Installation of the third bishop of Broken Bay
Most Rev Peter A Comensoli Commemorative Edition
BROKENBAYnews
BROKEN BAY NEWS PUBLICATION OF THE CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF BROKEN BAY JANUARY 2015 ISSUE 173
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Liturgical Reception and Solemn Mass of Installation of the Third Bishop of Broken Bay
The Most Reverend Peter A Comensoli Mass of Our Lady of Guadalupe Friday 12 December 2014, 11.00am
Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral, Waitara Principal Celebrant: Most Rev Peter A Comensoli
In the presence of: His Excellency, Most Rev Paul Gallagher Apostolic Nuncio to Australia
Concelebrants: Most Rev Denis Hart President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference Most Rev Anthony Fisher OP Metropolitan Archbishop of Sydney Bishop Emeritus David Walker Archbishops and Bishops of Australia and overseas Priests of the Diocese of Broken Bay and of other dioceses and religious organisations
Deacons: Deacons of the Diocese of Broken Bay and of other dioceses
Master of Ceremonies: Very Rev Robert Borg Rev Brian Moloney
Director of Music: Noel Debien
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OFFICIAL PHOTOS BY ANDREW FISHER PHOTOGRAPHER
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I hope I will be a good shepherd for you, after the heart of Jesus…. The Most Reverend Peter A Comensoli became the third Bishop of Broken Bay during a Solemn Mass of Installation at Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral, Waitara on 12 December 2014.
“O
n this feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, for who I have had a special devotion, I entrust my ministry and our Diocese to the loving protection of St Mary, Star of the Sea, our sure light leading us to Christ,” Bishop Comensoli said. “What exciting times lie before us as we together proclaim Christ crucified to the people of the Central Coast, the northern Peninsula and the North Shore,” he added. Dean of the Cathedral, the Very Reverend Robert Borg and the Cathedral Clergy welcomed Bishop Comensoli. Indigenous Elder Uncle Neil Evers said the Welcome to Country and Director of Music, Noel Debien, led the Cathedral choir. The liturgy was concelebrated by President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Archbishop Denis Hart; Metropolitan Archbishop of Sydney, Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP and Emeritus Bishop of Broken Bay David Walker. Apostolic Nuncio to Australia, Archbishop Paul Gallagher read the Papal Bull in Latin and Chancellor of the Diocese, Anne Walker, read an English translation of the Bull. Archbishop Gallagher and Archbishop Fisher escorted Bishop Comensoli to the cathedra, his Chair of Office as Bishop of Broken Bay.
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During the Installation ceremony, Bishop Comensoli was congratulated by bishops from Australia and overseas, priests of the Diocese, religious and civic leaders, representatives from diocesan agencies, parishes and schools. In his homily, Bishop Comensoli spoke about Juan Diego, a local indigenous Indian, who came across the Blessed Virgin Mary in early December 1531 at the Hill of Tepeyac, near Mexico City. Speaking about evangelisation, Bishop Comensoli said ‘evangelising is nothing more – or less – than me telling someone the story of the value and significance of my friendship with Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour’. The new Bishop of Broken Bay said parish life is a vital and essential dimension to every
diocese. ‘May I suggest that our faith communities are really local neighbourhoods of grace. We may have 26 parishes in our Diocese, but we actually have some 43 or so local neighbourhoods of grace, places where God’s people gather as a family of families.’ As a young diocese, Bishop Comensoli said, ‘it is you young people who are our particularly refreshing streams of grace. We need your vitality, hope and energy flowing into our diocesan river to replenish us. It is you young people who will courageously take up the challenge, now and into the future, to respond generously to Christ in whatever your call will be’. Prayers of intercession were recited in Italian, Tongan, Korean, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Tagalog and Malayalam.
In his words of thanks, the new Bishop of Broken Bay expressed his gratitude to ‘our soon departing Nuncio, Archbishop Paul Gallagher’, to Bishop David Walker, ‘whom I humbly follow as Bishop of Broken Bay’ and Fr Vince Casey, ‘who has so capably administered our Diocese over the past year’. ‘I hope I will be a good shepherd for you, after the heart of Jesus; the gift of your ongoing prayer will greatly aid me in this regard,’ Bishop Comensoli concluded. A reception took place after Mass at The Light of Christ Centre, Waitara. The coat of arms of Bishop Comensoli is a quotation from the Apostle Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor 1.23), translated as ‘We proclaim a crucified Christ’.
