In the third week of this month of June, the Clergy are invited to spend from Monday evening to lunch time Thursday at Feathertop, Harrietville, at a clergy gathering. We have all become familiar with the need for professional development and just at the end of May the Catholic schools in the Diocese closed for two days to enable the teachers to gather in Bendigo for those days of professional development. This is a common requirement in most professions and for very good reason, as such gatherings offer benefits on many levels.
The clergy gatherings for the priests of our Diocese offers particular support to the priests in the area of their work, over a period of time by focusing on different aspects: preaching; scripture; theology; pastoral practice; professional standards; building parish communities, etc. Different presenters with particular expertise are invited to make presentations. Gathering together for several days provides the clergy with not only the opportunity of this professional development, but does so within the context of the community of the clergy. In this manner friendship and fraternal support is furthered built upon, enhancing the spirit of the priestly brotherhood. A constant throughout these days is a spirit of prayers as the gathering offers the opportunity of the priests praying the Divine Office in common and the celebration of daily Mass.
Such a gathering of the clergy is not without its impact on the life of the Diocese – indeed some of you might find the absence of your local priest an inconvenience, as routine events are modified by his absence. Weekday Mass is suspended for the period of his absence, parish and school commitments are modified and significant occasions such as funerals are more difficult to arrange. I ask you to bear with these inconveniences for the very good reason that these clergy gatherings are important and enriching for the priests who attend. It may well be encouraging for your priest to have your assurance that all will be well in his absence.
Although it is just three months since my arrival in the Diocese of Sandhurst, I would like to take this opportunity of congratulating you, the people of the Diocese on your support and esteem for and appreciation of your priests. In visiting a number of the parishes, I have been heartened to see this regard for your pastors demonstrated in practical ways by the manner in which you care for and support your priest with your assistance, encouragement and friendship.
I am sure that in every age there are challenges to be met and in our age, we face the challenge of reduced number of priests and the aging of these priests, in this Diocese vast distances to be covered in ministering to a thinly dispersed Catholic population, who in many instances are aging themselves, is an issue requiring our response. This presents a particular challenge for the pastor; of bonding his disperse parish family into a community in Christ around the Eucharist. The depletion of rural communities, particularly amongst the younger generation, places an added burden on the senior generation of parishioners.
While there are many questions to be considered, there are two fundamentals that are front and centre – the care and support of our present clergy and prayer and fostering of new vocations to provide for the future. I call upon the whole of the Diocese to join with me in support of these fundamentals.
- Bishop Les Tomlinson, Catholic Diocese of Sandhurst, June 2012
