BISHOP MICHAEL MORRISSEY
2025 EASTER MESSAGE
'Hope Does Not Disappoint'

With jubilation Mary Magdalene exclaimed to sceptical Apostles her great news, “I have seen the Lord”! John 20:18

The Apostles were still trying to process and understand their earlier experience of the day having responded to Mary’s previous declaration and rushing out to find only an empty tomb! On finding the cloths, ‘..the disciples then went back home’ John 20:10. Perhaps they were fearful, perhaps devastated, just as Mary was. But they didn’t dare hope as Mary did, who stayed, determined to find out where they had put him, so she could remove him. She wanted to be with him.

Understandably there wasn’t an immediate acceptance by the disciples at the words Mary was now heralding. Words of great joy and hope washed away her earlier experience of devastation on discovering the empty tomb and assuming the body of her Lord had been taken away.

The Jubilee Year of Hope, proclaimed by Pope Francis, is the antidote offered to a world that lacks hope with so many conflicts, starvation, lack of personal freedom, respect for culture and tradition, incessant demands for decisions without proper considerations and news feeds that can be unsettling for so many people in our communities.

“Hope does not disappoint since the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit” Romans 5:5. That first Easter morn in Jerusalem Mary Magdalene did not walk away from her unfulfilled hopes and desires but remained faithful to her desire to be close to the Lord. It was the very love of God poured into her heart at her very first encounter with Jesus that gave her that hope. 

Notice in the encounter with Jesus, the risen Lord, listens to Mary Magdalene expressing her feelings of loss before gently lifting her out of her grief by simply calling her by name, “Mary”. At that moment Mary’s life is changed forever. The darkness of despair was replaced with the light of eternal hope and joy. From her encounter with Jesus in the garden, Mary becomes for all of us the ‘Apostle of Hope’. The love of God poured into her heart strengthened her to not be so overwhelmed by negativity and darkness and give up looking for him, to be close to him.

During this Jubilee Year Pope Francis reminds us we are Pilgrims of Hope. All of us, including Pope Francis, are on a journey of faith, not only for ourselves, but in communion with everyone who journeys with us. Being Christ to one another, we are a people offering God’s love and hope to those, either in our faith family or the wider community, who are in need of accompaniment through the difficulties or sadnesses in their lives.

One of Pope Francis’s famous quotes is the “Church is like a field hospital” where people with broken hearts and lives can come into our communities and be welcomed with mercy and compassion. “Even if our history appears burdensome, complicated, perhaps even ruined to us, we always have the possibility of consigning it to God and setting out anew on our journey.” Pope Francis.

May our gratitude for the times we have experienced mercy and compassion in our own lives, when we’ve experienced the love of God poured into our hearts, be made more real through our encounters with others, where we can share a hope with them that is eternal. This is a tangible way of making our immediate world around us a place of hope, revealing God’s vision for humanity made eternal through the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

May this Easter be a blessed time for you, your family, friends and community, full of hope and joy where the eternal light of the Risen Lord never grows dim.

The Most Rev. Michael H. Morrissey
Bishop of Geraldton

image @cathopic

As I draft my Christmas Message my time with the Diocese of Broome has drawn to a close, and I find myself reflecting on the landscape of this timeless land and the people who call it home.

In my three years in the Kimberley, it was noticeable how everyone waits anxiously for the coming of the first rains of the wet season. This period is known as the ‘build-up’, or in Broome’s Yawuru language, “Laja” time! For Aboriginal People, with their keen eye, a lot is happening throughout God’s creation as it moves through this uncomfortable time with the weather. Tensions build, not only in the atmosphere, waiting for the heavens to deliver!

For the past three years the Kimberley people of Faith have been waiting patiently for a new Bishop for their Diocese! Wondering if it was ever, ever going to happen! Their long wait has ended and their hopes have finally been realised with the installation of Bishop Tim Norton.

