Sydney archbishop wants more public celebrations of faith

Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP said that key Christian holidays such as Easter and Christmas should be acknowledged in this way just as “all sorts of secular causes” often are.

“We celebrate all sorts of things with banners and decorations in our streets, all sorts of secular causes, but religion is also part of the life of our people here in Sydney,” Archbishop Fisher said.

He said opposition to Christian-related public displays usually comes from people down on religion or who are hostile to anything that is not their particular cause.

“But I think there’s room for celebrating a lot of different things in our culture – and religion is a big, big one of them.”

Archbishop Fisher said Australian society should uphold its Judeo-Christian history in everyday life and on public holidays in case it “fades away”.

“I think we have a big Christian, or Judeo-Christian heritage, that’s in the background of a lot of our laws and policies and customs and holidays and a lot of our thinking. We’re kind of Christians without knowing it a lot of the time in a country like Australia or a city like Sydney,” he said.

“There is a risk that we don’t attend to, that we don’t preserve, that we don’t build on, that . . .  in fact, it just fades away because, not because of any very conscious choice, but people just get distracted by other things or, one way or another, start adopting other values.”

The Archdiocese of Sydney’s Centre for Evangelisation wants to encourage a culture of Catholic processions in parishes and are offering an online workshop later this month to assist this.

Processions are seen as offering a public witness that is peaceful and prayerful.

Tania Rimac, who is coordinating the workshop through the Centre’s Parish Renewal Team, said: “Processions are a form of popular piety in our Church and [have] had a place and been a practice in the Church for centuries, and we have been building this culture up within Sydney over the past few years with Bishop [Richard] Umbers taking the lead with his team.”  

Courtney Hall, from Bishops Umbers’ office, who will be co-presenting the online workshop, provides direct support to parishes who look to lead processions and also helps organise the various processions in Sydney.  

The Walk with Christ procession in Sydney has drawn crowds of 20,000. Corpus Christi processions have become a fixture of the city’s Catholic calendar. Ms Rimac said the opportunity now is to take that momentum deeper – into local parishes, local streets, local communities. 

FULL STORY

Catholic leader wants more Christian holiday decorations in Sydney (By Derrick Krusche/Daily Telegraph)

Parishes invited to discover the power of processions (Catholic Weekly)