By Paul Dobbyn
BRISBANE Archbishop Mark Coleridge gave a personal insight into the “mystery” of his priestly vocation in a homily delivered at a Mass in St Stephen’s Cathedral to celebrate his 40th year in the priesthood.
“I went to the seminary because I felt called,” he told the congregation gathered in the cathedral on May 17.
“Forty-plus years later, I feel even more deeply called.
“Don’t ask me to explain anything in great detail about the mystery of vocation because it is intensely personal.
“It is about me, Mark, and I don’t fully understand that.
“Yet it is no less intensely communal.”
Archbishop Coleridge’s anniversary was also marked with the launch of his book Words from the Wound in the Francis Rush Centre after Mass.
Another anniversary of special significance also occurred on the day.
Cathedral director of music Dr Ralph Morton, in his welcome to the congregation before Mass, made mention that the day was also the 140th anniversary of the celebration of the first Mass in St Stephen’s.
Archbishop Coleridge, in his homily, reflected on his ordination day on May 18, 1974.
“In Melbourne it was a cold, misty Saturday morning and into St Patrick’s Cathedral, which looked quite grim with its blue stone on this grey morning, there trooped 21 young men, I among them at the age of, would you believe, twenty-five,” he said.
He went on to sketch his life as a priest including five years in parishes “one of the most crucial times in my life”, followed by almost 20 years studying and teaching the Bible.
Following Mass, Bishop Brian Finnigan launched the Archbishop’s book Words from the Wound.
Bishop Finnigan paid tribute to the Archbishop’s skills as a teacher, linguist and communicator.
He also paid tribute to Fr Anthony Ekpo and Fr David Pascoe for editing the book.
Bishop Finnigan said the book was divided into three sections – addresses, letters and homilies – “and there are treasures to be discovered in each of those sections”.
He gave as an example the Archbishop’s Pentecost Letter written to the People of God in the Archdiocese of Canberra-Goulburn in May of 2010.
The letter, Seeing the Faces, Hearing the Voices, had been widely read for its wide-ranging analysis of sexual abuse which also considers Church culture and its possible role in the problem.
Archbishop Coleridge, in his reply, noted apostolic nuncio Archbishop Paul Gallagher in the preface had described him as “a wordsmith”.
“I don’t know why but words have always fascinated me,” the Archbishop said. “It’s the only reason in the end why I became speech writer to a saint,” he said, referring to his time working in the Vatican’s Secretariat of the State at the time of St John Paul II.
Archbishop Coleridge said Words from the Wound were “words of the Church – they’re not just mine”.
“In the end the Church is the Good News so these words, if they are not the good news of the Church but the vague wisdom of Mark, they’re useless,” he said.
“But if they are words from the wound, the wounded side of Christ, then they are that fountain of life which might serve people well.”
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