Stage 3 Module
Module Focus
The focus of this module is captured in the words of Edward Schillebeeckx, “the church is…both now as it was then the ‘sequel’ to Jesus, a community of believers who follow Jesus, as they seek…to be a visible and tangible…a sign of liberation” (Edward Schillebeeckx, Church: The Human Story of God, NY, Crossroad, 1990, p.110).
Each generation, time, place and era of the church deals with its own “ups and downs, new processes of following Jesus, interpreting, going further and being confronted with problems (Schillebeeckx, p.103). Each generation in some way contributes to the life of the next.
The story of the Catholic Church in Australia is a wonderful example of how the identity of the Catholic community today has been built on the lives and mission of those who were pioneers in the beginning years and those who followed, most often under very difficult circumstances. The lives of men and women who sought to bring love to those early communities reflect the liberating love of God as expressed in the life of Jesus. They followed Jesus, tried to interpret what God wanted and were confronted with many problems.
By reflecting on our unique Australian story, we too are called to follow in Jesus’ way by attempting to bring about the Kingdom of God in our daily lives as Jesus’ disciples. Using examples of people like St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, John Bede Polding and Caroline Chisholm, we are called as disciples of Jesus to reach out to those who are poor, hurting and marginalised. Like the people of the early Australian Church, there will be challenges, but in faith we pray for the courage to address them.
Outcomes
CD S3.3b: Researches and reports on significant figures in the history of the Catholic Church.GRHD S 3.1a: Identifies and expresses ways in which God calls all to share in the work of creating and renewing the Kingdom of God
S S3.5b: Demonstrates how the message of Scripture can be applied to contemporary life.
Learn About
/Learn To
CD S3.3b:- key figures and their impact on the work of the Church
- the history of the Catholic Church in Australia
- the concept of Kingdom of God and servant leadership
- the responsibility to promote justice and peace in the world
- the role of the Catholic school
- equality in the eyes of God
- the connection between the messages in Scripture and the lifestyle of Christians
- research and evaluate the lives and contributions of key figures in the history of the Catholic Church
- identify and research a range of ministries started by significant figures in the Australian Church
- research and report upon the lives of prominent Christians
- identify manifestations of the Kingdom of God
- identify ways that the early Catholic Church in Australia worked to bring about the kingdom of God.
- reflect upon how the work of the early Catholic Church is Australia is foundational to the work of the Church today
- research history and charism of their own school and parish
- identify opportunities for the application of messages from Scripture
DISCIPLESHIP CHALLENGE
- Students are challenged tobe involved in their local faith community
- Students are challenged to act responsibly in response to God’s call
- Students are challenged to relate messages from the Sacred Scriptures to daily life
Catholic Discipleship
Unfortunately today’s society is often marked by self-interest, greed and injustice, and as a result there exists a need for renewal of life. The call to be a disciple of Jesus is a call to abandon self-interest and take the side of those who are marginalised in different ways. As Schillibeeckx (p.114) states, “Jesus comes to stand on the side of those who are pushed aside by the community which ‘thinks well of itself’…the poor, the oppressed, the outcast and even the sinful.”
Many people who worked to found the Catholic Church in Australiaare great examples of what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus. Pope Benedict said of Mary MacKillop, “Mary MacKillop’s perseverance in the face of adversity; her plea for justice on behalf of those unfairly treated and her practical example of holiness have become a source of inspiration for all Australians.” (said on 17 July, 2008, quoted in Inform; Faith and Life Matters, 121 Catholic Education Centre, Silverwater, 2009). As disciples of Jesus in the 21st century, we are called to apply in ways that we can the discipleship examples of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop and others to the way we live our own lives.
Prayer Focus: The Australian Creed
The Australian Creed was developed by the Australian inclusive Language Project in Toowoomba. It is a beautiful creedal prayer which captures the best of what it means to be Australian and connects it with faith.It is available on the Mary MacKillop website.
On this website in “Resources” you will have access to many beautiful prayers
Core Scripture
Phil 2:3-9 (ESV)
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit,
but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.
Let each of you look not to your own interests,
but to the interests of others.
Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited, but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form, he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death-
even death on a cross.
1 Cor 12:4-11
There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.
There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.
There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom,
to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit,
to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit,
to another miraculous powers,
to another prophecy,
to another distinguishing between spirits,
to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,
and to still another the interpretation of tongues.
All these are the work of one and the same Spirit,
and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.
Scripturein Context
Phil 2:3-9 (ESV)
This passage is the most well-known in St Paul’s letter to the Philippians. It is known as the “Christ-hymn”. It is concerned with reflection on the nature and mission of Jesus. This ‘hymn’ relates to the image of the suffering servant from the Book of Isaiah. It is concerned with the relationship between wisdom (Spirit of God) and the servant who suffers. It connects the theme of humiliation and exaltation through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Its position of Christ humbling himself calls us to be humble in our own lives and to reach out to those who are humbled by their position in society.
