The last time the Catholic Church in Australia held a Plenary Council was in 1937. It has been more than 80 years since we gathered all of the Church together and much has changed. In 2020, we will have a Plenary Council about the future of the Catholic Church in Australia. What are we called to do? Who are we called to be? How do we need to change?
Pope Francis has spoken of the need to engage in the world and respond in faith. He said:
“The defining aspect of this change of epoch is that things are no longer in their place. Our previous ways of explaining the world and relationships, good and bad, no longer appears to work. The way in which we locate ourselves in history has changed. Things we thought would never happen, or that we never thought we would see, we are experiencing now, and we dare not even imagine the future. That which appeared normal to us – family, the Church, society and the world—will probably no longer seem that way. We cannot simply wait for what we are experiencing to pass, under the illusion that things will return to being how they were before.”
The journey toward the Plenary Council will help us to prepare to listen to God by listening to one another. We invite all people to engage, to be a part of the listening and dialogue encounter in the next two years.
For more general information about the Plenary Council, visit the national Plenary Council website and take time to watch the videos and read about the plenary council process, theology and history. Also, listen to the prayer resources to help tune our hearts to “listen to what the Spirit is saying” (Revelations 2:7).
The Second Assembly of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia
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Opening Mass for the Second Assembly of the 5th Plenary Council of Australia (Sunday, 03 July 2022)
Plenary Council Livestream (Monday, 04 July 2022) - The Second Assembly
Plenary Council Mass (Monday, 04 July 2022) - The Second Assembly
Plenary Council Livestream (Tuesday, 05 July 2022) - The Second Assembly
Plenary Council Mass (Tuesday, 05 July 2022) - The Second Assembly
Plenary Council Livestream (Wednesday, 06 July 2022) - The Second Assembly
Plenary Council Mass (Wednesday, July 6, 2022) - The Second Assembly
Plenary Council Livestream (Thursday, July 7, 2022) - The Second Assembly
Plenary Council Mass (Thursday, July 7, 2022) - The Second Assembly
Plenary Council Mass (Friday, July 8, 2022) - The Second Assembly
Plenary Council Livestream (Friday, July 8, 2022) - The Second Assembly
Closing Mass of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia (Saturday, July 9, 2022) -The Second Assembly
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The Second Assembly of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia takes place from 3–9 July 2022. Masses and sessions will be live-streamed each day (above) and people are invited to send messages of prayer, hope and support to the members gathering in Sydney. Check in with this page for further information, news, and local resources as they are released. Find the live streaming schedule and the portal for sending messages at ACBC Plenary Council website:
From Sunday 3 October to Sunday 10 October 2021, the first General Assembly of the fifth Plenary Council of Australia was held online throughout the country—280 members undertook a process of dialogue focusing on six themes that were developed from the responses of over 220,000 people.
There were six Plenary Council members representing the Diocese of Wollongong: Bishop Brian Mascord, Fr Bernard Gordon, Fr Sean Cullen, Paul Fleming, Erin Gillard and Dr Jodi Steel. You can watch interviews with the three lay members of Plenary Council from the diocese that were recorded in the lead up to the first General Assembly.
Key moments during the first General Assembly of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia were livestreamed and broadcast daily, including: daily Masses, morning prayer for Plenary Council members, and sharing of the fruits of discernment sessions.
You can watch all the plenary council livestreams and broadcasts below.
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Assembly 1 - Plenary Week Wrap
The First Assembly of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia - Closing Mass
Closing Address
Session 14 - Morning Plenary, Opening Prayer
Session 14 - Morning Plenary, Acknowledgement of Country
Plenary Council Livestream – Saturday, October 9, 2021
Plenary Council Mass – Saturday, October 9, 2021
Session 11 - Morning Plenary, Opening Prayer
Session 11 - Morning Plenary, Acknowledgement of Country
Plenary Council Livestream – Friday, October 8, 2021
Plenary Council Mass – Friday, October 8, 2021
Plenary Council Mass – Thursday, October 7, 2021
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Diocese of Wollongong Mass during the first General Assembly
Our own diocese was on the national stage at 9:30am on Friday 8 October when Bishop Brian will celebrate Mass from St John Vianney Co-Cathedral in Fairy Meadow for the Church of Australia. You can watch the Mass below:
The Diocese of Wollongong’s Journey Podcast and Radio team, in collaboration with Australian Catholic Bishops Conference produced a daily podcast with interviews from the first General Assembly. You can listen to them at the following link:
The diocesan Office for Renewal and Evangelisation has produced some local resources for parishes, schools and other communities to help them engage in the process. Additional resources will be created during the process and made available on this page. See below for resources already released.
