I like leaning into my crosier when the Gospel is being read, for example. Go to the reality (in the case of bishops, that means the apostolic reality of “being sent”), and there you will find a way ahead, in Christ.Ĭamosy: What might readers be surprised to learn that you actually like about being a bishop?Īrchbishop Comensoli: I’ve actually gotten quite used to carrying and standing with the crosier. But the same sort of factors are at play: the images of the episcopal life - of authority, or leadership or honor - are all there to trip you up. I can hardly say a bishop is “drawn to the episcopy”! The priest who wants to be a bishop, or who thinks he is destined to be a bishop, is precisely the priest you do not want as a bishop. Learning to accept the beauty of the ordinary, along with the contentment of the struggles, is part of coming to live well our vocational journey. There is no “perfect” priesthood (or religious (life), or marriage) that we will attain. They struggle to see themselves in a priesthood that is not the image of what had been fostered in the seminary.Įvery vocation needs to find the reality of its life and meaning, for Jesus does not call us to anything else. Sadly, a number of recently ordained never quite make this shift. How do you manage in this regard?Īrchbishop Comensoli: I am quite mindful of a major vocational challenge anyone of faith faces - it is the challenge of moving from the image of the vocation (ordained ministry, religious life, marriage) to the reality. I imagine that’s even more the case for bishops. Camosy: As a new seminary professor, I’ve become aware of the pressures on priests which pull them away from what originally drew them to the priesthood. So, having started out wanting to get the idea of priesthood “out of my system,” Jesus had won me over, and I haven’t looked back (very much) since. And that was it.ĭuring seminary I became gradually more convinced that a priestly life was indeed where the Lord wanted me, and gradually more comfortable with the prospect. Finally, I thought I needed to “get it out of my system.” I asked my cousin to contact the local bishop and before I knew it, I had entered the seminary. I wasn’t really attracted to the prospect, yet it wouldn’t go away. For four years this niggling persisted and got quite annoying. I also became involved in a young adults group called “Antioch.” But the thought of a priestly vocation never quite left me, niggling away quietly as I got on with life. I got a job in a bank and commenced part-time studies at university. At the age of 16, the prospect of finding a girlfriend was more appealing than pursuing priesthood. The thought of priesthood first came to me in the final years of high school, but I promptly put it aside, as a more ordinary path into adulthood loomed - go to university, pursue a career, get married. ![]() I had an auntie who was a religious sister and a cousin who was a priest, so a religious vocation was not entirely alien to me. Charlie Camosy: Can you tell us a bit about the story of how you became a priest? How did you discern that call?Īrchbishop Comensoli: I came from a family - mum, dad and three brothers - where faith was just a part of life, though we were not overly religious. ![]() Charlie Camosy gets to know the archbishop for OSV News and we’ll chat with him at a later date regarding his 2018 book “In God’s Image: Recognizing the Profoundly Impaired as Persons” (Cascade Books). He holds a licentiate of sacred theology in moral theology from The Pontifical Alphonsian Academy in Rome and a doctorate of philosophy in theological ethics from the University of Edinburgh. Prior to that, Archbishop Comensoli had served as bishop of the Diocese of Broken Bay (2014-2018) outside of Sydney, and as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Sydney. Peter Andrew Comensoli as the ninth archbishop of Melbourne, Australia, the largest archdiocese in Oceania. On June 29, 2018, Pope Francis announced the appointment of Most Rev.
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