“The Holy Father is among you – not because I’m the Pope, but because I bring his person, his mission, wherever I go.”
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His Excellency Archbishop Adolfo Tito Yllana, apostolic nuncio (papal ambassador) to Australia, is travelling around the diocese of Armidale on a week-long pastoral visit.
“I’m the official messenger of the Holy Father,” Archbishop Yllana said, “so what he says I bring to you, and what I see and what you say to me, I’ll bring to him.”
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Archbishop Yllana arrived in Armidale on Monday, and celebrated Mass at Sts Mary & Joseph Cathedral on Wednesday.
He was in Tamworth on Tuesday, and will celebrate Mass at Sacred Heart Church, Inverell, on Thursday, 12pm.
He is visiting schools, nursing homes, and individual parishioners in their homes; attending parish functions, and gatherings of priests; and meeting religious sisters.
The Archbishop explained that wherever he went, the Pope was among them.
“The Holy Father is in Rome,” he said, “but he is here with you, because he sends his very personal representative, in my humble person, to communicate to you three things.
“He thinks of you because he is your pastor. He really cares for the difficulties, the sufferings in your family or in society; he’s in your midst. And because he cares for you and loves you, he really prays for you – especially, he told me, the old people, the sick, and the children.”
Bishop Michael Kennedy said: “It’s a great privilege for us in the diocese to have the nuncio visiting.”
“It's a personal contact which says to us that, yes, we are in the heart of Pope Francis, that we are in his prayers, that he does care for us, that he does love us.”
Archbishop Yllana has served as apostolic nuncio (papal ambassador) to Australia since 2015. Born in the Philippines, he was formerly nuncio to Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Pakistan, and most recently the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“We are tasked, we are sent to really share the good news: that God's love never fails; that God's presence is always with us; that God never abandons us,” he said.
"The Holy Father has really told us to be in the midst of the church, so when I visit the dioceses in Australia, I love to be with my brother bishop, then with the priests, and the community of the faithful in parishes or in schools.”
The Archbishop said criticisms of the Australian Catholic church – such as many leaving because they had lost their faith – were false.
“Wrong; they are practicing their faith. I have seen it; I have heard it; I have felt it.
“I can confront anybody who says that, because that is not what I see in the communities I visited, or in the dioceses.
“There are those who may not be happy with the church – fine, yes – but they are leaving the church? I've not seen that – and I've visited more than 85 per cent of the whole of Australia – not as a tourist, but as a priest, as a bishop visiting the different communities.”
He pointed to the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, which, he said, had welcomed many adult converts.
One issue uppermost in the minds of many this week will be the clerical sexual abuse scandal that rocked the church. Even here in Armidale, retired priest David Joseph Perrett was accused of molesting 30 children over three decades.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s national apology to victims on Monday was welcomed by Catholic Religious Australia and the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.
“The unpleasant and unacceptable thing that has been done is absolutely to be condemned,” Archbishop Yllana said.
“There is no excuse for that. It's not the church, but members of the church – in some cases, priests who have been consecrated, or laypeople consecrated by baptism.
“I deeply feel for what has happened, and I will not presume to know the depth of the hurt that must have been felt,” he said.
“We are going to help heal, and to proclaim the serenity and joy that only God can give.
“Let’s witness what is right; what Christ teaches by love, and being compassionate; what Christ tells us to be true.”