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Building our Neighbourhoods of Grace Bishop Peter’s Homily – Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe On a morning in early December 1531, at the Hill of Tepeyac, near Mexico City, Juan Diego, a local indigenous Indian, came across a young woman.
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peaking to him in his native tongue, the woman asked that a church be built there in her honour. Even though Juan Diego was a recent convert to the Christian faith, he immediately recognised this young woman: it was the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mary appeared to Juan Diego only a few times, culminating in the healing of his dying uncle and the appearance of her image on his peasant’s cloak or ‘tilma’. She identified herself as the Mother of the True God, and let Juan know of her compassionate presence among his own people, telling him: “Am I not here, I who am your Mother?” Yet, there is one crucial thing that Mary did not do at Tepeyac: she did not appear to the city authorities, nor the important dignitaries, nor even to the bishop! Instead, our Lady of Guadalupe, as she became known, visited a simple family man, from a local indigenous neighbourhood, living among his own people. This event marks the true beginning of Christian evangelisation in the Americas: not as something imposed by a foreign culture, but as someone who could speak to people in their language, understand their culture, and thereby illumine their lives. Through Mary, Jesus first made his home among the indigenous people of Mexico, bringing to their local communities a reason for hope in their radically unfamiliar New World. At St Juan’s canonisation, Pope St John Paul II declared: “Guadalupe and
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Juan Diego are a model of perfectly inculturated evangelisation.” Our Blessed Mother seems to have learnt this little evangelising strategy from God himself. After all, the visit from the angel Gabriel to her family home in Nazareth, where she was preparing for her marriage to Joseph, was a most remarkable moment. Beyond all expectations, a young girl, entirely insignificant by worldly standards, from an unremarkable town, ends up being central to the most pivotal event in human history. How unsurprising that Gabriel had to begin by reassuring Mary: Don’t be afraid! Through his angel, God came to Mary in this great act of evangelisation. And it has been God’s way ever since. Jesus still says: I am standing at your door, knocking; will you open the door and welcome me? At its heart, ‘evangelisation’ is a big, complicated word for a small, simple thing. To evangelise is simply to tell someone something good. In our Christian context, evangelising is nothing more – or less – than me telling someone the story of the value and significance of my friendship with Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. Another word for it is ‘proclamation’. Hence, St Paul’s pithy definition: “we proclaim a crucified Christ” (1Cor1.23), foolishness to some and a scandal to others, but for us who believe in this Good News, the telling of it comes with the power and strength of God.
The elements that shape true evangelisation are equally uncomplicated: a simple message of mercy, forgiveness and trust, told to ordinary persons in search of faith, hope and love, in a way that fits in with their circumstances. Good evangelisation is domestic, not institutional; it is family oriented. God was not acting on a whim when the Annunciation took place at the door of Mary’s home. The individual, the family, the local neighbourhood: these are the best settings for effectively proclaiming the Good News about Jesus Christ. Families personalise our humanity, and evangelisation is always personal. The domestic Church – and the school of the family – is the original, and still the best place to learn about the gifts the Church has to offer to the world and to our culture. I am always someone in my family, even as the world will tend to treat me as a mere something. Within a family we are loved unconditionally for who we are rather than what we can do. So in a culture where mum, dad and the kids are under real pressure to conform to socially re-constructed arrangements, my hope is that you will join with me in sharing with our neighbours the reason for the hope we have in protecting and nurturing marriage and family life. The incarnation of Christ – God becoming one of us – will always find its deepest roots in the local situation. Jesus lived at a particular time, he walked on specific lands, he encountered actual people, he died and rose at a precise moment in history. Our incarnate God likes to do things personally. This is why parish life is such a vital and essential dimension to every diocese. A parish is a family of families, giving shape and flesh to the presence of Christ in a local place. That’s why a bishop’s shepherding ministry only makes sense when there are local faith pastures where God’s people are in need of nourishment and care. We colloquially refer to our parishes as ‘congregations’. I do it myself
