Editorial

Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference

Michael Gilchrist

Contents - May 2000 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference - Michael Gilchrist Australian Catholic University student survey - Michael Gilchrist News: The Church Around the World How do we know whether a sacrament is valid or not? - Fr Peter Joseph The priesthood: John Paul II's Holy Thursday Letter sets guidelines - Pope John Paul II What are the foundations of a good Catholic education? - Dr. John J. Haldane Understanding the Incarnation - Msgr Peter J. Elliott Books: Francis Thompson: author of 'The Hound of Heaven' - Michael Daniel How the future John Paul II saved a Jewish girl's life - Zenit News Service Letters: Women's report: a reply (letter) - Dr Marie McDonald Letters: Nothing to do? (letter) - Frank Mobbs Letters: More on Adelaide (letter) - Margret E. Mills Letters: Women in the Church (letter) - Marie Kennedy Letters: 'Day of Pardon' (letter) - Paul MacLeod Letters: Reply to Fr Frank Brennan (letter) - Richard Egan Letters: God's love (letter) - Justin Ford Letters: EWTN visit (letter) - Mike Keating Letters: Mixed marriages (letter) - John Schmidt Letters: Archbishop Pell defended (letter) - Fr Kevin Ryan Letters: Year of the Lord (letter) - Fr Chrysostom Alexander Books: 'Three Inns of Everlasting Happiness' by Fr Fabian Duggan - Catherine Sheehan (reviewer) Books: 'The Wisdom of Adrian Fortescue' ed. Michael Davies - Michael Daniel (reviewer) Books: 'The Legacy of Pope John Paul II' ed. Geoffrey Gneuhs - Anthony Cappello (reviewer) Books: 'The Ever-Illuminating Wisdom of St Thomas Aquinas' by Peter Kreeft et al - Tracey Rowland (reviewer) Reflection: Mary's divine motherhood: central to God's plan of salvation - Sr Mary Augustine Lane OP

Pope John Paul II's latest Holy Thursday Letter to Priests (see page 7) sets out aspects of the priesthood and Eucharist which he sees as most in need of re-emphasis.

"The sacrificial aspect is a profound mark of the Eucharist," and "an essential dimension .. of our own priesthood," the Holy Father points out. The ordained priesthood is different "in essence" from the priesthood of all baptised and, while Christ is present in different senses in the Scriptures and in gatherings of believers, the Eucharistic presence is "supreme." Furthermore, the Eucharistic sacrifice is pivotal to all other priestly responsibilities.

This teaching is a necessary corrective to the view that a priest merely presides at the Eucharist - in a congregational sense - and the Eucharist is just a symbol of communal "togetherness" rather than the Real Presence of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

Commenting on the lack of Eucharistic orthodoxy among student teachers at Australian Catholic University (see page 3), Professor Denis McLaughlin quotes from Bernard Cooke's The Future of the Eucharist (1997) that "over the past twenty-five years Catholic theology concerning the Eucharist has offered challenging insights that are very different from previous formulations."

Those possessing such "challenging insights" regard the fall in priestly numbers as the work of the Holy Spirit and a window of opportunity for setting up more lay-led communion services. They also dismiss any suggestion of orthodox reforms to seminary programs, of any review of vocations promotion, or of accepting priests from overseas or from other dioceses to make up shortfalls.

The Holy Father's reference to the all-importance of Eucharistic adoration connects with the undeniable fact that dioceses where this is encouraged and widely implemented experience more priestly vocations - not to mention increasing practice of the Faith on the part of Catholics as a whole.

Michael Gilchrist: Editor (E-mail - freedom@connexus.net.au)

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 13 No 4 (May 2000), p. 2