Lennan spoke of “business as usual, long after the usual has ceased to be possible,” reminding us that an incarnational faith must be historical, sociological, ready to engage changing language.
And yet for me the most striking statement came from Geraldine Doogue, when she pointed out that the secular world has reformed itself, e.g. in its care and responsibility for individuals, in its values of integrity, collegiality and openness to new things; when she suggested that the church sit at the secular world’s feet and humbly seek to learn; when she observed that the institution does not seem to prize the people who serve it.
The well-over 200 priests who gathered were typical of what the researchers tell us — happy to be priests, treasuring their parishes and ministries, and feeling valued by them, and welcomed, from wherever they have come.
The sexual abuse crisis obtruded. Friends and colleagues have been involved. There was a sense of the need to ask difficult questions, and to face our part in the ecclesiastical framework that shaped it. It would have been the right time for the Third Rite of Penance, bishops and priests as a community asking and celebrating forgiveness for the Church.
The movingly effective Penance Service stopped short of that, a missed opportunity, but I keep the presider Michael Whelan’s inspiring reflection on the Emmaus Gospel: “Jesus walked the wrong way with them.”
And David Tacey celebrated Spirit in a secular world, the same Spirit of hope that he demonstrated for us all. This Spirit expresses itself in community, in relationships, in traditions; in a faith development that is poetic, existential, liberating; in a journey that is therapeutic, open and inclusive.
For the assembled clergy there was energy and keenness for change so that our communities will remain well pastored and sacramentally vibrant, however it happens. The strong applause for Geoffrey Robinson underlined our readiness to question and experiment, and our willingness to risk. God, experienced in Jesus, working in us.
Barry Moran
