Key documents
Key Church Documents & Statements related to Pastoral Planning.
Year of Faith: Pope Benedict XVI’s Announcement & Apostolic LetterClick here to read Pope Benedict XVI’s announcement of a special "Year of Faith", commencing in October 2012, to help Catholics appreciate the gift of faith, deepen their relationship with God and strengthen their commitment to sharing faith with others.
Pope Benedict explained his intention more fully in Porta Fidei ("The Door of Faith"), an apostolic letter released the following day. You can read the apostolic letter here.
Lineamenta: “The New Evangelisation for the Transmission of the Christian Faith”The Bishops of the world are preparing for the 13th General Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, being held in October 2012, on the theme “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith”.
In March 2011, the Lineamenta, or working document, for the Synod was released.
You can read it here and reflect on the questions that were offered within it for the reflection of Dioceses such as our own.
Pope John Paul II, Novo Millennio Ineunte ("At the beginning of the new millennium")This Apostolic Letter from Pope John Paul II provides a sound theological foundation for our planning as a Diocese.
In it, John Paul II remarked that “it is not a matter of inventing a ‘new programme’. The programme already exists: it is the plan found in the Gospel and in the living Tradition, it is the same as ever. Ultimately, it has its centre in Christ himself, who is to be known, loved and imitated”.
John Paul II also recognised that this one, living programme “must be translated into pastoral initiatives adapted to the circumstances of each community” (#29). It is available here.
2008 ACBC Report on Mass AttendanceA report on Mass Attendance was released in 2008 and is available here. It shares the results of the 2006 National Count of Attendance, a National Church Life Survey and the Australian Census.
It revealed that around 13.8 per cent of Australia’s 2006 Catholic population attended Mass on any given weekend.
Updated figures are expected in mid-2012. Information about the 2011 National Church Life Survey is available
here.
2009 Survey of Catholic Religious Institutes in AustraliaIn 2009, a survey was conducted of Catholic Religious Institutes in Australia, commissioned by Catholic Religious Australia (CRA), the peak body for leaders of religious orders and institutes in Australia, and undertaken by the Pastoral Planning Office of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.
An article on the survey and the final report, entitled, ‘See, I am doing a new thing!’, is available here.