often enough. But really, this is a rather uninspiring name for such a noble thing. So, may I suggest a different name? May I suggest that our faith communities are really local ‘neighbourhoods of grace.’ We may have 26 parishes in our Diocese, but we actually have some 43 or so local neighbourhoods of grace, places where God’s people gather as a family of families. Here is where the streams of grace are constantly flowing: streams of Word and Sacrament, streams of teaching and learning; streams of mercy and healing; streams of faith, hope and love. For sure, our parishes can be a bit messy, unplanned and even frustrating at times, but they are alive with God’s Holy Spirit. They are our home. Our beloved Pope Francis has a great way of describing these neighbourhoods: “The parish is the presence of the Church in a given territory, an environment for hearing God’s word, for growth in the Christian life, for dialogue, proclamation, charitable outreach, worship and celebration. In all its activities the parish encourages and trains its members to be evangelisers.” (EG.28) And just to make the point more pointed, he adds: “This presumes that a parish really is in contact with the homes and the lives of its people.” Three cheers for Pope Francis, I say! Each of us has a unique and essential place in the life of our
COMMEMORATIVE EDITION diocese. One of the really great transformations in the life of the Church in recent decades has been the remarkable growth in the discipleship of the laity. You are truly springs of faith, tributaries flowing into the great river of God’s grace. Thanks be to God for this marvelous and timely gift to the Church in her journey through this third Christian millennium! Of course, a tributary can generate a bit of turbulence in an otherwise wide-flowing river. But a little turbulence can be a good thing, helping us to avoid becoming isolated and stagnant in our own little billabongs. That’s why we all have a role to play in building up our missionary capacities. Being mission-oriented is not something that requires grand plans or directives from above. Becoming missionary best happens locally, among fellow disciples, who have a heart to go out to others with a message of Christian hope. The great thing about becoming missionary is that it actually doesn’t matter if I have been assigned some particular ministry in the Church; Jesus didn’t first work out who was going to do what before he sent out his disciples to proclaim the Good News. It’s a bit hard getting out to the peripheries of our society and culture with the healing gift of Christ if we’re stuck trying to work out who gets to do what. The 2nd Vatican Council taught us that: “the pilgrim Church is missionary by its very nature.” (AG.2). What will help us become mission-oriented is if we arm ourselves
with simple strategies of Christian prayer and formation, a bit of energy for the Gospel, and that basic virtue of joy. (The days of the sourpuss Christian are over!) Learning our Christian faith; sharing the life of Jesus; supporting one another in our joys and hopes, our griefs and sorrows. That’s what a disciple of Christ looks like. It’s all about the mission, folks! As we all become more familiar with our missionary calling, may I also offer an encouraging word for those other great tributaries of grace constantly flowing into our river of faith: the priesthood and consecrated life. Our priests and deacons, our religious and consecrated women and men are like the great channels of the Church, through which God pumps his life-giving waters. That is why, in these shameful and humbling times for the Church in Australia, where some priests, religious, and Church leaders have failed you terribly, especially our young ones, it is all the more urgent that our faithful priests, deacons, and consecrated women and men know of our common task to encourage, support, safe-guard, admonish, serve, and above all love one another. To my new brother priests who have been working faithfully in the vineyard of the Lord here in Broken Bay, may I thank you for your deep faith, great hope and compassionate love in serving the Lord and his people. I have much to learn from you, my co-workers, and I look forward
to growing together in trust and mutual good will. Our diocesan family needs our priests; our local neighbourhoods of grace need their pastors. It is only with both priest and people that a parish family can blossom. As your Bishop I am responsible for providing you with faithful priests. I have heard it said that all the Church needs is an adequate number of priests to provide the sacramental basics, and others can do the rest. I’m not one of those voices. As with married couples and consecrated women and men, priests are a gift from God for the good of his Church. So, I say: the more the merrier! Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a priest for every neighbourhood of grace, and a priest from every neighbourhood of grace? Therefore, I want to say to all of you, but especially to the young men of our Diocese: the vocational doors are open for business! If you are – or know of – a young man keen on his faith, a good human being happy in his own skin, and ready to give the priesthood a go, then I want to hear from you. Of course, there are only two ways of getting vocations: be one or breed one. So, there are tasks in this for everyone – you are co-responsible with me in this adventure. In a unique way, I think the women of our Church have a powerful role to play as vocational ‘match-makers’ because God has given you a gift of nurturing our young ones towards their calling in life.
