Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Brisbane deacon says Vatican parish guidelines confirms need for personal encounter with Christ

byEmilie Ng
22 July 2020
Reading Time: 3 mins read
AA
A parish in Brisbane

The Vatican has issued new guidelines for parishes in an effort to create a more missionary Church.

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Parish renewal: The Vatican has issued new guidelines for parishes in an effort to create a more missionary Church.

BRISBANE’S evangelisation director believes a new instruction from the Vatican for the renewal of parishes will help the Church to “look, feel and sound more like Jesus”.

Deacon Peter Pellicaan, of Evangelisation Brisbane, which serves parishes and communities across Brisbane archdiocese, said a new instruction issued by the Congregation for Clergy on Monday (July 20) was a “powerful vision” of what a parish should be.

The instruction is aimed at encouraging renewal, stating in the introduction that the current parish model “no longer adequately corresponds to the many expectations of the faithful”.

Titled “The pastoral conversion of the parish community in the service of the evangelising mission of the Church”, the instruction offers opportunities for parishes to become more like Pope Francis’ vision of the missionary Church.

While much of the document relates to canonical norms for parish structures, Deacon Pellicaan said it also emphasised that renewal started with a personal encounter with Christ.

“When Rome produces a document called ‘The pastoral conversion of the parish community in the service of the evangelising mission of the Church’ and then the document essentially just maps out all the existing Church structures and how they should be applied, it suggests that Rome believes that renewal will not come from the abandoning of existing structures but rather from the personal encounter with Jesus that transforms the lives of the faithful and imbues them with faith, hope and love,” Deacon Pellicaan said.

“It is this encounter that makes the Church look, feel and sound more like Jesus – and that’s a Church that is attractive, life-giving, and can’t help but be relevant.”

Peter Pellicaan
Missionary church: Deacon Peter Pellicaan has welcomed the new guidelines issued by the Congregation of Clergy on Monday July 20.

Deacon Pellicaan said for most parishioners, the first section of the document was really worth reading.

“For those not interested in canonical provisions, but are interested in parish life, the first 41 paragraphs are recommended reading,” he said.

While the guidelines are not binding, the instruction urges parishes against becoming bureaucratic institutions that offer events and services for the sake of self-preservation.

Related Stories

Secret baptisms show how Christians still persecuted worldwide

Arnie and David are answering God’s call to evangelisation roles

Christine holds love of music and Church in perfect harmony

“In the process of renewal and restructuring, the parish has to avoid the risk of falling into an excessive and bureaucratic organisation of events and an offering of services that do not express the dynamic of evangelisation, but rather the criterion of self-preservation,” the instruction said.

“Parish communities will find herein a call to go out of themselves, offering instruments for reform, even structural, in a spirit of communion and collaboration, of encounter and closeness, of mercy and solicitude for the proclamation of the Gospel.”

The document encourages parishes and its structures to teach the faithful how to evangelise and pray for the building of the Kingdom.

It also refers to canonical recommendations for the geographic structure of parishes and best leadership of a parish, particularly in dire cases where there cannot be a parish priest appointed to a community.

The instruction emphasises the importance of finance and pastoral councils for supporting the missionary works of parishes.

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Family friend of Biloela Tamils stuck on Christmas Island says mental health of two daughters at risk

Next Post

St Laurence’s hosts the national launch of Catholic Mission’s Socktober

Emilie Ng

Emilie Ng is a Brisbane-based journalist for The Catholic Leader.

Related Posts

Secret baptisms show how Christians still persecuted worldwide
World

Secret baptisms show how Christians still persecuted worldwide

29 June 2022
Arnie and David are answering God’s call to evangelisation roles
QLD

Arnie and David are answering God’s call to evangelisation roles

17 June 2022
Christine holds love of music and Church in perfect harmony
QLD

Christine holds love of music and Church in perfect harmony

2 April 2022
Next Post
Students from St Laurence's College

St Laurence’s hosts the national launch of Catholic Mission’s Socktober

Wagga’s newly installed bishop humbled to be 'an answer to prayers'

man dies in hospital

Jackie Trad leading renewed push for euthanasia in Queensland

Popular News

  • Sunnybank’s ninth Multicultural Mass unites 16 languages in prayer

    Sunnybank’s ninth Multicultural Mass unites 16 languages in prayer

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Archbishop Coleridge unveils new cross at Banyo church

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Fr El Louie Jimenez ordained

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Australian Plenary Council aims to avert Church ‘moment of crisis’

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Fr Josh braves ‘freezing’ June night to raise awareness for homelessness at Vinnies Sleepout

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Future First Nations teachers honoured with Rome scholarship
Education

Future First Nations teachers honoured with Rome scholarship

by Hannah Kennelly
2 July 2022
0

YOUNG Aboriginal and South Sea Islanders education students, Jedda Ellison and Hayden Kubler have been awarded the...

Marymount College claims historic girls’ rugby league Confraternity title

Marymount College claims historic girls’ rugby league Confraternity title

2 July 2022
Sunnybank’s ninth Multicultural Mass unites 16 languages in prayer

Sunnybank’s ninth Multicultural Mass unites 16 languages in prayer

1 July 2022
Evarist D’Souza

Archbishop Coleridge unveils new cross at Banyo church

1 July 2022
Netball Superstar: St John Fisher student Jayden Molo.

St John Fisher College student selected for the Australian Netball U17 Squad

1 July 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping