By Rob Cosgrove
The Time: Easter Vigil
The Year: 1980
The Place: St Francis Xavier Church, Goodna
This Easter vigil was one that Peter Gagen (Adult Faith Education, Archdiocese of Brisbane) had been working towards for over two years. Throughout those two years Peter had met regularly with the parish priest, Fr Ron Illidge (RIP), Sr Carmel Dwan RSM and other parish staff. Together they discussed and planned the implementation of something very new, and very ancient: the catechumenate. Central to these deliberations was the wise counsel of Fr Michael Fallon (RIP). Peter also collaborated closely with Fr Barry Copley (Liturgical Commission, Archdiocese of Brisbane).
Peter, Michael, Ron and Carmel had a ‘boot-leg’ photocopy of the US version of the RCIA. An Australian version was still several years in the future (published by EJ Dwyer in 1987).
As a former lecturer in catechetics at Pius XII Seminary, Banyo (now Holy Spirit Seminary) Peter had been enthralled as each new document of Vatican II was released. He would read the text voraciously and then pass his discoveries on to the young seminarians.
The first document to be promulgated by the Council, The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium), was to have a profound effect. In paragraph 64 the Council declared that: ‘The catechumenate for adults, comprising several distinct steps, is to be restored and to be taken into use at the discretion of the local ordinary.’
In the long term this has proven to be a momentous decision of the Council, not just for liturgical reform but for the entire way Catholics envisage lay ministry and their baptismal call to mission in their daily lives.
Peter had a keen eye for strategic change. Many of the seminarians he had taught in the late ‘60s were now priests in the Archdiocese of Brisbane. To convince them to implement this fundamental change to the liturgical life of the parish, and the formation of the parishioners and prospective parishioners, would require an ‘alive and breathing’ model of the catechumenate – to see what it looked like and how it ‘worked’.
He could have picked an ‘easier’ parish (a city parish bristling with families and professionals), but he knew that would be the simple way out and would not convince anyone. On the plus side of the ledger Fr Michael Fallon had been an assistant priest with Fr Ron Illidge in his previous parish. Michael knew that Ron would bring out the best in people and work collaboratively.
Goodna still feels like a typical country church, and indeed, for over 100 years it was just that, located about half way between the Queensland state capital, Brisbane, and the ‘over-looked’ capital, Ipswich.
By 1978 urban sprawl had reached Goodna from Brisbane and was quickly spreading from Ipswich. The local population was a mix of the senior citizens of Goodna, workers who travelled to nearby industries (woollen mills and brick works) and newly-arrived migrants – the Wacol Migrant Centre was just down the road.
Meanwhile over 2000k away Fr Arthur Hackett, parish priest of Our Lady of Help of Christians, Whyalla West, South Australia, was embarking on a parallel journey. So two small communities, far away from the bright city lights, were giving birth to the catechumenate in Australia.
Thirty-five years ago who would have known that from such small seeds, planted in Goodna’s red loam and Whyalla’s red ferric oxide earth, such mighty trees would grow.
Looking back, what have we learnt? Does the history really tell us anything?
Peter Gagen loved history (and still does!) and often adorned his walls with quotes from the great Church Fathers and Mothers (illustrated in his beautiful calligraphy). But this ‘love’ was never just an academic exercise – as beautiful as that could be. Rather, for Peter, what was vital was making the connections in the long tapestry of Christian – and Jewish – history.
It was vital (life-giving) for the future of the Church to inspire and enrich the Pilgrim People of God as they walked arm in arm towards the New Jerusalem just beyond the horizon.
His beloved Jerusalem Bible revealed that for the Jewish people water was critical for life and their very survival. It is a constant motif throughout the Scriptures.
Right from the beginning of Genesis there are echoes of our understanding of the catechumenate:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep; and God’s Spirit hovered over the water … God said, ‘Let the waters (mayim, living waters) under heaven come together into a single mass …’ and God saw that it was good. Genesis (1:1,2,9,10)
The first creation, filled with the ruach (breath, wind) of the Spirit, foreshadows our new creation in the waters of baptism.
The Book of Exodus is the foundational epic of the Israelite’s liberation from slavery and their salvation as God’s chosen people. The journey of Moses is resplendent with images of water: as a baby in the reeds of the Nile (Ex 2:3); meeting his beloved Ziporah at the well in Sinai (Ex 18:3-4); the crossing over the Red Sea (Ex 14); striking the rock at Horeb (Ex 17:6); and finally reaching the River Jordan (Josh 3:4).
The words of Moses given to the Israelites in Deuteronomy are indeed apt for our catechumens today:
‘See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. …
Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him …’ (Deuteronomy 30:15,19,20)
Let’s now jump into Dr Who’s Tardis and turn the time travel dial to sometime in the early 30s – not the 1930s but the original ’30s.
Through the Gospels of Matthew (3:1-17), Mark (1:1-8) and Luke (3:1-18) we witness John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus, in the wilderness.
There was something about his prophetic spirit that drew people from throughout Judea to confess their sins and to be baptised in the River Jordan (Mk 1:6)
We don’t just have the words of the evangelists for John’s deeds. We also have the writings of Titus Flavius Josephus (37–c.100). Josephus was born in Jerusalem and took part in the Jewish-Roman war of 77-73. He was captured in 67 and later accompanied the Roman legions under Titus when they levelled Jerusalem to the ground, and at the siege of Masada when the vestiges of the Judean rebellion committed mass suicide.
He wrote the history of these events in The Jewish War (c.75) and Antiquities of the Jews (c.94). In Antiquities Josephus wrote that John was:
… a good man, [who] commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism …
… to be continued (see Summer 2016).
By Rob Cosgrove (with thanks to Peter Gagen, Sr Carmel Dwan and Fr Anthony Mellor). Rob began working for Peter Gagen in his student holidays in 1976 and commenced full-time employment for the Archdiocese of Brisbane in 1978.