As a young diocese, it is you young people who are our particularly refreshing streams of grace. We need your vitality, hope and energy flowing into our diocesan river to replenish us. It is you young people who will courageously take up the challenge, now and into the future, to respond generously to Christ in whatever your call will be. So, open your doors to Jesus, who is already knocking on your heart, hoping for your response. Get married and have lots of kids if that is your calling. Or become a priest or a religious. Whatever you choose, choose it with God. Trust him; he will not let you down. Let me conclude where I began, on the hill of Tepeyac with our Lady of Guadalupe talking to Juan Diego. In that local neigbourhood of indigenous Indians, Mary spoke their language and revealed herself in their culture. Many decades after her apparition the locals explained the meaning of her image on the Tilma. What they saw reveals just how incarnational God will always be. Around Mary’s waist was a belt positioned in such a way that the local people – and only them – recognised that she was pregnant. Christ was coming to be born in that local community of faith that day in 1531. In the same way Christ is now coming among us, God’s beloved people of the Diocese of Broken Bay. Most Rev Peter A Comensoli Bishop of Broken Bay 12 December 2014
Our Lady of Guadalupe Feast Day, 12 December
The feast in honour of Our Lady of Guadalupe celebrates Mary as the patroness of all the Americas, unborn children and the New Evangelisation. ur Lady of Guadalupe is the instructed Juan Diego to ask the of Our Lady of Guadalupe was title of Mary most commonly Holy Mother for a sign to prove her imprinted on the tilma. The day associated with an iconic image of identity. After first healing Diego’s was 12 December. Over 12 million the Blessed Mother housed in the uncle, Our Lady appeared again, faithful visit the Basilica in which Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe this time instructing her loyal fol- the tilma is housed every year, in Mexico City. The appearance lower to collect flowers from the making it the second most visited of Our Lady to the Aztec Indian top of Tepeyac Hill. Confused, as church in the world, after St Peter’s Juan Diego in December of 1531 it was winter, Diego returned to Basilica in the Vatican. generated the conversion of Mexico the frosty hillside Mary had first “She always leads us to her divine and Latin America to Catholicism. appeared to him. As he climbed Son, who is revealed as the foundaWhen Our Lady asked for a church he spotted Castilian roses and Our tion of the dignity of every human to be built in her honour at the Lady arranged these in Diego’s being, as a love that is stronger than Hill of Tepeyac, near Mexico City, tilma (peasant cloak). When he the powers of evil and death, and the the Spanish Archbishop of Mexico met with Zumárraga, Juan Diego fountain of joy, filial trust, consolation City, Fray Juan de Zumárraga, opened his cloak, the Castilian and hope.” (Homily of His Holiness was unconvinced of the vision and roses fell to the floor, and the image Benedict XVI, 12 Dec 2011)
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Wish, with due acknowledgement of the traditional owners and custodians of the lands ranged by the Diocese and with the special oversight of our Advisory Council,
to Bishop Peter to Broken Bay! We look forward to you walking hand in hand with us in mission, as we walk along side the disadvantaged and the vulnerable, to find and build solutions to their needs; to deliver evidence-based services; and to do so with commitment regardless of the difficulties faced; to live out our Gospel values, serving in justice and love. And we can’t wait to hear more of your ethical and anthropological notions of people living with profound disability! FAMILY CENTRES: Central Coast • Naremburn • Waitara DISABILITY: Northern Sydney • Central Coast EARLY LEARNING & CARE: Forestville • Lake Munmorah • Terrigal • Waitara • Woy Woy (in 2016) OUT OF HOME CARE: Foster Care • Therapeutic Group Care
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Being with God’s people is a defining aspect of my life as a priest and as a bishop….
By Debra Vermeer
Once an accomplished musician in his youth, a life-long Manly Sea-Eagles fan, and a moral theologian who enjoys a dip in the surf, Bishop Peter Comensoli says he just plans to be himself as he embarks on his journey as the Bishop of Broken Bay, with no other agenda than to grow in grace and to help others do the same.
