A reader recently directed me to the website of the Australian Confraternity of Catholic Clergy. The Aims of the ACCC are to- give glory and honour to the Most Blessed Trinity
- assist the eternal salvation and holiness of members
- foster unity among Catholic priests and deacons with the bishops in loyalty to the Supreme Magisterium
- encourage faithfulness to priestly life and ministry
- assist bishops, priests, and deacons in the fulfilment of their ministry of teaching, sanctifying, and ruling.
They produce a magazine called "The Priest" which is available (up to May 2007) from the website. The May edition has a follow-up to a previous article entitled "A church that looks and feels like a Church". It tells the story of the Immaculate Heart of Mary parish in Thurgoona in the diocese of Wagga Wagga. Here is part of the story:
With a small band of dedicated volunteer workers we set out designing our “orthodox” church. We were very excited with what we had come up with. Monsignor Elliott wrote to us congratulating us on the beautiful design, and much to our surprise Professor Duncan Stroik from Notre Dame University USA, also gave us encouragement. However, this was quickly hit on the head by those in charge. We were forced to abandon the idea of the design of a church the people were so excited about. We were being directed to go with a style that no one really liked: a modern style building that was acceptable to certain authorities, and yet, was unacceptable to the sense of the faithful.The Church is the one pictured above.
As a result, instead of a church, it was decided to seek approval for a hall to be built: this is the beautiful church we have today.
Skimming through the rest of the 40 page magazine, I found some excellent articles on celibacy, eastward-facing, vocations, tabernacles, and the theology of Pope Benedict.
7 comments:
I am, of course, delighted that you have taken this look at The Australian Confraternity of Catholic Clergy. It is the month of November now and I expect that the latest copy of The Priest will be dropping into my letterbox any day now. I always find it inspiring to read.
JARay
I think that you will also find the article in the November 2006 edition of The Priest written by Mr Ethan Anthony (an American architect) on what he likes to build as a church. The article is called "Letting the basic ecclesial form shine through".
And while you are reading that article you will come across a short comment on the state of vocations in Australia.
JARay
Thank you for mentioning this wonderful group of priests. Our Faithful priests in Australia need all the support and prayers they can get.
Victoria
We had an Australian priest here,studying at Durham for two years, Fr Mark Withoos, who is a member and who was keen to try to set up a branch of the CCC in this country. Sounded like a good idea to me.
At one time I ran a group publishing a magizine called VOK SACERDOTALIS which was affilated to that group and we ran two pilgrimages to Rome jointly. I have lost touch with them and wonder if you could let myself and other readers know where to obtain this magazine ?
Any chance of you starting something similar in this country, to complement APGL?
Fr Clifton - you can download the magazine from the website or order it from there if you want a paper copy.
Gildas - I think that the time is ripe for some such confraternity of clergy. But probably best for me not to take on yet another project. I'm sure that some of the younger clergy could get something going and will sound some people out.
Post a Comment