RELIGIOUS life would never die despite a drop in vocations and an increase in materialism, Brisbane Archbishop John Bathersby told more than 500 religious from around the archdiocese who gathered in St Stephen’s Cathedral on March 25.
The archbishop had invited all religious in the archdiocese to attend the special Mass.
Archdiocesan vicar for religious, Sister of Charity Patricia Scully, said she was delighted with the gathering and added that the reaction had been one of strong affirmation.
Held on the feast of the Annunciation, Archbishop Bathersby found links in his homily between Mary’s acceptance of news she was with child, and the call to religious life accepted by those present.
“As numbers drop away, and vocations fall, as materialism prospers around us, we can easily be tempted to panic, to lose our nerve, to seek solutions independently of God – all the while forgetting that Christ promised that he and the Holy Spirit would be with us always,” the archbishop said.
“Today I wish to acknowledge the importance of the religious orders in the life of this archdiocese.
“God has called you as communities to work together for the sake of God’s Kingdom, inspired always by the generosity and the charism of your founder,” he said.
Archbishop Bathersby said God would continue to raise up inspirational founders who saw needs others could not see, and who then gathered faith-filled workers around them to address those needs, whether it be in hospital care or education as in the past, or whether it be a new need unthought of today.
