PASTORAL LETTER ON THE FUTURE OF THE DIOCESE

FROM THE ARCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER

(Read at all parishes on 29.5.05)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ. Dear friends,

The events of the last few months have been unique. Pope John Paul II's final days, in which he showed us what it means to die with grit and grace, had an unprecedented impact upon the whole world. The media held a kind of global vigil, and we witnessed the Church Universal constantly before our eyes. About a third of the world's population watched his funeral in Rome, and as you know, the election of Pope Benedict seemed to be the only story the world was interested in. It may be too soon to judge the fruits of it all. But it was clear that millions of people, Christian or not, believers or unbelievers, recognised in those events something of crucial importance for our world. No wonder that at his inauguration, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of how "the Church is alive." He said: "The Church is young. She holds within herself the future of the world and therefore shows each of us the way towards the future."

We must wait and see what the new Holy Father will call us to be and to do, what the defining marks of his papacy will be. But you can be sure that he will summon us to be more faithful to what we know and what we believe, and to bring the Light of Christ ever more clearly into the world.

In his Apostolic Letter, At the beginning of the New Millennium, Pope John Paul II urged bishops, priests and people to undertake new pastoral initiatives based on the Gospel and on the living tradition of the Church. He urged bishops, in their dioceses, "with the help of all sectors of God's people, confidently to plan the stages of the journey ahead."

It was with these words ringing in my ears that I called the Diocese to a spiritual and pastoral renewal in response to Our Lord's invitation to "launch out into the deep." Many of you have been involved in the At Your Word, Lord programme, meeting in small communities. About 20,000 Catholics throughout the Diocese have been part of those groups, and the fruits are evident. Many of you are calling for greater formation in faith, and to be equipped for ministries. As At Your Word, Lord draws to a close at the end of this year, I am aware of the need now to build on its fruits, to help you fulfil the call many of you are hearing to a more active involvement in the life of the Church, and to illuminate the next stage of our journey.

Some time ago I asked a small team of priests and lay people to consult you, the People of God in Westminster, about our future, as John Paul II in his Apostolic Letter also asked us to. I wanted to ask you to consider some of the challenges and opportunities facing our Church here in Westminster, and how they can be met, in order to assist me in planning for our future.

Your response to this consultation has been characteristically generous. More than two-thirds of parishes gave responses following what were obviously important discussions. This weekend [i.e. 29/5/05], the synopsis of all that has been said over the last eighteen months is published, in what we are calling the Green Paper. The full report is available for anyone who wants to read it, and there is a four-page newspaper for you to pick up which summarises the main points.

I want to thank you for the time and care you have taken, and to assure you that I will reflect carefully on the Green Paper in the next few months. It is clear from your responses that you are all aware of the vital role played by the priest in your parish communities, and the need to adjust now to the very real possibility of there being fewer priests in the years to come.

I would like to highlight two things. Firstly, we must continue to pray and encourage priestly vocations in the parishes and communities of the Diocese; there is no reason to lose confidence in the Lord who desires to send labourers into His harvest. Secondly, it is desirable and advantageous in itself that the Church encourage the development of all the baptised. In other words, the reorganisation and development of the Diocese should not be undertaken just because there may be fewer priests in the years to come. It should promote a more active and committed apostolate of lay people to assume new tasks and responsibilities in the mission of the Church, because this is the call of the Holy Spirit at this time. A more active laity should be promoted alongside vocations to the priesthood, which are essential for the life of the Church. Both need a new emphasis, and are mutually complementary. Both will be the fruit of a Church newly geared to mission.

Dear friends, we have in the Diocese at this time a grace-filled opportunity to embrace the gifts of each baptised person, and to encourage each person in our Diocese to grow in personal holiness and in the service of the mission of Christ to preach the Gospel. This is what it means to build our house on rock - to order our lives so that we depend on the Holy Spirit, and not on our own strengths. I am hopeful that my plan, when it is published early next year [2006], will help us to arrange the gifts of all the baptised for the building up of the Church.

The consultation remains open. I would encourage you, in the ways set forth in the third part of the report, to get together with others in your communities and to respond. I am keen to hear these reactions before I give my own response in a definitive way in the White Paper which will be published at the end of the year.

Pope Benedict said at his inaugural Mass that his "real programme of governance is not to do my own will, not to pursue my own ideas; but to listen, together with the whole Church, to the word and the will of the Lord." That is my own programme, too. This is why I asked for you to be consulted, and it is why I am delighted that so many of you have joined in this discernment of God's will for our Diocese on the next stage of our journey together. I am confident that what emerges from this will show, unmistakably, not only that the Church in Westminster is alive, but that it has a clear sense of how to grow. May God bless you all.

Yours devotedly in Christ

† Cormac Murphy O'Connor

Archbishop of Westminster

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