Ecclesia in Oceania
Mar 22, 2006
In the context of Pope John Paul II's teachings as a whole, Ecclesia in Oceania is of limited importance, but it does provide a survey of the state of the Church in a large region of the world far removed from the major centres, and the outline of a response to the challenges facing the Church in Oceania at the beginning of the third Christian millennium.
(evangelizatio.org, 2006-03-10) Oceania comprises most of the 10.000 islands scattered across the Pacific Ocean between Asia and America. One estimate puts the total number of these islands around 10.000, with a total land mass of 8.821.000 square kilometres. Australia accounts for almost 91 per cent of this total land mass. The region is home to about 30 million people, and it is not a particularly crowded place with a population density of 3.5 people per square kilometre. In addition to Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, Oceania encompasses fourteen main island groups. These are broken up into numerous states and principalities, some of which are French or American dependencies. Traditionally the region has been divided into four parts, Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia, scientists believe that until 33.000 years ago the region (with the exception of Australia) was uninhabited. By contrast, modern humans first appeared in Europe 40.000 years ago, and in Africa 100.000 years ago.
Within Australia there has been intermittent discussion over the last fifteen years or so, sometimes acrimonious, about whether the country forms part of Asia. Australia has considerable trading ties with the countries of south and north east Asia. Historically, the defence of the country has been oriented towards possibilities that may or may not emerge from the powerful or populous nations of Asia. More recently, there has been Australian involvement in East Timor and in the relief effort for the great tsunami which struck south east Asia in 2004 the day after Christmas. All of these factors have played a part in gradually bringing Australians to recognise the country's place on the edge of Asia, but nevertheless playing an important role within it. Arguments could be made for Australia being a member of the Asian bishops’ conference, but they would likely be resisted on both sides for reasons which would be different but all related to Australia’s position on the physical margins of Asia. Whatever of this, Australia's emerging awareness of its place in or on the edge of Asia could have significant consequences for the concept of "Oceania", given that Australia represents its largest population centre and land mass.
The relatively small population of Oceania is unevenly distributed across its large geographical area (one third of the earth's surface), and comprises significant numbers of indigenous and migrant peoples. English is the language spoken by most of the inhabitants, although there are important French-speaking populations and a large number of indigenous languages (700 in Papua New Guinea alone). It is estimated that there are almost 1400 languages spoken by Oceania's different peoples, and it is this indicator that is perhaps most suggestive of the immense diversity of the region.
There are enormous sociological differences between countries like Australia and New Zealand on the one hand, and Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands on the other. Australia and New Zealand are modern, urbanised, secular Western countries in which "the sense of God and his loving providence has diminished" (EO §6). The countries encompassed in Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia are small, more traditional and less prosperous. Traditional values and ways of life survive, but the impact of the contemporary world is sometimes considerable, creating particular challenges and tensions for the peoples of these places in their attempts to preserve their unique identity.
Oceania accounts for 0.8 per cent of the world's 1.1 billion (Mexico City accounts for over 20 million of these, and Sao Paolo in Brazil around 30 million), and 1.2 per cent of the world's priests. In 1999, 1 percent of the world's seminarians were Oceanian. So the Church in Oceania represents only a small part of the universal Church. Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) estimates that while the total population of the region increased by 45 per cent in the period 1975-2000, the Catholic population of the region grew by 57 per cento Nevertheless, in almost half of the countries of Oceania, Catholics account for less than 25 per cent of the population. Only in 7 countries do Catholics make up 50 per cent or more of the population. 9 out of 10 Catholics in the region live in one of the three largest countries. Underscoring this minority status in the nations of Oceania, CARA estimates that between 1975 and 2000, the annual average number of baptisms fell by 6 per cent, and the number of Catholic marriages fell by 31 per cent. The number of seminaries fell by 44 per cent and ordinations to the priesthood declined 7 per cent.
Part of the explanation may lie in the decline in missionary activity. In 1975 there were 1.546 missions in Oceania. 25 years later, there were 839, a fall of 44 per cent. The number of parishes grew during t 'is time, but only by 161 (to 2,384), an increase of 7 per cento The decline in mission work is to be particularly regretted, given the characteristics of the region, and the splendid history of missionary work there. Missionaries first carne to Oceania in the 1500s with the 5paniards who were very successful as missionaries. Guam and the Mariana Islands served as the first outpost of the Church in the region, with missionary work commencing in the south Pacific from other places in the late eighteenth century. The task confronting missionaries in Oceania is perhaps one of the hardest that has ever faced missionaries anywhere. Communications over such a huge area are still a problem in some parts even today, and missionaries have been martyred in Oceania into modern times. Among Oceania’s saints are St. Peter Chanel, Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores, Blessed Pedro Calungsod, Blessed Giovanni Mazzuconi, Blessed Peter To Rot and Blessed Mary Mackillop (the only one in this list who was not a martyr).
