Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB had some direct and encouraging words to say to St Charles’ seminarians when he joined them for evening prayer, last Sunday.
Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB made the most of his first opportunity to address archdiocesan seminarians directly when he attended Solemn Vespers and Benediction at St Charles Seminary last Sunday.
After welcoming words from Seminary Rector, Mgr Kevin Long, Archbishop Costelloe told the seminarians they were very much, in his thoughts and prayers, and that as a bishop, he was acutely aware of the importance of the seminary to the health and future of priestly ministry.
“There are so many things that I would like to say to you this evening that I hardly know where to start,” the Archbishop told the seminarians and the seminary’s teaching faculty.
The Archbishop stressed the importance of prayer and of dedication to philosophical and theological studies.
He spoke to the seminarians about fidelity to the Church’s liturgy – “the importance of making sure it is Christ, rather than yourselves, who shines through when you celebrate the liturgy” – as well as the need to develop pastoral sensitivity, to be the Good Shepherds they needed to be.
“I would like to talk to you about developing a real love for the Church, the Body of Christ, not so much as you would like it to be but as it is, with all its beauty and all its fragility,” Archbishop Costelloe said.
“I would like to talk to you about all these things, but I keep reminding myself that, God willing, I have many years ahead of me as archbishop of Perth and what I can’t say today perhaps I can say tomorrow.”
Speaking to the teaching of St Paul and of Bl John Paul II’s Novo Millennio Ineunte, which inspired the Year of Grace, the Archbishop urged the Seminary and Seminarian to foster a “spirituality of communion”:
“A spirituality of communion indicates above all the heart’s contemplation of the mystery of the Trinity dwelling in us, and whose light we must also be able to see shining on the face of the brothers and sisters around us,” the Archbishop said.
In his opening remarks, Mgr Kevin Long said it was too easy for the Church to get side-tracked by negative sentiment and challenging circumstances:
“It is seductively easy for each of us to become so immersed in the challenges, opportunities and problems of our own particular time, that we risk forgetting what is truly promised and given to us each day in Christ Jesus,” Mgr Long said.
“It is also seductively easy to be side tracked from genuine Christian Faith and Christian Charity by the various battles, important, as they might be, raging which the Church and the World.”
Church history provided hope, the Rector said, giving the example of Mexican Bishop Rafael Valencia’s underground seminary during the 1920s and 1930s.
Priesthood, like marriage, was a life-long endeavour, he said:
“It seems to me no sociological accident or mere coincidence that marriage and priesthood are under such severe stress at present.”
“In a society so often devoid of any theological and historical memory, and a Church often driven by activism and sheer survival, the challenges remain the same,” Mgr Long said.
The Rector drew attention to Archbishop Costelloe’s teaching charism and said he, the seminarians, and the seminary faculty, looked forward to all the things he had to say to them.
Both Rector Long and Archbishop Costelloe said they were pleased to welcome special guests to the occasion, which included Syrian Orthodox Archbishop Boutros Touma Issa, Baptist leader Dr Noel Vose, Anglican Bishop Brian Kyme, Redemptoris Mater Seminary Rector, Fr Michael Moore, the Catholic Education Office’s Director of Religious Education, Debra Sayce and Mgr Long’s visiting mother, Mrs Claire Long.