“I
want to be a good bishop after the heart of the Jesus,” he says. “And for that, I will need Jesus himself, and I will need the prayers of everyone else as well. “In fact, it occurred to me just recently that I am now being prayed for by name during every Mass in the Diocese, and that is both an extremely comforting thing, but to some extent, at least at first, an odd feeling. It’s a reminder to make sure I’m doing my service in the best way I can. “I want to be a good bishop, and, of course, I’ll be me. I’ll be the person that I am, and that’s going to come with all its blessings, and weaknesses, sinfulness and graces.” Bishop Peter says his personal and faith formation began in his Catholic family. He was born in Bulli, in the Illawarra district on 25 March, 1964, the fourth son and youngest child of Mick and Margaret Comensoli. Mick, a steelworker, had arrived in Australia as an immigrant from northern Italy as a young child, while Margaret, a music teacher, was from the Hunter Valley. “We always practised the faith in our family; we went to Catholic schools and I was an altar boy and all of that, but I wouldn’t say we were an overly conspicuously
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religious family. Certainly though, we did go to Sunday Mass and there was always a bit of prayer at home,” he says. Bishop Peter undertook his schooling with the Good Samaritan Sisters at St John Vianney School, Fairy Meadow and then with the Marist Fathers at St Paul’s College, Bellambi. “One of the constants of my youth was that I was heavily involved with music,” he says. “Even when I was still in primary school, I would be going up to Sydney every weekend for violin lessons and later to play with the Sydney Youth Orchestra. It was a significant part of my upbringing and a significant dimension of life for me.” When he wasn’t playing music, he enjoyed sports, including Rugby League, swimming and surfing. Bishop Peter says he is not sure what led to him becoming a Manly Sea Eagles supporter as a young boy, but it’s a passion that has never left him. “It’s strange, but I think I’ve only ever been to watch a game at Brookvale once in my life, so now that I’m here in Broken Bay I’ll hopefully be able to get to a game every now and then,” he says. Involvement in music also extended to
Bishop Peter’s parish life, where he played in a band from an early age. The other major influence on his religious life at that time was the Antioch youth movement. “I was on the first team for Antioch in the Wollongong Diocese, in about 1983,” he says. “I’ve always said Antioch is not the reason I’m a priest, but it certainly shaped me into the kind of priest I became, with its focus on the vocation of marriage being key to the priesthood and also its strong image about the Body of Christ.” The young Peter first thought of being a priest when he was in Year 10 at school. “But it was just a thought,” he says. “The other big question was whether I would go into music full-time. That was certainly a strong pull towards the end of my schooling. But the idea of priesthood never quite went away. “I didn’t particularly like the thought for a long time. I was more interested in girls and whether that would go anywhere, but the priesthood thought just never went away.” After school, having not scored brilliantly in the HSC, and believing he didn’t have a career as a solo violinist, Bishop Peter worked in a bank while studying part-time for an Economics degree.
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“But the Economics never set my heart on fire and this idea of the priesthood kept hanging around, so I thought I’d better do something about it,” he says. “There was no deeply profound conversion experience, just a continuous experience of the constancy of God and I thought I needed to give it a go, so I could at least get it out of my system and get on with life.” Seminary life was, by and large, enjoyable, but the discovery of Philosophy and Theology was a major turning point in his life. “Suddenly I flourished in terms of intellect and reasoning,” he says. “I’d found something I could get myself into and I discovered I was pretty good at it, so my intellectual life developed from there. “And, gradually, as I got into the theological, liturgical and prayer life of the seminary, the idea of priesthood cemented itself. “It’s not that I couldn’t have seen myself doing anything else with my life; there were always other possibilities. I could have seen myself as married with kids. But this idea of the priesthood just began to cement itself as the right path for me. “And a vocation is like that. The coming to a vocation is a joint effort between God and a person. It takes both sides to come