The Oceania Synod Fathers in 1998 were acutely aware of the way contemporary understandings throw shadows over parts of the Church's history in Oceania. Wrongs done to indigenous peoples in the course of European settlement were of particular concern, with the Synod calling for South-African style "truth commissions" to resolve historical injustices and bring about reconciliation. One of the unusual features of Ecclesia in Oceania, and one focussed on with great interest by the media - generally to the exclusion of other parts of the document's message - was the Holy Father's apology to the indigenous people of Oceania for any part the Church played- in "the shameful injustices" they have suffered; especially in the forcible removal of children from indigenous families in Australia (EO §28). A related feature of interest was the apology to victims of clerical sexual abuse (EO §49). These two apologies are important and necessary, and will help the Church in Oceania to better discern the way forward.
Ecclesia in Oceania outlines the positive impact modernization has had in the region: the growth of democracy; "the rejection of terrorism, torture and violence as means of political change"; respect for human rights; cooperation in overcoming structures of poverty; and the gradual improvement in both the quality of, and access to, education, housing and health care. But the Exhortation also warns against "an increasing secularization," especially in places like Australia and New Zealand, against attempts to push Christianity to the periphery of public life and leaving the Church and other religious bodies with "a diminished voice in public affairs." Of particular concern is what Pope John Paul described as "a gradual lessening of the natural religious sense which has led to a disorientation in people's moral life and conscience." In some cases this has meant that Catholics have practically accepted a completely secular outlook as the norm of judgement for behaviour for themselves and others, and more or less uncritically accepted the "alternative magisterium" offered by science, technology, government, the market and the media as the guide to questions of value in social and political life. New and effective ways of responding to the challenges of modern life are essential for the Church in Oceania if it is to avoid having its voice silenced (EO §7).
One of the key sections of the document is section 18. Reporting the feelings of the bishops at the Synod, the Pope remarked here that "the Church in Oceania as a whole is at a crossroads" and faces important decisions for the future. "Practical indifference to religious truths and values clouds the face of divine love" in Oceania, and among some of the Catholic faithful "a completely secular outlook [serves] as the norm of judgement and behaviour." On matters such as public morality, the status of marriage and the family, the right to life (and related issues such as embryo experimentation), the Church's teaching is regularly attacked and its right to contribute to debate often questioned. "The Church's teaching is at times questioned even by Catholic people." In these circumstances, as the Pope observed, "it is hardly surprising that the voice of the Church is less influential in public life.”
The situation has moved on in some parts since Ecclesia in Oceania was written. A couple of years ago Archbishop Barnes of Port Moresby made a major public intervention in Papua New Guinea against government corruption which was instrumental in bringing about a change of government. His weekly radio broadcasts are widely listened to, and give the Church in Papua New Guinea an important voice in public affairs. The 2004 United States presidential election highlighted the growing importance of Catholic voters, especially those who worship regularly, in influencing policies on family and life, and there are signs in Australia that a similar development may be underway, in tandem with the emerging political organisation of the Evangelical Churches. In Australia there has also been a resurgence in the debate about abortion, wit new possibilities for the Church to make up some ground in this area. Church interventions in Australia on the question of refugees and asylum seekers have played a crucial part in gradually bringing about improvements in how they are treated and processed. Australia is also one of the few countries in the West which has successfully enacted legislation to rule out civil marriage being extended to homosexual couples, although the trend has been moving in the opposite direction in New Zealand.
But secularist hostility to religion among some opinion leaders in Australia continues to run deep. A small token of this is provided by an editorial published in Sydney's leading newspaper in 2001 denying that Christians had a right to evangelize. In strident terms the Sydney Morning Herald (21 August, 2001) claimed that "in the multicultural, multi-god nation that modern Australia is, proselytising can only needlessly provoke community tensions. In Australia, one's religion is largely a private matter. It should remain that way". Ecclesia in Oceania's insistence that "the Gospel must be heard in Oceania", that people "have a right to hear the Gospel," and that Christians "have a solemn duty to share it with them," runs directly counter to this spirit and re-affirms the responsibility of all the baptised to play a part in evangelization and to challenge the bogus claims to a secularist consensus by regular service and effective public witness, while always respecting the rights of others.
