The Ascension of the Lord
Acts 1:1-11; Eph 1:17-23; Lk 24:46-53

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
12 May 2013

Today is unusual not merely because Ascension Thursday, forty days after the Lord’s resurrection, is celebrated on this Sunday before the feast of Pentecost, but also because it is the only occasion when we have two excerpts from Luke, from the Acts of the Apostles, which he also wrote and from his Gospel. We are all well aware that in this year the cycle of gospel readings is taken predominantly from Luke, although we have not had Lucan gospel texts for a few weeks.

Luke’s gospel is written in the best Greek in the New Testament according to the experts. Luke was a Gentile not a Jew, probably an early Christian convert and physician from Antioch, with Greek as his first language. Greek was then the common language all around the Eastern Mediterranean just as English is now used in Asia and Africa, where there are many local tongues. As well as giving us this information St. Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin in the fourth century also told us Luke was a follower of St. Paul, the great missionary apostle and companion on Paul’s journeys.

Legend describes Luke as a portrait painter, especially of Our Lady and the Christ Child. The portrait we know and venerate as Our Lady of Perpetual Help, which is found in the Redemptorist Church in Rome was one such ascribed to St. Luke in my youth in country Victoria. Alas, this painting comes from the 11th – 12th century and Our Lady is dressed as a Byzantine noblewoman from the Eastern part of the Roman Empire which continued until 1453 in Constantinople, about one thousand years after the Roman Empire collapsed in Western Europe. Continue reading →

Media Release 13 February, 2013

President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference Archbishop Denis Hart today received a letter from Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops, regarding the future of the Diocese of Wilcannia-Forbes.

The Congregation has been considering various proposals relating to the Diocese including the possibility that some parishes might be attached to other neighbouring Dioceses.

The Congregation has recommended that the Diocese of Wilcannia-Forbes continue as a Diocese, and has advised that a Bishop will be appointed in due course. Continue reading →

Dear Brothers and Sisters

This time of year brings about a change of pace in the day to day pattern of our lives.  Schools are on holidays, there are work functions and many families look to a respite as they prepare for a break.  For those who have lost a loved one during the year, this Christmas will have moments of sadness.  Financial stress is a reality as many struggle to make ends meet.  We should remember these people and encourage and support them.  Continue reading →

This Christmas Message from Archbishop Costelloe was first published in the Record.

In the Christmas story, when the angels appear to the shepherds to tell them of the birth of Christ the angel’s first words are “do not be afraid” (Luke 2:10). They are the same words with which the angel Gabriel greets Mary when he tells her of God’s plan that she should be the mother of the messiah (Luke 1:30).

As Mary’s child grows up and begins his life’s work, he too will say these words many times. When his disciples are caught in a dangerous storm out on the lake he comes to them through the raging wind and waves, walking across the waters, and encouraging them not to be afraid (Matthew 14:27). When he realizes how insecure and unimportant people feel, he reminds them that because God knows and loves them they have no need to be afraid (Matthew 10:31). And when he encounters the women at the empty tomb after his rising from the dead he says also to them, “Do not be afraid” (Matthew 28:10). Continue reading →

Christmas is over too quickly. We spend days shopping, then exchange gifts, eat and drink before watching the Boxing Day Test or shop for a bargain or head to the coast or do whatever. Enjoyable, but is that it?

To get perspective on the significance of Christmas, the Church bookends it with 4 weeks of Advent, followed by the 2 weeks of the Christmas Season. While we are watching the cricket, the Church commemorates the Martyrdom of St Stephen (26 December) and then the Slaughter of the Holy Innocents (28 December), sobering counterpoints to an overly sentimentalised and commercialised understanding of Christmas. The baby grows up. The light of Christmas foreshadows the transformation from death to life at Easter.

To engage with Christmas, I encourage you to go to the nativity scene in quiet wonder. Reclaim your lost innocence in the eyes of a baby, so powerless and yet so engaging. The eyes of that baby smile on all of us and on Calvary they will look on both a good and a bad thief. This baby will confound, comfort and challenge and be rejected as too good to be true as he reconciles that which still divides us – life and death, light and dark, heaven and earth, victim and perpetrator, the refugee and the citizen, partisan politicians and the common good, the sick and the healthy, the rich and the unemployed, the loved and the lonely, all of us. Christmas is God’s proclamation that God is with us and loves us not because of who we are or what we do but because God love us. To claim our dignity in Christ and to afford others theirs is to be formed in a healthy community. To deny that dignity through child sexual abuse or any act of unmitigated violence such as the recent shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, does not invalidate the message of Christmas but it does call for a more engaging witness to it in truth and love. One hopes that our Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse and the call for gun law reform in the US will enhance the dignity of all.

Continue reading →

At Christmas, in the person of Jesus, God comes to us.  We not only recall an event two thousand years ago, which changed the course of human history and linked God and human beings in an embrace of love, every Christmas we know God is near.  Jesus was born in a humble stable into a poor family.  Simple shepherds were the first witnesses to this event.  In this poverty heaven’s glory was shown to human beings.

Many families this Christmas are facing an uncertain financial future.  Some are concerned about care for their children, caring for those who are sick, adequate schooling to prepare them for the modern world.

God’s coming emphasises the dignity of each human being from conception to natural death.  God’s coming is an act of love reminding each of us that no matter what may be the challenges we face we are loved and valued.

All of us, old or young, can learn to value the people that surround us, respect their different points of view and learn that greater peace and happiness comes from giving of our time to others rather than indulging ourselves in food, drink and pleasure. Continue reading →

Finishing his tour of Australia in Canberra, American priest Fr Robert Barron presented to a huge crowd at Guinness and God on Tuesday night, an event akin to Spirituality in the Pub which draws young people from across the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn. Continue reading →

This is Archbishop Timothy Costelloe’s Homily which he gave at his Installation as Archbishop of Perth on 21 March, 2012 at St Mary’s Cathedral in Perth.

Liturgical Reception and Solemn Mass – Homily

A few moments ago Archbishop Hickey and Archbishop Lazzarotto led me to the Bishop’s chair, the Cathedra, from where I will preside as the Archbishop of Perth. In doing so Archbishop Hickey is representing not just the Archdiocese of Perth or the Church in Western Australia but, in a very real sense, the whole Church found in virtually every part of our great land. Archbishop Lazzarotto, the Apostolic Nuncio, represents the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, and for that reason he represents the universal Church spread throughout the whole world. Tonight we are celebrating the fact that we are members of this One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. In a powerful way we are both expressing and experiencing our belonging to the Church which we love so much. Continue reading →