By Jamie O’Brien and Josh Low
One of the challenges facing Archbishop Costelloe is the need to keep reminding the Catholic community that we must always allow our own values and culture to be measured against the culture of the Gospel.
In an extensive interview with The Record Magazine, the Archbishop spoke candidly about the future of the Church, crime and violence, same-sex marriage, celibacy, women priests, euthanasia and the sex abuse crises.
“The great challenge then for people of Christian faith, and for Catholics, whose faith as it is lived and taught in the Catholic tradition, is to grapple with the daily task of allowing our own lifestyle and decisions and relationships to be governed by the Gospel, even when that will require of us not to go along with the prevailing view held more widely in our society,” the Archbishop said.
Speaking first about some of the social issues commonly facing society today, and in particular Perth, the Archbishop noted that there is rawness in our society now, in a kind of brutal way.
“From my own from my perspective as a Christian and as a Christian leader, I think we are gradually losing some of our foundational principles. Like our society is somewhat being cut loose from its moorings so to speak.
“A society is strongest when it has strong values that are well recognised and accepted and adhered too by the vast majority of the people in society.
“As the Bishop, my first task is to do my best to lead the Catholic community and its people, in fidelity to God and to God’s Church.
The Archbishop detailed that dealing with the horror of sexual abuse of children and young people has undoubtedly and personally, been one of his biggest challenges.
“It is hard to comprehend how this has ever happened,” the Archbishop said.
“We need to, I intend to, remain firm to our commitment to do what we can to ensure, as best we can, that this never happens again.
Going on to speak about the future of the Church, both generally and here in Western Australia, the Archbishop noted that he is realistic but also optimistic.
“In terms of the internal life of the Church here in WA, there are reasons for hope and reasons for concern. Many of our parishes are struggling in terms of numbers but others are very active and dynamic.
The Archbishop noted that in recent years, there has been a resurgence in the number of people going to confession.
“And in the last five years we have ordained some 25 new priests and we have a small but regular number of new students starting in our seminaries each year.”
The Archbishop, who celebrated his 30th anniversary last year, said that as society changes and moves away from many of the values of traditional Christianity the role of the Church in society also changes.
“We no longer have the same influence we once had in public life. Many traditional Christian beliefs are now questioned, or abandoned, or even ridiculed.
“As Christians, and certainly as Christians in the Catholic tradition, we are struggling to find our place in this changing world and changing society.
“The Catholic tradition stands for a particular way of understanding the world – and ourselves as human beings within it.
“We have a ‘world view’. Once the Christian world view was commonly adhered to – now not so much.
“But if you believe in a particular way of understanding how everything fits together, if you really believe that this offers the best hope for the future, then you remain faithful to it, keep it alive and vibrant, and continually offer it is a gift, as an option if you like, for others to consider, try out and evaluate,” he said.
Archbishop Costelloe raised questions on the value system of today’s society and called for more of a focus on what Catholic tradition calls the common good.
“My own suspicion is that we are moving more and more to a value system which focuses on individual rights and the satisfaction of individual needs and moving away from a value system which recognises that as human beings, we are all responsible for each other.
“What I do inevitably has effects, for good or bad, on others,” he said.
“In making decisions we should be focusing on what will benefit us all as a community, rather than simply on what will benefit me.
“For the Catholic tradition, this means that we have a responsibility for the common good and that our own needs and desires must be evaluated within the context of the good of the human community,” he continued.
The Archbishop reiterated the need to be faithful to what the Church believes God is asking of us, while being sensitive to the many people, both inside the Church and outside, who see things very differently.
He echoed the words of Pope Benedict XVI of the role and the privilege of the Church in being an entity that proposes a way forward but never imposes it.
“It is a particular way of looking at the world; what it means to be a human person, what human relationships and human flourishing are meant to look like according to God’s creative intention.
“On that basis of this world view, the Church puts its point of view; its belief, forward for consideration.
“It is about ‘proposing’ but never “imposing’,” he concluded.
From page 4 to 6 from Issue 6: ‘Prayer – What does it mean to pray without ceasing?’ of The Record Magazine