The story of the early Catholic Church in Australia is one of suffering servants.St Mary of the Cross MacKillop humbled herself to serve others. Like Jesus, she was rejected through her excommunication and was raised in her own way, especially through her sainthood.
1Cor 12:4-11
The Holy Spirit dwells in each of us and thus the love of God lives in us. The Holy Spirit exists always in our stories of grace. Grace means God fully giving God’s love to human beings and inviting us into this love, to be liberated and transformed. We humans are free to say yes or no to grace. We can be drawn either to love or to lovelessness.
We are invited as Christians, and in a special way as Church to be open to the gifts of the Spirit. In this passage, St Paul leads us to understand that the spiritual endowment given to everyone is for the common good. We are called to discern what the Spirit is asking of us in the context of our times. Through grace we are called to mission. “Our story is far from complete. The breath of God draws us to the new, into the openness of God’s future” (Denis Edwards, BBI Holy Spirit E-Conference).
The story of the Catholic Church in Australia is an exemplification of how many people used their spiritual gifts in different and often amazing ways to work for the common good. Their story began the story that we continue today as we are called to answer the call of the Holy Spirit by using our charisms (spiritual gifts) for the betterment of society.
Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church
N 782 The People of God are called to be…
…Its mission is to be salt of the earth and light of the world.
N785 The People of God share in Christ’s Prophetic Office
The holy People of God shares… in Christ's prophetic office," above all in the supernatural sense of faith that belongs to the whole People… and when it deepens its understanding and becomes Christ's witness in the midst of this world.
N 786 The Church shares in the royal office of Christ
….the People of God shares in the royal office of Christ…Christ… made himself the servant of all, for he came "not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." For the Christian, "to reign is to serve him," particularly when serving "the poor and the suffering, in whom the Church recognizes the image of her poor and suffering founder." The People of God fulfils its royal dignity by a life in keeping with its vocation to serve with Christ.
N 787 The Church is communion with Jesus
From the beginning, Jesus associated his disciples with his own life, revealed the mystery of the Kingdom to them, and gave them a share in his mission, joy, and sufferings.
N 865 One holy, Catholic and ApostolicChurch
The Church is ultimately one, holy, catholic, and apostolic in her deepest and ultimate identity, because it is in her that "the Kingdom of heaven," the "Reign of God,"already exists and will be fulfilled at the end of time. The kingdom has come in the person of Christ and grows mysteriously in the hearts of those incorporated into him, until its full eschatological manifestation.
Background for the Teacher
The Church and Kingdom of God
The origin of Church is found in the “person, life and work of Jesus Christ” (Brian Gleeson, “Origin of the Church in Jesus Christ and His Mission”. In The Australasian Catholic Record. Vol. 81, No. 4 Oct 2004, p. 431). However, the word “church” is only mentioned twice in the Gospels, whereas “Kingdom of God” is used 150 times. We don’t know if Jesus intended to form a church, probably not as he was a faithful Jew. However, he was a faithful Jew who called for radical conversion in the ways that people lived, expressed in his use of the term “Kingdom of God”.
The heart of the concept of the Kingdom of God is “liberating and healing actions for all sorts of needy persons” (Gleeson, p.434). In Jesus, God entered human life and challenged people to step out of their comfort zones. In doing so, Jesus offered comfort to those who are marginalised, not necessarily that their lives would change, but that their lives were worthwhile and that they were loved by God.
The coming of the kingdom was the foundation of practically everything that Jesus did and said and was “his favourite phrase for what his mission was all about” (Gleeson, p.432). Jesus insisted on a change of life-style as a requirement for the coming of the kingdom. Jesus taught that the kingdom of God existed right there and then in his own words and actions and in the hearts and hands of those who live faithfully in God’s ways. It was also future orientated as people live in hope that the kingdom of God one day will be fully realised.
Jesus gathered around him a community of followers, whom he instructed in mission. It is most likely, therefore, that Jesus “intended that the work for the kingdom would continue after his death” (Gaillardetz, p. 18). However, whilst it was in his witness and proclamation in his historical ministry that gave his disciples the food for their mission, it was in the post resurrection events that the foundations of church really occurred. It was the post Easter encounter with the risen Lord “that animated the disciples and constituted them, empowered by the spirit as a community” (Gaillardetz, p. 18).
The historical Jesus who proclaimed the Kingdom of God and the risen Christ of faith exist in a relationship of tension. “For Christians there is no Jesus outside the confession of Christ in the church, just as there is no Church confession without the liberating appearance of the historical Jesus of Nazareth for humankind.” (Schillebeeckx, p. 104). As Schillebeeckx says, the whole history of the church consists of ups and downs, new processes of following Jesus, interpreting, going further and being confronted with problems.
