Stanley River Parish is a parish in the Brisbane Northern Rivers Deanery and the Archdiocese of Brisbane. Ours is a parish in which you can truly belong! Whether you are just beginning to explore Catholicism or have been Catholic all of your life; whether you have stayed on the fringes of parish life in the past or are already involved in ministry; Stanley River Parish is a parish that values you. As a community, we care for one another, knowing that through our ministry we perceive Christ’s presence among us. With the support of one another as Church, we serve those most in need in our community and world, through direct service, collections of food, clothing, and gifts, and through monetary contributions in mission, as we help to contribute to the reign of God in our world. Fr Dantus Thottathil MCBS Parish Priest
THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH LOOKS OUTWARD.
A Pope who is not afraid of open discussion and even dissent in the Churchby Fr Noel Connolly SSC, Plenary Council Facilitation Team
Pope Francis is an unusual Pope who is bringing real change to the Church by encouraging open discussion and refusing to silence dissent. In fact, he has said, “Open and fraternal debate makes theological and pastoral thought grow…. That doesn’t frighten me. What’s more, I look for it.”Many people would like to see him clarify matters and crack down on dissent, but Francis is patient and wants people to speak their minds because he believes in a synodal church. He trusts that the Holy Spirit will guide us in the right direction.
- Vatican II in Lumen Gentium (n. 37) tells us everyone is “permitted and sometimes even obliged to express their opinion on those things which concern the good of the Church”. Pope Francis believes in the sensus fidelium, or the sense of the faithful, as an important part of the teaching authority of the Church.
- This is a new approach to what it means to be Church. Lay people have not always been encouraged to speak up and we clergy have not always appreciated our responsibility to invite the sensus fidelium and to listen humbly.
- We all have much to learn and it may be a little messy and hurtful in the process. Consulting, speaking up, listening, discerning are all skills and they take time.
- Open-mindedness is essential because “we cannot dialogue with people if we already know all the answers to their problems”.
- Most important things take time to emerge, but if we give ourselves boldly, humbly and trustingly to the process, it will bear fruit at the right time.
Sr Mary Fermio RSJ and Sr Audrey Thomson RSJ
The same Vatican II document, Gaudium et Spes, states that “the Church seeks but a solitary goal: to carry forward the work of Christ Himself under the lead of the Spirit”.
How is the church to do this? “To carry out this task, the Church has always had the duty of scrutinising the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel. We must, therefore, recognise and understand the world in which we live, its expectations, its longings and its often dramatic characteristics.”(GS, 4)
Discerning the Sensus Fidelium ......Ormond Rush
Pope Francis’ calls for “a listening church, a synodal church,” at all levels of church life.1 The Holy Spirit, he says, must be given breathing room to bring forth such a church. The Spirit’s instrument for interpreting divine revelation is the sensus fidei, a “sense of the faith”, or better, a sense for the faith. It is capacity which the Spirit gives, along with the gift of faith, to a every baptized believer and to the church as a whole.
