Priests set priorities

The
Catholic Weekly
Online

Sydney
26 October 2003

Meaning of life

Tuition fee jump

Award for Reservist chaplain

Outreach

Priests set priorities

Step behind the convent walls

Desire to serve others

Trial for euthanasia?

Interfaith

Seminar on self help in action for hearing impaired

Editorial: Enormous debt

Letters: Interstate appreciation

Conversation: Br Dan Stafford, chaplain to the Australian Jockey Club - A generous fraternity of 'saints and sinners'

Voice of Youth: Blessed upon the earth

‘Wonderful occasion’

Stone takes the cake

Bumper crop of students

Concert ‘journey’ by young honours Pope’s anniversary

‘My kids’ bring tears

Priests set priorities

It can be hard to keep a parish priest from his flock. That’s why Windsor, almost 60km from Sydney, was chosen for the Sydney archdiocese clergy forum this month - just far enough away to dissuade priests from ducking back home to attend to parishioners’ needs.

The two-and-a-half day forum, Ministry and Life of the Archdiocese, was the first overnight forum for Sydney priests in almost 20 years, organised so that they could devote the time to reflect on their work and discuss the future direction of the archdiocese.

They workshopped their ideas on 17 topics including multiculturalism, liturgy, collaborative ministry, the role of women in the archdiocese, assistance for priests because of their shortage and clergy in-service training.

The forum was “an attempt to begin the process of planning priorities and looking to the future of the archdiocese”, says Bishop Geoffrey Robinson.

“It was also an excellent opportunity for people to get to know one another, which in a big city like Sydney you don’t get very often.”

The bishop said he was impressed by the dedication of priests at the forum.

“We worked them very hard and their energy levels stayed high; they were very keen,” he said.

“That’s what inspired me the most, their sheer willingness to work hard.”

Bishop Robinson said the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, had indicated that there would be some follow-up work on the issues raised at the forum.

However, the form that would take had not yet been decided.

Archbishop Pell was inducted into the College of Cardinals on Tuesday, October 21.