These observations in Ecclesia in Oceania about secularization apply mainly to Australia and New Zealand, where the situation is different from the rest of the region. Between Australia and New Zealand, the sociological differences parallel approximately the sociological differences between the United States and Canada – primarily in the greater virulence of secularism and the more attenuated resistance to it that is apparent in New Zealand as opposed to Australia. Nevertheless, the Catholic communities in both places continue to enjoy formidable strengths: extensive networks of schools, hospitals and welfare agencies; a laity which is generous in its financial support of local pastors and church agencies; a range of well-produced Catholic newspapers and journals, one or two of them of some importance; a considerable array of lay associations and groups, especially in the areas of life issues and social justice; growing interest in and support of the new ecclesial movements; and a small but enthusiastic and talented cohort of rising youth leaders
In Australia at least, Catholics are now the largest religious d nomination, representing about 2 per cent of the population. But despite all these advantages, the church Australia and New Zealand is in slow decline. This is particularly the case in New Zealand, both in terms of those regularly practising the faith and in terms of vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Different patterns are emerging in Australia which are not much remarked, much less studied. For example, there has been significant rise in the number of seminarians in the seminaries in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Wagga Wagga, which is no matched in anyway in o her parts of the country.
Georgetown's CARA reports that throughout Oceania total seminarian numbers were down 9 per cent in 2000 from 1975. This is despite that fact that diocesan seminarian numbers increased 5 per cent in the period. The main reason for this decline is the catastrophic fall in vocations to the religious orders, which fell 28 per cento The num r of religious women fell 35 per cent (or just under 5,000), and the number of religious others dropped 39 per cent (or just under 1,200). This is an enormous loss the Church in the region. The ratio of Catholics per woman religious was 1:308 in 1975. In 2000 it was 1:739, an increase of 140 per cent. With the number of priests, both religious and diocesan, down 8 per cent over this period, the ratio of faithful to priests also increased during this time, from 1:967 to 1: 1,658. The pressures this places on local Churches should not be underestimated.
But these bald statistics should not be allowed to mislead us into thinking that problems facing the Church in Oceania are beyond our resources. Outside Australia and New Zealand, the problems in local churches are largely problems of grow h. There is an increasing number of Catholics and often a rise in vocations to the diocesan priesthood. but there is a critical shortage of good format on for seminarians and trainee brothers and nuns. This has been exacerbated ed by the declining number of missionaries from traditional sources in eastern Europe, the United States and Australia. Despite the fall in the number of missions cited earlier, this decline in the number of missionaries from traditional sources has been partly off-set by missionaries from the Philippines, India and Poland. John Paul II singled out for particular mention the work of lay missionaries and catechists throughout Oceania, and there is no doubt that lay missionaries perform a valuable work of service and provide indispensable help to local priests. Churches which were established by missionaries are now in their turn sending out missionaries, and this positive development is welcomed in Ecclesia in Oceania. But lay missionaries can only play at best a limited role in seminary training, and theologians are also needed to ensure that the formation lay missionaries themselves receive is maintained and improved (EO §5I).
Predictably some commentators have argued that the solution to these challenges in Oceania requires a realisation of Church teaching and discipline along the usual lines: married clergy, more "meaningful" roles for women, independence of local bishops and churches from Rome, etc. etc. A senior religious affairs commentator in Australia has even proposed that the Church can afford to experiment with these ideas in the "backwater" of Oceania because if it all goes wrong it is unlikely to affect the more important branches of the universal church. This is not going to happen, not least because the Pope and the senior Church authorities do not regard the faith and well-being of the Catholic communities of Oceania as something to be treated so carelessly. In any case, it is not rigid conformity that is the source of the problems facing the region. In outlining the need for the Church in Oceania "to come to a deeper understanding of local and universal communio," John Paul II quoted Paul Vl's observation that "the first communion, the first unity, is that of faith. Unity in faith is necessary and fundamental." He went on to remark that while "the peoples of Oceania have an instinctively strong sense of community," it is "unity in faith [that] is required if reconciliation and love are to replace conflict and hatred" (EO §13).
John Paul II acknowledged very explicitly "the ancient and profound sense of the sacred" which the first European missionaries found among the mosaic of different cultures throughout Oceania (EO §7). G.K. Chesterton dubbed tradition as "the democracy of the dead" and without exception the cultures of Oceania are rich in respect for tradition and authority. These strengths will be needed as local Churches grapple with the changes wrought by the positive and negative forces of modernization.
