President's ANNUAL REPORT

 

At our Assembly in July 2008, under the theme of Our Australian Multicultural Church: Reality, Gift and Challenge, a series of recommendations were given to the incoming Council for implementation. So the year has been full and interesting. I wish to identify what action and steps have been taken to address these recommendations.

 

 

Congregations were surveyed to ascertain what collaboration was taking place and what was desired for the future.  Twenty-three Congregational leaders responded. Noel Connolly undertook the work associated with this and his report is included in this booklet. Our proposal is that there are enough interested congregations to hold some weekend programmes in 2010.

 

To this end two one-day planning meetings will be held, one for people in Sydney on October 10, 2009, and the other gathering for those in Melbourne on October 20. Congregational leaders, representatives and/or formators are invited to these meetings to discuss the details of the kind of programme that we might sponsor in 2010.

 

Facilitation of migration procedures for religious and candidates into Australia.

 

CRA Council has made representation to the Australian Catholic Migration Resources Office (ACMRO), the Bishops' Commission for Pastoral Life and the ACBC Annual Conference in regard to the processing of applications.  A number of issues have been identified:-

A commitment was made at ACBC to attend to these issues as a matter of importance and urgency.

 

 

CRA Council in 2007/08 had commenced processes to undertake a survey of Religious Life in Australia.  The purpose was to capture the current reality of Religious Life and ministries within the church and society.  The last survey had taken place in 1970s.  Such a new survey would show the great changes in religious life and the work of religious since that time. The current Council has taken this process further and a survey was recently electronically distributed to all congregational leaders. This will be a major piece of research, which I believe will clearly identify the prophetic stance that religious life now takes within our church and society.  I encourage all of you to respond to the survey even if it presents itself as a nightmare to do so!

 

 

Religious have been involved extensively in programmes across Australian dioceses in the formation of personnel coming to Australia or beginning to work in multicultural settings.  In particular I mention the three-day programme Welcoming Enabling and Integrating Overseas Priests run by the Archdiocese of Melbourne for priests in Victoria and Tasmania, the National Conference of Directors of Clergy Life and Ministry, the dioceses of Hobart, Broken Bay, Parramatta, Maitland-Newcastle and Townsville.  Pathways  has been a medium for highlighting stories involving religious in a multicultural church. Penny Edman will be present throughout our Assembly and she welcomes your contributions and suggestions.

 

 

State representatives on council have worked with State CRA bodies to continue to support smaller congregations at a local level. State Conferences in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland all have processes in place to connect with smaller groups and to offer support where it is appropriate and sought.

 

 

Tim Norton SVD as Vice President, Tim Brennan MSC as Treasurer and I were welcomed at the Bishops Conference in November 2008.   Br Vince Duggan CFC replaced Tim Brennan who was unable to attend the May  2009 Conference.

 

We attend as observers, though are welcomed to participate in conversations that have a direct impact on the lives of religious.

 

This year there was considerable discussion in regard to the emergence of new Public Juridic Persons (PJP). The Bishops and CRA will form a joint working party in the second half of 2009 to formulate principles and guidelines in regard to the ongoing formation of new PJP's within the Australian church.

 

On the Saturday within the conference, about 50 religious leaders or their representatives met with the Bishops, and discussion centered  on  last year's Synod on The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church.  Veronica Lawson RSM and Frank Moloney SDB made significant contributions to this discussion.

 

The Executive and some members of the Council met in March with the Bishops Commission for Church Ministry.  The focus of our conversations was input by Fr Stephen Bevans SVD, that the mission has a church, not the reverse. Stephen's presentation opened up some lively and engaging conversation with this group of bishops.

 

 

Fr Tim Brennan MSC as co-chair of the National Committee for Professional Standards will address the Assembly on a number of matters that have emerged during 2008/09.  Each of you has received the Report of the Review of Towards Healing that has been undertaken by Professor Patrick Parkinson.  He will present his review personally at the Assembly.

 

You will have also received a draft new Mandate for the National Professional Standards Office. Both this document and the revised Towards Healing document need to be accepted by both the ACBC and CRA. The National Committee for Professional Standards will establish a review of the funding of State Offices and how this can be coordinated in a more equitable manner.

 

 

During this year CRA has reviewed its Education Committee, giving it a new mandate.  Membership has been provided from each State Body, and the Committee is chaired by Catherine Clarke RSJ from South Australia. New terms were due for CRA's representation on the National Catholic Education Commission (NCEC). The Bishops Commission for Education insisted that our representatives were to be leaders of religious Institutes.  I thank Rosemary Lewins OP and Julian Casey FMS for accepting our nominations to NCEC. The new committee will meet five times a year and will connect closely with CRA's representatives on NCEC.  They have had their annual formal meeting with NCEC this year and soon after the Chair and I met with the Executive and CRA representatives of NCEC and the Bishops Commission for Education specifically about PJPs.  Bishop Greg O'Kelly SJ is the new chair of the Bishops Commission for Education.

 

 

CRA has endorsed the work of ACRATH.  Early in 2009, ACRATH was granted $250,000 over a three-year period from the Federal Government. CRA will manage these funds on behalf of ACRATH.

 

 

The three-year cycle of a course, sponsored jointly by the Canon Law society of Australia and New Zealand and CRA, commenced last year with close to 100 participants.  There are excellent enrolments for 2009.

 

 

The year has offered us much to reflect upon and then to act.  I thank the council members for their commitment of time and collaborative team approach.  The demands on us as leaders at this time in the history of the church and religious life are significant.  Thanks go especially to Laurie Needham CFC who is unstinting in his commitment and attention to the tasks at hand.  I thank all those leaders and members who have accepted representation on a number of church bodies.  It is a privilege for me to represent you all as members of CRA. I believe that the prophetic and contemplative call of religious life is alive and well in our society.