Similarly, the people of the Old Testament, waited a long time, longing for the promised Messiah. A promise Jeremiah heralded in the 1st Sunday of Advent readings, “See, the days are coming, it is the Lord who speaks, when I am going to fulfil the promise, I made...I will make a virtuous Branch grow…who shall practise honesty and integrity in the land. In those days Judah will be saved”. [Jer 33:14-16]

The arrival of Advent sees a similar ‘build-up’ before Christmas. A lot is happening around us, with everyone having much to do and organise, and a happy season easily slips into a tense season, as we wait eagerly for heaven to deliver the Christ child on Christmas Night!

St Francis of Assisi 800 years ago built the first Crib reminding us of the simplicity of God coming among us in a stable. People of all walks of life love the Christmas Crib. Mysteriously it speaks to our deepest needs for connection with God, family and community. Yet somewhere we often let all that ‘buildup’ cloud our thinking, and feeling overpowered by tension, allow it to affect our relationship with others.  

St John believed Jesus, born in a stable, was “a light that shines in the dark, a light that darkness could not overpower”[Jn1:5]. For people of Faith, that Jesus is our Saviour. He went through the same experiences and feelings, and He now sits with each one of us, listening, and is present with us through everything as a light shining through our darkness. This sitting with humanity didn’t just end with the Shepherds and Magi 2000 years ago, it occurs here and now in your life. Allow the peace his presence brings to overpower the darkness.

This sitting with humanity didn’t just end with the Shepherds and Magi 2000 years ago, it occurs here and now in your life. Allow the peace his presence brings to overpower the darkness.

As we wait throughout Advent remember how Jesus came into our world revealing, “the kindness and love of God our Saviour” [Titus 3:4] and ponder the wisdom of Br Damien Price cfc, “Let us not busy ourselves looking for gold, frankincense and myrrh but ready our hearts through prayer so that our eyes and hearts change. Then, when we gather to celebrate Christmas…we shall see Emmanuel, God with us, all around us”.

After our waiting has ended and we gather for Christmas 2024, let us never tire of praying for peace in our heart and spirit, in our relationships and friendships in our communities and among nations. That peace that is eternally present among us in Jesus Christ. May you be truly blessed with a Happy Christmas with family and friends and a new year full of faith filled hope for all. 

The Most Rev. Michael H. Morrissey

Bishop of Geraldton

BISHOP MICHAEL MORRISSEY
2024 EASTER MESSAGE
'A New Way of Seeing Things'

 “Easter cannot happen without Good Friday”. It might seem rather obvious to make such a statement, as we hold very dear in our hearts this wonderful mystery of Jesus Christ, who came among us, suffered a cruel death, and rose from the dead.  There are times in our life though, where, despite the good we do and the love we share with others, things just don’t always go well. We experience suffering, conflict, confusion or even feelings of abandonment, loneliness and betrayal. All very similar feelings to the reality of Jesus’ experiences on Good Friday.

Amid his suffering, Jesus knew he was not alone. He trusted himself totally to God his Father and, putting all his hope in Him, through Him experienced the joy of new life on Easter Sunday.

The disciples too all experienced the terrible realities of Good Friday, but when the dawn of Easter joy came their lives were transformed and their hearts became wide open to a new reality. Except Thomas, who clinging hopelessly to the crushing blows of Good Friday, was blind to the possibility of hope when he was told Jesus was alive and so he refused to believe Jesus had risen from the dead. “Unless I see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe” (Jn20:25).

Where then is the hope in the Good Friday moments in our lives?  It can be found in the great gift of God the Father who sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to live in the midst of humanity, who walks with us in our highs and lows, offering a hope that’s always present and is often found in small but significant ways through relationships and connections with others.

The joy of Easter reminds us, we too will rise when we place our hope in him, who has the power over death and our own personal despair.

Easter reveals a new vision to see our life in a different way. Our hearts open wider to a new reality, a new way of seeing things. This often comes to us through family and friends who love and care for us no matter what happens in our life, or through the stranger who comes into our life.  These moments can be surprising and unexpected as was the resurrection. This is Easter, this is new life! 

This is what Thomas eventually experienced when he saw the wounded risen Jesus just as his friends had told him, and he exclaimed, “My Lord and My God” (Jn 20:28).

