A better understanding of the role of the permanent diaconate: that is the challenge of the Catholic Church of the future, according to the national Conference of priests that was held in Leeds last week. The title of the conference, which was attended by delegates from each of the 22 dioceses of England and Wales, from the armed forces, from various religious orders and from particular ministries, was “Life in a society full of faith”. The issues discussed by the priests during their annual meeting included the situation of seminaries in England and Wales, the new directives to prevent abuses against children, and pensions and rest homes for the more elderly priests. According to the Jesuit Father James Hanvey, head of the Heythrop Institute for Religion, Ethics and Public Life, “we ought not to think of the Church just as the evangeliser of a culture, but also of the culture in which we live as the evangeliser of the Church. The Church has much for which to thank the democratic society in which we live and can learn from it; at the same time the Church must reaffirm with clarity its own convictions if she is to earn the respect of the society in which she lives”. The Church, according to Father Hanvey, is asked to give a response to the quest of contemporary society for life and meaning.
