From the Director - The Church is a people

Fr Trevor Trotter

There are plenty of people saying that there is a crisis in the Church. Even before the Royal Commission into sexual abuse here in Australia, the bishops had been discussing how to address different issues facing the Church. How many times have we heard parents talking about the difficulty of getting children to go to Mass or priests asking why congregations are diminishing?

No wonder we in Australia have much to talk about at the upcoming Plenary Council Assembly. The agenda for the meeting has been published, and there are a lot of questions for us to consider, most of them centred on how we can improve the Church.

While there are plenty of things wrong with the Church, and we would no doubt be in better shape if we could fix them, I am still left with a sense that just fixing issues is not enough. Times of crises provide us with opportunities to change, to go forward.

In preparation for the Plenary Council gatherings, I have been doing a lot of reading. Pope Francis says the Church is “a people”. When I first read this, I said to myself, well yes, we have been talking about the People of God for a long time, since Vatican II. There is nothing new here. Quickly I realised that I had made a mistake. I needed to listen more to what the Pope means by “a people”.

A people is not a nation. A people is not a school, nor a business, nor a parliament, nor a local Government. It is more than these. So, also, for the Church. It is more than the schools, the parishes, the hospitals, the bishops, and all the other activities and members of the Church. The Church is more than these parts, in the same way that the people of New Zealand or Australia are more than the parts that help to keep us alive and well as nations.

As missionaries, we see the Church in other countries as similar but different from the Church in our own home places. Yet no matter where we go to Mass on Sunday, we know that we are celebrating the same life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Wherever we are, when we go up to Holy Communion, we know that we belong to the same people as the person in front of us. We are all baptised, we are all one people, we are all Catholics. The Church has different faces in different cultures, but it is one Church.

For me, these reflections help me realise that improving the Church in Australia is not just a question of changing structures, developing new policies, or improving our administrative procedures. All these things are necessary if we are to help a people grow and develop, but there are other matters. For example, the history of the Church in a particular place is extremely important. The Korean Church rightly rejoices in the fact that laypeople founded it on returning home after being in China. The Church in Latin America and the Philippines has been powerfully shaped by the culture of the Spaniards who arrived centuries ago.

To describe the Church in any country is difficult. Vatican II emphasised that it is the people of God. It seems to me that this is a good lens through which to look at the Church. If we want the Church in Australia or New Zealand to grow, we should ask ourselves, “How does a people grow and develop?”

In Australia and New Zealand, we remember the story of the ANZAC experience each year. This helps our countries grow as nations, as a people. These important stories contain values that we esteem. We are presented with men and women who have sacrificed themselves for their fellow citizens. This can also become our story. In earthquakes, floods and fires, as people rally to help those in need, often we hear the spirit of the ANZACS invoked. So, too, does reading the Gospels inspire us as Christians.

“If we serve the people, we save ourselves” is another wise saying of the Pope’s. Maybe this is all I need to know. Maybe this is all the Church needs to know.

Fr Trevor Trot-ter signature

Fr Trevor Trotter
Regional Director of Oceania
rdoceania@columban.org.au

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