Interview with Archbishop Tim Costelloe, SDB

drawn from 'The Record'
Perth (Australia) Archdiocesan Magazine

       Perth, Australia, 8 February 20 -- The recent (no. 38) issue of 'The Record' - the Perth Catholic Archdiocesan Magazine - features an 'Exclusive' interview with the Archbishop, Timothy Costelloe, SDB. For the full text of the interview you can access the digital version of the interview.

       In their first private one-on-one conversation, the President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB said, at the end of his meeting with Pope Francis, “The church in Australia is alive!” He meant that at the end of the Australian Plenary Council Assembly there was a real sense of energy and enthusiasm.

       In an exclusive interview with America Magazine journalist Gerard O’Connell, conducted over Zoom from his residence in Perth, Western Australia, Archbishop Costelloe talks about his audience with Pope Francis and also shares his thoughts on the recent Fifth Plenary Council of Australia, on the Frascati-Synod 2024 meeting and about the concluded 'Plenary Council of Australia'. Here are his 4 major takeaways from the Australia Plenary Council four-year process:

       First - "This is probably the first time in the history of the church in Australia that we have been through anything like this, both for the breadth and the depth of the engagement of the bishops with everybody else... something of a game changer for the church in Australia moving forward.

       Second - He was struck by the number of people who over the course of the four years said to him, 'For the first time, I've really had the opportunity to speak and know that I was being listened to..."

       Third significant aspect was "the fact that right from the beginning we realized that it had to be a deeply spiritual process... grounded in prayer. The bishops were inspired by the JPII Apostolic Letter Novo Millenio Ineunte: Our witness would be hopelessly inadequate if we ourselves had not first contemplated Christ's face."

       Fourth notable take away is the fact that "there is now a sense of hope, but also of expectation. Having concluded the Plenary Council there is a sense that this now has to bring change in the church in Australia."

       Archbishop Costelloe was the only bishop outside the Synod organizers to participate in Frascati last September 2022, to synthesize synodal reports from dioceses around the world. Archbishop Tim noted that “one of the most common themes” to emerge from the reports at Frascati meeting “was a deep hunger for a welcoming church, a welcoming community. People want to feel that they belong, that they are welcome, that they are accepted. That was a very strong thing right across the board.”

• Resources - Full text of the interview
• Related news article: AustraLasia 5877 (I) Let's show the beauty of faith (AUL Salesian Bulletin 2022)

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