Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Auckland (Fides Service) - The Bishops of New Zealand are grateful to the Pope and his collaborators in the curia for their encouragement and concern. Although the Church in New Zealand is small it is fully committed to witnessing to the faith in an increasingly secularised society. Its main concerns are pastoral vocation and education in Catholic schools. Bishop Patrick Dunn, now back in Auckland after a whirlwind ad limina visit in Rome, kindly told Fides a little bit about his ministry.
“The ad limina visit for us NZ Bishops was a happy time to be together for a week in Rome. The last time we were here was in 1998 for the Synod for Oceania. We were fortunate in that the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific [CEPAC] were also making their Ad Limina visit at the same time, and like ourselves were staying at Casa Santa Martha. Because we are separated from one another by such vast distances [the Diocese of the Cook Islands, for example, covers an area of the Pacific which is larger than Europe], we always appreciate the chance to meet together. It also meant that we could go together for Mass at the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul.
“The highlight of every Ad Limina Visit is undoubtedly the meeting with the Holy Father himself. We greatly appreciated his message to us, which highlighted key concerns, which we had shared with him - issues concerning the secular nature of our society in NZ, concerns about legal protection for marriage, and our need for more priestly vocations.
“However we also spoke about the success of our Catholic School system [which cannot accommodate all who wish to attend], the growing influence of the Church in public life in New Zealand, and the new life, which successive waves of immigrants are bringing to our parishes.
We realise that numerically, the Church in NZ is relatively small in global terms, with fewer than 500,000 Catholics. However we found the officials of the various Vatican congregations very courteous and concerned to assist in whatever way they could. One key fruit from meeting with curial officials is the opportunity simply to meet in person. It is always easier to write, if the occasion arises, to someone whom one has met personally. But one additional concern we have is to see the English translation of the Mass revised and improved as quickly as possible. This work has been going on for years, but the process is so tortuous that we still have little idea of when such a translation may be completed or approved. What I need more than anything else is an increase in the number of my seminarians. At present my diocese has 9, but I would feel more comfortable if I had at least 20 to help replace a generation of wonderful pastors who are now approaching their 70s, and reaching retirement age. I want my seminarians also to reflect the ethnic diversity of the diocese. Our Sunday congregations are very multi-cultural, but most seminarians tend still to be European. However I am sure that this will happen naturally in the next few years.” (PA) (Agenzia Fides 4/10/2004 lines 40 words 553)