As we celebrate Easter in 2024, my hope for everyone is, despite the heavy weight of those Good Friday moments in life, there will be those moments and times where situations and answers can be seen in a new and surprising way with the joy of Easter. So, as you receive an Easter Egg, a symbol of new life and beginnings, may our community experience a happy and a blessed Easter, keeping safe and well cherishing the blessings received through with family, relationships and friends.

 

The Most Rev. Michael H. Morrissey
Bishop of Geraldton

“The people that walked in darkness has seen a great light; on those who live in the land of deep shadow a light has shone.”

These words we hear from the prophet Isaiah at the Christmas Mass are very relevant for our times. Many places in our world are currently caught up in division, turmoil, conflict and war and there is terrible loss of life and homes on every side.

As we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ over 2000 years ago in Bethlehem, we may find ourselves pondering on ‘Where is the light of hope and joy for people living in darkness and uncertainty?’ 

There was a wonderful example from the First World War, which was meant to be the war that ended all Wars in Europe. On the Western front around the time of the first Christmas of World War I in 1914, soldiers from both sides of the conflict stopped fighting and exchanged greetings, presents, and even played a soccer game for a brief time. They didn’t see themselves as enemies but fellow human beings.

The Most Rev. Michael H. Morrissey

Bishop of Geraldton

 11/29/2023

BISHOP MICHAEL MORRISSEY
2023 EASTER MESSAGE
"Filled with awe and great joy, the women came quicly away from the tomb and ran to tell the disciples" Mt 28:8

“He has risen from the dead and now is going before you to Galilee, it is there you will see him”. These words spoken by the angel of the Lord in Matthew’s Gospel for the Easter Vigil Mass, immediately scattered the darkness of despair for the women coming to visit the Jesus’ tomb. They were filled with awe and great joy, and ran to their friends, the disciples. On their way, Jesus appeared to them and gave them instructions to give to the disciples. They all had seen him die on the cross in the dark events of Good Friday, but now they were joyful messengers of a new reality. ‘O truly blessed night, when things of heaven are wed to those of earth, and divine to the human’. (Exsultet)

From total despair to overwhelming joy, the women became the first missionary disciples!

In reflecting on this, I thought of all I have seen and witnessed over the past year in the small and varied communities of faith, in both the Dioceses of Geraldton and Broome, scattered throughout this vast part of Western Australia.

I have seen people’s faith, joy, hope and deep connection with their risen Lord, despite circumstances and situations often challenging, with no easy answers. I have seen many making decisions and choices based on their deep relationship with Jesus. I have witnessed also living saints in these communities, supporting one another to remain people of hope and joy. These are indeed missionary disciples, “…available to answer His call and to live united to the Lord in the most common daily things - work, meeting other people, our daily duties, the chance events of each day - allowing ourselves to be guided always by the Holy Spirit.” Pope Francis.

January was a terrible time for many people in the Fitzroy Valley, where homes, businesses, local communities, and pastoral properties suffered so much from record floods. We all saw devasting images and all realised the magnitude of the situation and how difficult life had become for so many people within our own country.  (We all saw too, people walking through flood waters carrying the precious Ngurrara Canvas at Fitzroy Crossing, which was a symbol of hope for the community.) People of all walks of life reached out to one another, helping with boats and other forms of assistance to those in their hour of need. This kindness and compassion is often something always there, but it’s times like these where it becomes truly evident.  In actions of kindness and compassion we see and show the face of Jesus, the risen Lord, revealing to us the eternal love and kindness of God the Father. This is what people of Faith do as missionary disciples, revealing the risen Lord,  “…alive for God in Christ Jesus.” Rm 6:11B

Let us not hide this good news, but be filled with awe and great joy, like the women who visited the sepulchre on the first Easter morning and let us be eager to share this good news.

Let us bless one another this Easter with our kindness and compassion and I pray  that the blessings of Jesus, the Risen Lord, will be with you through all the seasons of your life.

The Most Rev. Michael H. Morrissey
Bishop of Geraldton

BISHOP MICHAEL MORRISSEY
2022 CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

“As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart”.

