Catholic Religious Australia will facilitate live-in orientation workshops next year for Religious new to Australia in a bid to expose them to Australian culture and to help them network to overcome isolation in a new country.
While the focus will be on Religious, the workshops also will be open to diocesan clergy.
The initiative - to be headed by Fathers Noel Connolly SSC, Melbourne
(left), and Tim Norton SVD, Sydney
(below), both members of the CRA National Council - follows recent think tank meetings in Melbourne and Sydney where strong interest was shown.
Within the ranks of Australia's Religious pastoral concern for overseas personnel has been growing. CRA devoted its
2008 Assembly to the "reality, gift and challenge" of multi-cultural Australia and its ramifications for the Catholic Church within Australia.
It is an issue which individual congregations have been dealing with in isolation for many years as Religious come to Australia for study, formation and ministry in a variety of contexts and for differing lengths of time. Individuals, such as Fr Connolly and Fr Norton, having been undertaking education work around the country.
In a report to the November meeting of the CRA Council, Fathers Connolly and Norton said the support for a weekend, live-in workshop in both Sydney and Melbourne was strong, with a viable number of candidates assured.
In seeking to welcome, enable and help integrate these Religious, several major needs were isolated:
- networking among themselves to counteract isolation and give them the sense that there are other people "like me"
- help them to see differences as normal
- how to use their new freedom and the material goods that are now available to them (what religious poverty means in Australia)
- Australian students also need help to understand the new multicultural world they are entering, a world where they are the minority in their own country
The gatherings might include formators, as there are not the resources or time to at this stage to hold separate workshops for them, although this was considered the ideal.
The priests said that although the content would be determined by the presenters engaged, it would need to cover:
- an introduction to culture and cultural transitions
- cross cultural communication skills and pitfalls
- sharing successes and failures
- sharing re key issues in entering ministry in the Australian Church: spirituality and devotional life, boundaries, collaboration with laity, place of women in Australian Church and society.
It is envisaged the days will be held in June-July 2010 with follow-up days on a selected theme, e.g. the history of the Australian Church, later in the year. This day would be open also to people who hadn't done the initial workshop - but those who had would be asked to attend for a couple of hours in the morning to follow-up on the earlier gathering.
Assembly 2008 keynote address
by Professor Desmond Cahill
