A Listening Ministry: Becoming a Bishop in Our World: Memories of Archbishop Leonard Faulkner

by MIchael Trainor

Overview

This series of reminiscences recalls the people, personalities, events and challenges that shaped the life and ministry of Leonard Faulkner, formerly Bishop of Townsville and Archbishop of Adelaide. From his birth and early childhood in South Australia at the time of the Great Depression, we learn of his sense of belonging within a deeply Catholic family whose observance of the traditions, practices and piety of the time formed in him the beginnings of a deep awareness of God's love that gave him strength, purpose and meaning throughout his long life of service to the Catholic community. He remembers with affection teachers, priests and religious who encouraged his sense of priestly vocation and offers invaluable memories of life in the seminary in Werribee and later in Rome where he was among the first Australian seminarians to return for further studies at the end of World War II. We learn of the challenges and opportunities for ministry he encountered as a priest in Adelaide and share his memories of people who influenced him in the early days of his priesthood; and we follow his various ministries as assistant priest, YCW Chaplain and Cathedral administrator, leading to his appointment in 1967 as Bishop of Townsville, In the meantime, we have a first-hand account of the changes that followed the Second Vatican Council and his efforts to introduce those changes with sensitivity and enthusiasm, attitudes that shaped his ministry as bishop and local leader in Townsville. He was appointed Archbishop of Adelaide in 1983 and remained in that office until his retirement in 2001. We learn of various highlights in his time as Archbishop, notably the visit of Pope John Paul II, his response to the AIDS crisis and his determination to involve lay people at the heart of diocesan planning and administration. The account is not universally happy and we learn of his disappointments -often with himself-for perceived shortcomings in ministry. We have his story of differences with Roman Congregations in his approach to pastoral and sacramental initiatives and his reservations about how those Congregations sought to influence particular outcomes at national and local levels in the Australian Catholic church. Throughout, he returns to his journey with God that began in Baptism and was nourished by his life of prayer and daily reflection. A Listening Ministry is not an autobiography but a series of stories and images of a lilt spent seeking the will of God for himself and his people; and an invaluable and intimate story of what it means to be a bishop in our world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781532606137
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	08/05/2016
Pages:	150
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)

Table of Contents

Foreword 1

1 Earliest Memories (1926-1933) 3

2 Primary School (1934-1939) 11

3 Early Secondary Schooling (1940-1941) 17

4 Minor Seminary (1942) 21

5 Werribee (1943-1946) 27

6 Rome (1946-1950) 35

7 Woodville Years (1950-1956) 55

8 The Cathedral and YCW (1956-1966) 65

9 Preparing the Laity for the Second Vatican Council (1967) 73

10 Becoming Bishop of Townsville (1967) 77

11 Ministry in Townsville (1967-1983) 85

12 To Adelaide (1983-1985) 109

13 Archbishop of Adelaide (1985-2001) 113

14 Retirement (2001 onwards) 135

Index of Persons 143