BRISBANE Archbishop Mark Coleridge has used the feast day of Our Lady, Help of Christians to call for prayers for the Church in Australia, ahead of an historic second assembly of the Plenary Council in Sydney in July.
Archbishop Coleridge said the Church found itself in “troubled times” and needed “new life”.
“It’s not a bad moment to pray – for a new government coming to power, and the future fairly uncertain both nationally and internationally,” he said, delivering a feast day homily to Church employees from agencies across Brisbane.
Mary, under the title of Our Lady Help of Christians was chosen as the patroness of Australia at the First Provincial Synod of Sydney in 1844.
Archbishop Coleridge said Mary “is not just the physical mother of Jesus, she is the woman who is the word of God”.
“We turn to her (Mary) as Christians and say help us, because left to our own devices we look very, very unpromising,” he said.
“We find ourselves in the Church in this country troubled … because of self-inflicted pressure, I think particularly of the sexual abuse crisis, which is the most monumental self-inflicted wound that I have ever known.”
After four years as president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Archbishop Coleridge is preparing to hand over leadership to Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe at the second assembly of the Plenary Council, from July 4-9.
During the feast day Mass inside Brisbane’s St Stephen’s Cathedral, Archbishop Coleridge commissioned and blessed Brisbane Catholic Education’s new executive director Dr Sally Towns.
“We will certainly support you in the great task that is now yours,” Archbishop Coleridge said as he conducted the commissioning rite.
The Brisbane Catholic Education community consists of 146 schools – 75,000 students from prep to Year 12 – across the Brisbane Archdiocese.