Whenever the faith takes root in the hearts of peoples, inculturation occurs (EO §16). Catholicism is an incarnational religion, theologically and sacramentally, rich also in para-liturgical celebrations, which vary enormously even throughout Oceania as migration within the region and from outside continues. One example is the Catholics from the Pacific islands, deeply attached to their local traditions of devotion and music, who are a significant presence in New Zealand as they join with Europeans and Maoris. In Australia their numbers are increasing also. The opening and closing Masses of the Synod in St. Peter’s Basilica gave glimpses of how these indigenous traditions are being used to help the work of the Church.
The concept of inculturation has brought notable gains, the most significant of which is the movement of the liturgy from Latin into the vernacular. This has brought important pastoral advantages especially with the traditional peoples of Oceania and more generally with young people, and while it might not be universally popular it has the overwhelming majority support of Catholics, whether they practise regularly or infrequently. However such gains have been bought at some cost. The concept of inculturation has been used in ways, often unwittingly, to allow the surrounding society, sometimes secular, sometimes superstitious, and sometimes merely reflecting some less desirable aspects of local or mass culture, to enter into the liturgy and the preaching of the Gospel truths. In Oceania, where Catholics are generally in the minority in the countries of the region, inculturation can come to mean conforming the teachings of the Church to the practices of the world.
The German theologian Romano Guardini once explained beautifully what is at the heart of appropriate Christian inculturation: “What can convince modern people is not a historical or a psychological or a continually ever-modernising Christianity, but only the unrestricted and uninterrupted message of revelation". In the long run it will probably be the early generations of locally born priests and religious (like the migrant communities in Sydney), who, guided by Guardini's insight and building on the pioneering cultural work of some missionaries, will do most to preserve the best local traditions and customs for the future, and incorporate them into their theological writings. They will be able to challenge their local communities to reach out and embrace the highest Christian ideals of faith, family and community and help them combat the neo-pagan vices propagated by modernity, which will work to revive the ancient weaknesses associated with alcoholism and polygamy. Inculturation is also a long-term challenge in Australia, where the prevailing agnosticism and incipient anti-Christianity of many among the elite are disproportionately powerful in the media.
A related issue is interreligious dialogue, which occurs at different levels throughout the region (EO §25), but which in some places is a community necessity. This necessity has taken on a w ole new dimension globally, of course, since the attacks on Washington and New York on 11 September 2001, and regionally since the Bali bombing of 12 October 2002. Sydney has a large Muslim community and Christian-Muslim dialogue has commenced in a variety of ways, which has limited, low-key goals and are centred on social questions and above all, the need to maintain and deepen local peace and harmony. This builds on the existing regular social contact between Muslim and Christian leade1s and groups. Parallel opportunities for dialogue with the Hindus exist in Fiji, where significant racial tensions continue between local Fijians and the Indian communities who have been there for generations.
In 2004 the Indonesian government hosted a major conference of religious leaders in Yogjakarta. 123 religious leaders from 13 countries and every major faith attended this joint initiative of the Foreign Ministers of Indonesia and Australia. Next week there will be a second such meeting in Cebu, which I will attend. There was no attempt to deny the differences between the religions in placing an emphasis on what they have in common. In a remarkable speech, the Australian Foreign Minister pointed out that people of faith all believe that mankind is divinely ordered, and should have an enriched understanding of what it is to be human and a developed sense of the sanctity of life. They should be moved to act when human rights are violated, be peacemakers and sway others to mercy and compassion. As a small token of where this common understanding can lead, the Cardinal Archbishop of Jakarta told of how many Muslim youths joined Catholic young people and the police to form a human chain around his Cathedral to protect it successfully from elements trying to put it to the torch. These are important and encouraging developments.
Two of the most significant changes in Australian religious life during the last 30 or 40 years have been the rise in the number of people who say they do not belong to any religious group (most of whom are not ex-Catholics), from around 1 or 2 per cent in the 1960s to 17 per cent in 1996; and the decline in regular worship by Catholics, from 50-60 per cent in 1960 to 18 per cent in 1996. But on the basis of the 2001 census figures, it would appear that this trend has halted, with a decline registered in the numbers of those professing no religion. Between 1991 and 1996, there was a significant rise in the number of people indicating they had no religion. In 1991 just under 13 per cent of the population fell into this category. In 1996 this percentage had risen by 772,000 people to 16.6 per cento Another rise was expected for the 2001 Census, with some commentators expecting the no-religion category to form the second largest grouping after Catholics. But to everyone's surprise this did not happen. The numbers of people indicating they had no religion fell to 15.5 per cent of the population.
