The first Plenary Council Assembly was a graced experience of prayer, listening and discernment which has laid the groundwork for an action plan to carry the Church in Australia into the future, according to the SVD members who took part.
Provincial, Fr Asaeli Rass SVD, and Parish Priest of Our Lady of Sacred Heart Parish in Alice Springs, Fr Prakash Menezes SVD said the Assembly allowed all members to contribute and to feel seen and heard.
“It was an encounter I will never forget,” Fr Rass said. “I strongly feel the Holy Spirit spoke to us. It was a real blessing to be part of the Plenary Assembly, there were some really graced moments.
“There was a feeling that we’re all in this together, we’re all co-responsible and I felt a strong spiritual communion among those present.
“I’m looking forward to seeing the action plans which come from the Assembly and from there we will have time for more discernment, more listening to the Holy Spirit until the next Assembly in July 2022. There is a lot more work to do.”
Fr Rass said the members of the Assembly were tasked with looking at the Catholic Church in Australia through missionary eyes.
“I was so proud to be an SVD at the Assembly,” he said. “I feel we missionaries have a strong contribution to make in the conversation around how we can make our parishes missionary in outlook and orientation.”
Fr Prakash, was part of the delegation for the Diocese of Darwin, said the online nature of the Assembly, necessitated by ongoing COVID restrictions, meant that the time spent in front of a screen was “huge” and at times that was challenging.
“It did feel a bit overwhelming at times, but the process was very good and there was a very positive energy coming from everyone,” he said.
“The thing that stood out very strongly to me from my experience at the Plenary Council Assembly was that I’m not alone in this. We are all together as Church, despite our different experiences and opinions.”
Fr Prakash said he was in a small group of about 30 people from all over Australia who were looking at Indigenous issues.
“So being from Central Australia, that was good for me,” he said. “It was an opportunity tell them what we are doing with Indigenous communities in Central Australia, but also to listen to their experience.
“The whole Assembly was a good reminder about listening for the Spirit. Discernment is very important.
“Everyone was given a chance to speak their mind and we were encouraged to listen to others without imposing our own biases. It was very good. Everyone felt they had been heard.
“Of course, there were conflicting viewpoints, but that is part of who we are.
“Everyone was very positive and hopeful that this will bring something new or open up further what was present in the Second Vatican Council and bring it to life.”
Both Fr Rass and Fr Prakash said the most moving part of the Assembly was the day spent focusing on the sexual abuse crisis in the Church and listening to the voices of those who had suffered abuse.
“On this day of the Plenary, we were taken as if by the hand of the survivors to touch their wounds and feel their pain,” Fr Rass said. “It was heavy, uncomfortable, but absolutely necessary.
“The intense cry echoed right throughout the week and beyond. There the Holy Spirit urged the members not to shy away from touching the wounds of Christ in all the abused peoples of the world. Scripture tells us: ‘He himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed’ (1 Peter 2:24).”
Fr Prakash also found the day spent listening to abuse victims and addressing the Church’s painful history in this area a moving experience.
“It was very emotional,” he said. “The Plenary Assembly is about moving forward, but to acknowledge and understand our past is very important. These issues need to be addressed and the opportunity to really listen to those who have been wounded is incredibly important.”
Fr Rass said the willingness of the Assembly members to name and confront some of the significant challenges facing the Church in Australia, provided hope for a better future.
“Yes, it was messy and at times confrontational,” he said. “But at the end of the Plenary it turned out to be spiritually uplifting as we contemplated the dream of Pope Francis: “I dream of a ‘missionary option’, that is, a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channelled for the evangelisation of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation’ (Evangelii Gaudium).
“Indeed, the work of renewal has begun and will continue for another nine months until the second Assembly in July 2022.
“As Divine Word Missionaries in Australia, we do have a solemn responsibility to help the Catholic Church get back ‘on mission’; and to show how that can be achieved together, founded on trust in the Holy Spirit.”
PHOTOS
TOP RIGHT: Fr Prakash Menezes SVD takes part in the First Assembly of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia, from his parish in Alice Springs.
MIDDLE LEFT: The Plenary Council President, Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB celebrates the opening Mass of the Assembly.
BOTTOM RIGHT: Fr Asaeli Rass SVD pictured on-screen during the Assembly.