The
Catholic Church in Melbourne has responded to one of the most
tumultuous weeks in its history by urging parishioners to maintain the
faith.Sunday's services, the first since Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced a royal commission on child sexual abuse in the church and other institutions, avoided direct references to the upheaval facing the church.
But gospel readings and sermons drew attention to the impending day of judgment, reminding churchgoers of the strength that can be found in faith during testing times.
He carefully steered clear of courting the kind of controversy that has dogged Cardinal George Pell throughout the past week after the head of the Catholic Church in Australia blamed a smear campaign against the church for public pressure that led to the royal commission.
In a sombre service, the archbishop noted it was a time for believers to ''examine our personal relationship with Jesus Christ''.
He said the reading from Daniel and selected passage from the gospel of Mark was a timely reminder that Jesus would soon come in judgment.
Archbishop Hart noted that whatever a believer's relationship with the spiritual side of the church, faith and trust also rests upon the human element.
''What is faith? Above all it is belief in a person and a personal relationship with that person. We trust in them, we have faith in them. Faith works through love.''
At St Carthage's in Parkville, the mood was more upbeat yet the message was almost identical.
Outspoken priest Father Michael Elligate echoed the archbishop's views on the centrality of faith to Catholic practice.
''Just hang in there,'' was his key message, inspired by recently deceased Italian Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini.
Father Elligate caused a stir in conservative Catholic circles as one of the signatories to a 2006 complaint letter to the Vatican accusing Cardinal Pell of teaching inaccurate and misleading doctrine.
He has called for the church to take a braver stand on the issue of child sexual abuse.
Father Elligate's sermon drew a thinly veiled parallel between the situation currently facing believers in the church and that of the Israelites facing oppression and persecution in the time before Jesus.
He drew on conversations between Cardinal Martini and Italian author and theorist Umberto Eco on ''the end of time'' to outline a way for believers to maintain the faith under pressure.
''Just hang in there, because things will get better. We're going through this but we'll get over it.''