about. It’s a calling, and a calling needs to be responded to. We work with God. It’s a grace.” Bishop Peter was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Wollongong on May 22, 1992 at the parish church at Fairy Meadow, where he had been baptised, received first Holy Communion and Confirmation. His first appointment was at Unanderra, followed by appointments at the Cathedral parish and as Administrator of Shellharbour parish. In 1997, while in Paris as part of the first Australian diocesan group to go to a World Youth Day, Bishop Philip Wilson asked him to undertake further study in Rome. He was awarded a Licentiate of Sacred Theology from the Academia Alfonsiana in 2000. Upon his return to Australia, Bishop Wilson appointed him as Chancellor of Wollongong Diocese, a position he retained under Bishop Peter Ingham. Further study and an offer to teach theology beckoned, and in 2007 Bishop Peter was awarded a Master of Letters in moral philosophy from the University of St Andrews and a Doctorate of Philosophy in theological ethics from the University of Edinburgh in 2011. He returned to Australia to begin lecturing in moral theology at the Catholic Institute of Sydney, but had only just begun teaching the first semester when he was made an Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney and parish priest of Watson’s Bay parish. “One of the great things about all of these moves is that in all those years I’ve only ever had two years where I haven’t been in a parish, as well as my other duties,” he says. “Being with God’s people is a defining aspect of my life as a priest and as a bishop, and its hard being a pastor of God’s people if you’re not with God’s people in some tangible way. One of the great risks for a bishop is that you can end up seeing the world from the diocesan offices and through the diocesan officers. So, we need to find ways of governing the Diocese, but also finding ways of pastoring, and of not being isolated from God’s people.” When Cardinal George Pell took up his new role at the Vatican, Bishop Peter was made Administrator of the Archdiocese of Sydney, until Bishop Anthony Fisher’s appointment as Archbishop. Shortly after Archbishop Fisher’s installation, Bishop Peter was named as the new Bishop of Broken Bay. Bishop Peter says he has been bowled over by the warm welcome he has received since arriving in the Diocese. “I’ve been receiving lots of messages of welcome and prayers, and that’s been tremendously good,” he says. “I’m doing lots of listening and getting to know the place and already I see great signs of energy and vitality. “For me, it’s all about the mission, and
that means always going out and expanding. I’m not coming in with an agenda, but I do have points of focus I’d like to work on.” These points of focus include supporting and building up marriage and family life; encouraging parish life as neighbourhoods of grace; spending time with young people; and fostering vocations. He says he wants to take 500 young people from Broken Bay to World Youth Day in Kraców in 2016. “If we are going to proclaim Christ, then that’s going to happen in a myriad of different ways,” he says. “My task is the same as every other person’s task, and that is to grow in holiness, and I’m just doing that as a bishop, while others are doing it as married person or single person or religious, or whatever their vocation is. “It’s about asking ‘how do I grow in my relationship with God?’ And as Bishop, my leadership task is how do I help others to do the same by developing strategies that might assist in that. I’m standing on the shoulders of others, but we’re all in this together.”
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Congratulations to Bishop Peter A Comensoli on his appointment as third Bishop of Broken Bay From the Parish Support Unit • Pastoral Planning • Youth & Family Ministries • Liturgy & Sacraments • Outreach Ministries • Faith Formation • Confraternity of Christian Doctrine • Parish Administration
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The Catholic Schools of the Diocese of Broken Bay and the Catholic Schools Office
congratulates Bishop Peter A Comensoli on his appointment as Bishop of Broken Bay
12 December 2014
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First Official Engagements Praise & Worship, Pymble – Stational Masses celebrated at Our Lady Queen of Peace, Normanhurst – St John the Baptist, Woy Woy Peninsula – Hornsby Cathedral – Our Lady of the Rosary, The Entrance – St Joseph’s Narrabeen (The Lakes Catholic Parish) – Youth Mass, Our Lady of Dolours, Chatswood
Praise & Worship – Sacred Heart, Pymble
Our Lady Queen of Peace, Normanhurst
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St John the Baptist, Woy Woy Peninsula
Our Lady of the Rosary, The Entrance
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to
Bishop Peter A. Comensoli
on his appointment as the Bishop of Broken Bay
Broken Bay Institute
www.bbi.catholic.edu.au
The Broken Bay Institute welcomes Bishop Comensoli as a Member of BBI
Most Reverend Dr Peter Andrew Comensoli DD, STL, MLitt, PhD is welcomed as a Member and co-owner of The Broken Bay Institute. He joins Emeritus Bishop David Walker from Broken Bay, Bishop William Wright from Maitland-Newcastle, Bishop Greg Thomson from the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle and four other educational leaders as a BBI Member.
BBI is the leading provider of postgraduate theology programs in Australia, with the largest Master of Theology program in the country. BBI is expanding its Theology programs in 2015 through a number of strategic partnerships.
Adult Faith Online
The Institute provides short, affordable, flexible courses online in Theology and Spirituality. Students learn at their own pace with no assessments. The course coordinator moderates online discussion and provides support.
