop Costelloe has played a leading role in promoting synodality in the Church in Australia, first as president of its Plenary Council (October 2021 and July 2022), and subsequently in assisting the Vatican prepare for the Synod on Synodality (2023-2024), to which Pope Francis appointed him as one of its presidents.
He is now engaged in its implementation as president of the conference and an elected member of the Synod Council.
Questioned about the role of lay people in the Church, Archbishop Costelloe said, “The involvement of lay people in the Church in Australia has been very significant for a long time, particularly in areas like education, healthcare, and social outreach.”
Asked what he identifies as the main issues facing the Church in his homeland, Archbishop Costelloe said, “One of the main challenges and projects that the whole Church in Australia is engaged in is precisely this transformation into a more synodal missionary Church. That’s what the Plenary Council called us to do, and it’s what the universal Synod called us to do,” he said.
“Australians tend to be a very practical sort of people, so we haven’t yet created massive structures around this synodal journey but in each diocese the bishops are reading the situation in their own context and responding appropriately.”
FULL STORY
Synodality, multiculturalism and working with Pope Leo: Archbishop Costelloe on the Australian Catholic Church (By Gerard O’Connell, America Magazine)
