Archbishop Visits Fiji Catholics in Australia Speaking after Mass at a shared lunch to mark his visit, Archbishop Chong told Fiji Sydney Catholic Chaplaincy members and Fijians who had travelled from other parts of Australia to witness his first visit to Sydney that he wanted the church in Fiji to become more relevant and engaged in social and political realities. From 2005 to 2010, the priests talked about the political crisis in Fiji only once in their meeting, he said. This is not very good. its like a church that has its head buried in the sand and not looking around to see what is happening. Archbishop Chong says building the smaller Christian community is in line with Pope Francis underlined aims of the Year of Consecrated Life, which began November 30th 2014. Archbishop Chong echoed the pontiffs message for the Year of Consecrated Life in which Pope Francis called on Catholics to bear witness to the gospel by going to the periphery of society. Right now we are trying to dream for the church - like Pope Francis says - a church that is missionary. A church that is bruised, dirty (and) wounded because it is a church that has been on the street, Archbishop Chong said. He outlined a basic strategy toward achieving this as a small christian community that meets regularly, has at its centre the word of God and gospel sharing, and chooses an apostolic action to perform to live out the gospel. So through our small christian community our Catholics will not only pray with their eyes closed but they will pray with their eyes wide open and their ears listening to the world, to what is happening and trying to respond to the world, Archbishop Chong said. He also said priests in Fiji are being equipped to become better managers through the Pastoral Management Course and other training programs in order to help them have better vision, mission and clearer objectives. FSCC chairperson James Mataitini said Archbishop Chong will travel to Melbourne from Sydney to attend a conference. The Year of Consecrated Life concludes on the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple on February 2, next year. Story by Maria Turaga. Photo credit Steven Borg
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 01:41:05 +0000
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