Columban Rev Dr Patrick McInerney shares his reflections on the 60th anniversary of the publication of Ecclesiam Suam at the Bishop Bede Heather Centre, Blacktown, on 13 August 2024 and at the Catholic Institute of Sydney, Strathfield, on 25 September 2024.
Ecclesiam Suam is a prophetic document.
- It introduced dialogue into the church’s magisterium.
- It highlights the missionary dimension of going out to the world
- It profoundly shaped Vatican II.
- It laid the foundations for Pope Francis’s insistence on:
- the equality of all the baptised
- the missionary transformation of the whole church
- synodality as the way of the church in the 3rd millennium, and
- universal fraternity.
- It provides a truly ‘missionary’ blueprint for pastoral planning.
Its 60th anniversary is an occasion for renewed appropriation, gratitude, and celebration.
- Ecclesiam Suam 24-09-25 60th Anniversary - Text for publication adapted from a talk given.
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Ecclesiam Suam - Encyclical of Pope Paul VI on the Church