National Annual eConferences
As the Bishops’ delegate from the Commission for Evangelisation, Bishop Peter will continue to work with BBI on delivering the eConferences, now a key event on the Australian Church’s adult faith education calendar.
Catholic Correspondence Courses
BBI offers correspondence courses on Christian Ethics, Theology, Bible Studies and more, in order to cater to all members of society, especially those in remote communities with little or no internet access.
THE BROKEN BAY INSTITUTE
Leaders in flexible, affordable, online Theological education
www.bbi.catholic.edu.au
theLMent.com
Academic Programs in Theology and Religious Education
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The Lakes Catholic Parish
Our Lady of Dolours, Chatswood
Welcome to Bishop Peter Comensoli as third Bishop of Broken Bay At his Installation Bishop Peter said: “ … priests are a gift from God for the good of his Church. So, I say: the more the merrier! Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a priest for every neighbourhood of grace, and a priest from every neighbourhood of grace? Therefore, I want to say to all of you, but especially to the young men of our Diocese: the vocational doors are open for business! If you are – or know of – a young man keen on his faith, a good human being happy in his own skin, and ready to give the priesthood a go, then I want to hear from you.”
Have you considered a vocation as Priest or Deacon in the Diocese of Broken Bay? Rev Paul Durkin Vocations Director T: 4393 4501 M: 0425 746 749 E: paul.durkin@dbb.catholic.edu.au
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Coat of Arms of Bishop Peter A. Comensoli DD Third Bishop of Broken Bay The Diocese of Broken Bay (Dioecesis Sinus Tortuosi) was erected out of the territory of the Archdiocese of Sydney on 8 April 1986.
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ishop Peter Comensoli is the third Bishop to this Diocese and was preceded by Most Rev Patrick Laurence Murphy (8 April 1986- 9 July 1996) and Most Rev David Louis Walker (9 July 1996 – 11 November 2013). The Coat of Arms of Bishop Peter Comensoli as Bishop of Broken Bay combines, by a heraldic process known as impalement, the Arms of the Diocese of Broken Bay with the personal arms of the Bishop which were assumed on his ordination as a bishop as Auxiliary
of the Archdiocese of Sydney in 2011. The Diocesan arms are displayed in the senior dexter side (to the viewer’s left) with the Bishop’s personal arms on the sinister side (to the viewer’s right). The Diocesan Arms display a lighthouse spreading the light of the gospel over the Diocese. The detail echoes the detail of the Barrenjoey lighthouse which unites the two main land masses that comprise the regions of the Diocese. The surname ‘Comensoli’ originates from the Val Camonica region of northern Italy, from where Bishop Comensoli’s father originated, before his family moved to Australia when he was a young child. The maiden name of Bishop Comensoli’s mother is ‘Kauter’, which originates from Germany. No arms are known to be associated with either name. The arms and motto which Bishop Comensoli has adopted are of a personal character and are blazoned, in the language of heraldry, as follows: Azure, on a Latin cross inverted Or four seven-pointed mullets (or Commonwealth stars) Gules, in the first quarter a lion’s head erased Argent crined and langued Or and in the second a unicorn’s head erased Argent crined and armed Or respectant. In plain English, the arms may be described as follows: On a blue field, a gold cross inverted with a red seven-pointed (or Commonwealth) star at each extremity, in the upper left quarter, a silver lion’s head erased at the neck with gold mane and tongue and in the upper right quarter a silver unicorn’s head erased at the neck with gold mane and horn: The motto ‘Praedicamus Christum Crucifixum’ is a quotation from the Apostle Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians
(1Cor1.23), and can be translated as ‘We proclaim a crucified Christ.’ The inverted Latin Cross symbolises the Bishop’s nominal patron, the Apostle Peter and the stars reflect the Southern Cross, which shines out over the Great South Land of the Holy Spirit. The lion and the unicorn respectively symbolise the mind and the heart of love. The meaning of these symbols, while of medieval provenance, is especially associated with the seminal work on Christian love by the English Jesuit, Martin C D’Arcy SJ, The Mind and Heart of Love: Lion and Unicorn: A Study in Eros and Agape. The arms were designed by Mr Richard d’Apice and Mr Sandy Turnbull of the Australian Heraldry Society and Fr Guy Selvester and illustrated by Mr Sandy Turnbull.
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JANUARY 2015
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