Travelling through the Australian bush often gives me a sense of God’s presence. It causes me to ponder about many things in life and in the world. In a recent visit to the Catholic community of Christ the King, in Djarindjin Lombadina, I was shown human footprints encrusted in Pindan soil and, as I pondered them, I felt a deep sense of awe and wonder at how they were there before Jesus Christ was born and yet Jesus knew the person who created the footprint. 

‘To Ponder’ means to think carefully about things.  Not to hasten our decisions but take time to consider everything and understand more deeply. To reflect deeply.

In this season, we find there’s much to ponder about the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.

Thoughts around ‘Why did Mary, heavily pregnant, and Joseph, have to travel to Bethlehem at such a difficult time?’ or ‘Why did no one seem to care about their situation and plight when they reached Bethlehem?’

Following the birth of Jesus, Mary may have pondered, why me? Why here? Why shepherds and kings? 

I am sure Joseph also had much to ponder about, with everything that was going on in the stable that night. ‘Why was this happening to them?’  

Mary and Joseph’s deep faith would have guided their ponderings. To see with the eyes of faith and know, that even though they may not have understood everything, they trusted God in all that was taking place. They were not frightened by the mystery of God’s presence unfolding around them, nor of their visitors rejoicing in the birth of their son.

Do we ponder in faith like Mary and Joseph in how we live and work? Do we take time to ponder the grandeur of God and experience the wonder and awe of his presence in the world around us? To see wisely the things of this earth through the eyes of faith.

Pondering helps us to be more present with whatever’s going on around us. It helps our reactions be more of the positive sort. It is good, therefore, to make a practice of leaving aside, even for a moment, those things distracting us from pondering on what really matters in our lives, or in certain situations. Allow the light of hope and joy to shine in and through us, and out into our community and world.  

The Christmas season is a time to step away from the rush and ponder on what has happened in our lives throughout the past year. Like Mary and Joseph, some of the year’s journey might have been difficult and at times a real struggle. Yet, as Mary and Joseph pondered the birth of Jesus, in a stable in Bethlehem, surrounded by only the animals and shepherds, all the struggles of the past year faded.  Let us therefore ponder the birth of Jesus and how it scatters the darkness and shines the light of hope brightly like the Star of Bethlehem in our lives. 

May it help us be present to each other more and, like Mary, may we treasure in our hearts all the good things God has given this year, especially those who are close to us and those who have been part of our lives.

Blessings and peace to you and your families this Christmas. Be full of hope and pondering as we enter the new year, 2023.

 
The Most Rev. Michael H. Morrissey

Bishop of Geraldton

15 July 2022

After 5 days of intense listening and conversation among 253 delegates, I would like to give you an opportunity to read and reflect on the motions approved by the 5th Plenary Council of the Australian Catholic Church.

Before my reflection, I would like to express my gratitude to all our Delegates who all made very positive contributions to the work of the Second Session and was well received by everyone. These motions, except one, received the necessary two thirds majority with the Consultative vote using online voting with TEAMS (the Consultative voters do not include the Deliberative voters (the Bishops). The Deliberative votes are then made by a secret written vote, and the motion requires two thirds of these votes to formally pass.

One motion, similar to the intent of the Consultative vote did, not receive two thirds for approval. This motion was to change the Canon on Preaching to include Lay People for preaching. Sometimes the total numbers varied, as some delegates abstained from voting. The two thirds were based on the number of delegates who signed the attendance sheet for each day.

As you can see in the final motions put to the vote (see below), the amendments are listed in red. Some amendments were simply agreed by all the Delegates from the floor, others required a formal amendment to be voted on, including the Bishops, before being put to the Consultative Delegates only for a formal vote, before being sent to the Deliberative Voters.

This is a reflection of excellent interventions by everyone with the final motions capturing the intent of the Second Assembly. As you can see from the deliberative vote, the Bishops approved the intent of the Consultative Vote.

There is nothing stopping the local Church working through these motions for implementation in their local diocese. The question is: ‘How can these Acts of the Plenary Council be implemented in our local Church and what process should we use in our local Church?’ How this happens will be different in every diocese which was the understanding of all delegates.

What happens in the meantime? The Acts of the Plenary Council were signed individually by all Bishops present on the last day. The motions, once approved, become formally in Church language the Acts of the Council.

