Mary In God's Plan Of Salvation

[cappie]

To promote the faith in society, Catholics must be "very good" at presenting Church teachings without alienating others, MP Tony Abbott said at the National Deacons' Conference. Bishop Michael Malone meanwhile, hailed the diaconate as a good response to ministry challenges the Church faces.

"We've just got to be very good at our job," Mr Abbott said, according to a statement by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

"We have to be very good at expounding the Church's teachings but not in ways that make them alienating. If we do all that, we will be a force for the progress of the Church rather than a force for regress."

"Living your principles without alienating those who don't share them is the challenge we all face."

More than 50 Permanent Deacons and their wives gathered in the Diocese of Broken Bay for the conference that ended on Sunday.

The Chairman of the Bishops Commission for Church Life, Bishop Michael Malone, said there was diversity and a variety of models of the Permanent Diaconate in Australia and paid tribute to the role of the wives of permanent deacons.

"For 40 years now deacons across Australia have been 'working out' what the ministry of the deacon really is. In the light of the lived experience there seems to be a greater appreciation of the richness of the ministry. While I have the highest regard for the ministry of the deacon, I venture to say that the wives of our married deacons have had a large part to play in the appreciation of the lived experience."

He blamed ignorance for the pockets of resistance to the resurgence of the Permanent Diaconate.

In a climate of "loss of credibility, an exodus of people from the pews, rapidly ageing congregations, lack of vocations ...and so on," the Permanent Diaconate was well placed to play a crucial role in building on the signs of new life being sent by the Holy Spirit.

"The relative youthfulness of the Permanent Diaconate places this ministry firmly in the forefront of that rebuilding process," he said. "Because of the challenging richness of the lived experience and of future possibility, the Permanent Diaconate is limited only by our inability to dust off the past and reveal its full potential."

[Hidden One]

*scratches head*

I think the topic title is, um, wrong.