The people of the early Catholic Church in Australia lived in tension, experiencing many ups and downs and being confronted with problems. However, within that difficult environment, there were many people who worked to bring about the Kingdom of God especially by reaching out to the marginalised. In their teachings and their actions, they sought to bring the historical Jesus and the Christ of faith to the people of their times. It is on the shoulders of such people that the Catholic Church in Australia exists today. The legacy of these years can be seen in the social conscience, action and education that is the main work of many Catholic institutions and organisations today.
Australian Catholics in the Early Years of European Settlement
The Australian Catholic Church community has its foundations in the stories of the first European migrants to Australia in the eighteenth century. They came from England on the First Fleet in 1788. Of the 1,044 convicts who arrived, 316 were Catholics. Of approximately one in ten convicts transported from England who were Catholic,half of them had been born in Ireland. There were no priests and thus Catholics like everyone else were often forced to attend ecumenical services led by Reverend Richard Johnson. However, Catholics found ways of sustaining their own religious culture.
The Contribution of Irish Faith
Irish Catholics brought with them a rather unusual brand of Irish Catholicism which included a mixture of “formal Catholicism, debased Catholic practices, family piety, superstition, magic and Celtic mythology” (Edmund Campion, Australian Catholics: The Contribution of Australian Catholics to the Development of Australian Society, Viking Penguin Books, Ringwood Victoria, 1987, p. 4) Their view of the world helped them to survive in this harsh land and give them some respite from the worries of their lives in colonial Australia. This was particularly helpful as the Irish were at odds with their English Protestant governors and administrators in the penal colony, who forced the Protestant religion and way of life on everyone.
So it was that the deepest chasm that existed within penal Australia was more specific than between gaoler and prisoner; it was the bitter gulf between those who held power and authority, and Irish Catholic convicts. To the Protestant ascendancy of penal Australia-compromising the governors, the officers, the administrators, the leading churchmen and citizens-there were two essential conditions of civilization: the Protestant religion and British political and social institutions. On both counts the Irish were barbarians. (Patrick O’Farrell, The Catholic Church and Community in Australia: A History, Nelson, Melbourne, 1977, p. 3)
Even in the absence of priests and in the most difficult of social environments however, Catholic faith continued to give meaning to life. “It was a view of the world enabling one to sustain the present and hope for the future. It was also a folk culture, a bond of loyalty to one’s fellows. The tenacity of this layman’s religion cannot be measured by attendance at Mass or financial contributions to the clergy. Yet what evidence there is points to the hardiness of this colonial transplant of the Catholic faith from Ireland” (Campion, p. 4).
Most Irish convicts were put on convict ships at Cork. Before they left, the priests from Cork heard their confessions and gave them a prayer book to “sustain them in thepriestless years ahead” (Campion, p.4). Those prayer books as well as those who had rosary beads turned out to be key elements of maintaining Catholic practices and in the end faith in the colony. The Irish also became a prime source of Australian nationalism, not wanting to be disenfranchised in Australia as they had been after the conquest of Ireland. Whilst there were hardened criminals amongst the Irish, most of them were convicted of crime “driven by hunger or poverty” (Campion, p. 7). After completing their sentences, most “settled down to a new life and became useful citizens” (Campion, p. 7).
The Beginnings of the Catholic Church in the Laity
The first Australian Catholics were without priests for many years, therefore, early Catholics in the colony of New South Wales had to rely on one another to sustain their faith. The foundations of the Catholic Church in Australia were reliant upon a determined laity.
In the absence of priests, ordinary people emerged as spiritual leaders e.g.
- In Sydney, a stonemason, Jack Dempsey read prayers with those who were condemned to death.A priest, Jeremiah O’Flynn, who came later in 1817 and was then expelled from the colony is said to have left the Blessed Sacrament in Dempsey’s house in Kent Street. It is possible that the first Mass in the colony was celebrated in Dempsey’s house. There is another tradition, however, that says that the Blessed Sacrament was left in the house of William Davis. Perhaps it was carried between the two houses. Columbus Fitzpatrick, who was a boy at the time later recorded what happened at Dempsey’s house:
Mr Dempsey secured the assistance of five or six other religious old men, whose whole duty and pleasure was to watch and pray in that room, in which an altar had been erected and a tabernacle placed to receive the holy pix. This room was converted into a little chapel, and it was no unusual thing on a Sunday, when Catholics could assemble to join in the prayers at Mass which were being read in that room, to see many of them kneeling under the verandah, and even in the street, much to the amusement of the scoffers, who said we ought to be sun-struck. (Campion, p. 5)