The November Bishop’s Conference will formally approve the Acts and then they are sent to the Holy See for approval. Once approved, the Acts become the Decrees of the Fifth Plenary Council and law for the Church in Australia. Unfortunately, this process might take 12 months before they are formally promulgated for the Church in Australia.

As I have said, this does not prevent the local churches from developing a process for the implementation of the Acts as they are now known.

The discussions and the disquiet that happened on Wednesday, as a result of the deliberative vote on the motions for “Equality between Women and Men”, brought to light how Catholics with differing views can come together and resolve differences or misunderstandings. Everyone, including the bishops, worked through this process on Wednesday with grace and faith. It resulted in a better document for this section.

The Plenary Council, with a sense of hope, with an awareness the Holy Spirit, had guided everyone, especially on that particular Wednesday, which was a difficult day.

The process of implementing the Outcomes of the Council will now begin.

My hope is the process used over the past four years for the Council, and particularly through the past week, will model how these decrees, and other matters, will continue as we commence working together on these Plenary Outcomes in the context of the Diocese of Geraldton.

Wishing you every blessing and peace,

Bishop Michael Morrissey
Bishop of Geraldton

BISHOP MICHAEL MORRISSEY
2022 EASTER MESSAGE
"What gift can Christians offer to the community?"

“Remember what he told you when he was still in Galilee”,   the angels reminded the women when they were confronted by the empty tomb on the first Easter morning. “Jesus would suffer death at the hands of his enemies and after three days, rise again” was the message he told his disciples while they were in Galilee during his public  ministry. Remembering’ is something that we all cherish, especially those moments in our lives that gave direction, meaning and purpose for what we do.

We remember again, the holy and sacred moments of Jesus, through the Sacred Easter Triduum, from Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday, where the Church solemnly celebrates the great mysteries of our redemption, through the memorial of Jesus’ Last Supper, his crucifixion, burial and rising from the dead.

We remember too, what happened to the women and first disciples of the Risen Lord, whose lives were changed forever. Despite the difficulties, persecutions and hardships experienced by the first Christians as they followed the Gospel of Jesus, St Paul’s words to the Philippian Christians resonated with them, “Nothing can happen that will outweigh the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord”. 

At this moment in time, people everywhere could wonder ‘where can we find Hope?  Where has Hope gone?’  The future looks very uncertain with what has, and is happening in our community and our world, through the effects of the Pandemic and other tragic concerns. As we look beyond our community to the wider world, especially in Ukraine, things look pretty dark. 

What gift can Christians offer to the community?

We know that Jesus died and rose from the dead and is always present in every moment of life where people do not have to live with despair and hopelessness. This is the gift we offer this Easter to our communities. 

Hope, one of the virtues of our faith, becomes real and active through little acts of kindness, compassion and generosity that change the view for people.  As I hear of communities, families and people being isolated for a week or more due to Covid, people are not left alone to fend for themselves. Neighbours offer support and their presence through simple gestures of doing the shopping, collecting medications or using  virtual technology to ask , are you OK. The small steps we take can change the lens of how life is seen, especially for those who are struggling with hope, purpose and meaning.

For us who are Christians, the call is to become beacons of hope and light through our practical actions, which darkness cannot conquer as we let go of what binds us. The Cross looks like a disaster, yet it points us towards the Lord Jesus  who is now risen above all that bound him.

Pope Francis says, “Jesus' resurrection shows us that death does not have the last word; life does. Christ has been raised, so it is possible to have a positive outlook on every event of our existence, even the most difficult ones and those charged with anguish and uncertainty”.

As we remember these sacred moments during Holy Week,  faith in the Risen Lord reminds us, that it is possible to live in peace with our neighbour and rejoice in the gift of the other in our lives.

As Mary, the Mother of Jesus stood by her Son’s cross, she shows us a way of living, as we stand beside our crosses; so that what we give and do for others, will become and be a beacon of light and hope for our community.

People of Faith, let us remember what the Lord has done and offered us. May the blessings and peace of the risen Lord be given abundantly to you, your family and friends this Easter.

The Most Rev. Michael H. Morrissey
Bishop of Geraldton