Bishop’s pastoral letter
On Thursday 26 July 2018, Bishop Brian Mascord issued a pastoral letter outlining the process and timeline for the diocese’s engagement with the Plenary Council.
In preparation for the Plenary Council—and suitable for Easter Season, Ascension, Pentecost and Confirmation—diocesan liturgy coordinator and composer, Mr Paul Mason, has written a diocesan song for the Plenary Council titled, “The Power of the Spirit”.
The pack includes:
The Power of the Spirit (O Come, Holy Spirit, Come!) Complete (MP3)
The Power of the Spirit (O Come, Holy Spirit, Come!) Entrance version (MP3)
The Power of the Spirit (O Come, Holy Spirit, Come!) Final version (MP3)
The Power of the Spirit (O Come, Holy Spirit, Come!) Sheet Music (PDF)
A parishioner has created a visual presentation of the song with sheet music for communities to use on their presentation screens:
Service Agreement
Definitions
Account means the account held at your financial institution from which we are authorised to arrange for funds to be debited.
Agreement means this Direct Debit Request Service Agreement between you and us, including the direct debit request.
Business day means a day other than a Saturday or a Sunday or a listed public holiday.
Debit day means the day that payment is due.
Debit payment means a particular transaction where a debit is made, according to your direct debit request.
Direct debit request means the Direct Debit Request between us and you.
Us and we and our means the Catholic Development Fund.
You means the customer(s) who signed the direct debit request. Your financial institution is the financial institution where you hold the account that you have authorised us to arrange to debit.
Debiting your account
By submitting a direct debit request, you have authorised us to arrange for funds to be debited from your account according to the agreement we have with you.
We will only arrange for funds to be debited from your account:
As authorised in the direct debit request; if the debit day falls on a day that is not a business day, we may direct your financial institution to debit your account on the following or previous business day. If you are unsure about which day your account has or will be debited, please check with your financial
Changes by you
If you wish to stop or defer a debit payment you must write to us at least 5 business days before the next debit day.
This notice should be given to us in the first instance.
Your obligations
It is your responsibility to ensure that there are sufficient clear funds available in your account to allow a debit payment to be made.
If there are insufficient clear funds available in your account to meet a debit payment:
you or your account may be charged a fee and/or interest by your financial institution;
you or your account may be charged a fee to reimburse us for charges we have incurred for the failed transaction;
you must arrange for the payment to be made by another method
Please check your account statement to verify that the amounts debited from your account are correct.
Dispute
If you believe that there has been an error in debiting your account you should call us on 1800 047 703 and confirm the details in writing with us as soon as possible so that we can resolve your query quickly.
Accounts
You should check:
with your financial institution whether direct debiting is available from your accounts offered by financial
your account details which you have provided to us are correct by checking them against a recent account statement; and
with your financial institution before completing the direct debit request if you have any queries about how to complete the direct debit
Warning: if the account number you have quoted is incorrect, you may be charged a fee to reimburse our costs in correcting any deductions from:
an account you do not have authority to operate; or
an account you do not
Confidentiality
We will keep any information (including your account details) in your direct debit request confidential.
We will make reasonable efforts to keep any such information that we have about you secure and to ensure that any of our employees or agents who have access to information about you, do not make any unauthorised use, modification, reproduction or disclosure of that information.
However, we may use your contact details to provide information about the fund. Should you wish this not to be the case, please advise the fund in writing.
Our diocesan logo is theologically rich and very succinct. As a hand, it depicts our mission as a diocese and as individuals within the diocese, of bearing (bringing, carrying) Christ’s love to one another and to the world around us. In this, we are the hand of Jesus Christ, and we are offering ourselves to him so that he might work through us.
We can be the bearers of his love only as a response to his call and in the strength of his grace. We are reminded of this in two ways—through the symbol of the dove (the Holy Spirit) also present in the logo, and by the incorporation of the cross that segments the logo. The presence of the cross is a reminder that bearing the love of Christ will inevitably cost us if we live it authentically. However, in the way that the Cross is the portent of redemption and life—an echo of the tree of life in the book of Genesis—so becoming bearers of the love of Christ will also bring us to life.
The four fingers of the hand also represent the four regions of our diocese. The first is bluerepresenting the beautiful water of the Shoalhaven. The second is a blue and green combination representing the waters and escarpment of the Illawarra. The third is greendepicting the hills and plains of the Macarthur. The fourth is dark green illustrating the forests of the Southern Highlands.