Nevertheless, the claims made in 1998 The Statement of Conclusions about the impact on the Church in Australia of the world-wide crisis of faith, stronger in the Western World than in many other places, remain valid. Australians can no longer presume that most people, especially the young and middle aged, will find that belief in the one true God comes easily. Even in Catholic secondary schools teachers regularly have to give reasons and make a case for the existence of God and the divinity of Christ.
While Australians are less religious than Americans (their level of regular worship is almost double ours), Australian society is much less antireligious than the U.S.A., and this remains despite the small indications remarked above of a rise of intolerance among serious secularists in the elites. Most Australians are not atheists. Many more are agnostics, and the Australian temptation is not to crucify Christ but to trivialize Him. Most people do not object to a person having faith, believing in God. Instead God is seen as an optional extra because religion is seen as a matter of taste, a personal preference which answers individual needs. Only rarely is God's existence seen to be an extremely important issue of truth or falsehood. Even rarer is the conviction that our quality of life here and now and our existence after death might be heavily influenced by how we respond to the this question.
Apart from the truths about the existence of God, nothing is as fundamental as the teachings about the nature and person of Jesus Christ, Son of Mary and Son of God, who redeemed and saved us. The statement of conclusions acknowledged that there is "something of a crisis" throughout the world in Christology and that we have not entirely escaped this in Australia. In the early nineties the late Cardinal O'Connor of New York told me that he was sending a young priest for doctoral studies in Christology, because this was fated to become a crucial issue. In this, as in so many other things, Cardinal O'Connor's judgement was right.
There is also a crisis about the whole concept of conscience, and its proper relationship to important teachings on faith and morals. False views of conscience, particularly the view that the individual's conscience has "primacy" over the teachings of the Church, not only cause havoc in the moral life. They have also have an enormous impact on the practice of the faith. Oceania is not alone in the world in seeing a dramatic decline in recourse to the sacrament of penance. If people believe in a conscience against Church teaching, then their consciousness of sin will almost certainly decrease. Awareness of sin exists so that we can be aware of the possibility of forgiveness. The collapse in conscience has not helped to increase in Catholic believers the sense of peace and pardon.
With the decline in Confession we have also seen a decline in the understanding and discipline of the sacrament of the Eucharist. For some people the only requirement for approaching Holy Communion is being present at Mass. In Australia, many Catholics would be surprised by the suggestion, let alone the requirement, that they should be a regular Churchgoer before receiving Communion at, for example, Christmas or a family funeral. As the Sacrament of Penance becomes less visible, there is danger of people misunderstanding the connection between repentance and the sacrament of Holy Communion. For some, the unrepentant sinner is as welcome at the altar as the repentant sinner.
The primacy of conscience doctrine has also had some even deeper effects on Catholic identity. Any religion develops a sense of belonging among its , adherents. Believers know where they are situated within time and space; their lives have meaning because of their beliefs about their origin and their destiny. This is particularly so for Christians. Christianity is historical both in terms of longevity and because we believe God himself entered into history in the Incarnation. Christianity is also perhaps the only truly public religion: it embraces every part of the earth and is compatible with every true culture. Furthermore its philosophy and theology of the beginning, end, and ethics of human life is universally acknowledged as an astonishing achievement. Elevating conscience to moral primacy, however, shatters this sense of belonging. If people believe they should live by their own impulses and tastes declared "true" by conscience, the sense of being part of a sacred society that is world-wide, ancient, and guaranteed by Christ to teach the truth, is greatly weakened.
It is in this context, the context of a widespread crisis of faith in Western society touching even young, vigorous churches, that we must consider the situation of the Church in Oceania. Religious trends are moving in different directions in Oceania, although Catholic communities are now firmly planted everywhere. Isolation still provides some protection against the acid rains of modernity in many traditional societies, but the Church in Australia and New Zealand enjoys no such protection.
Pope John Paul II recast the papacy for the twenty-first century as an evangelical office, the office of a prophet to the Church and the world. In doing this he invited all Catholics to join with the pope in carrying Christ to every corner of the earth. It might be said that the new evangelisation is a matter of life and death for the Church and for the world itself. With God's grace, strong faith and youthful enthusiasm, the Catholic communities of Oceania should be able to travel through the crossroads, enrich one another and build on present strengths to play their own part in this life-saving and life-giving work.
George Cardinal Pell
ARCHBISHOP OF SYDNEY
Card. George Cardinal Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
Ecclesia in Oceania