Homily by Cardinal Cassidy the Pope's special Envoy to the Dedication of St Patrick's Cathedral
The ceremony of dedication of a Cathedral is of great significance in the life of a particular or local Church.
For the Cathedral Church is symbolically the very centre, one might say the heart, of the diocese: a symbol of faith, a bond of communion, a visible challenge to the people of God belonging to that community to give priority in their lives to the values of the Gospel.
It is the local Bishop's own church and it is the church of all the people of God entrusted to his pastoral care. Still vivid in our memories is that day in 1996, when fire destroyed the historic Church of St Patrick's, which had become the first Cathedral of the Diocese of Parramatta. Out of that tragedy, this new Cathedral has been born, far more adequate to the needs of the growing Diocese and representing in its structure and decoration this period of the first years of the third Christian Millennium.
Today a new period in the history of St Patrick's begins, as we gather here to re-dedicate the Cathedral. As the Holy Father describes this occasion in the letter with which he appointed me to be his Special Legate for this ceremony: "it is of great significance for the Church of Christ is the Tabernacle of God with men".This new Cathedral is not to be seen then as a monument or just as a place of interest to be visited because of its artistic value.
The Church in its liturgy for this ceremony recalls and applies them to this church the words Our Lord Jesus Christ spoke to Zacchaeus: "Today salvation has come to this house". This is God's own house. Here he will dwell.
The Eucharist will be celebrated daily, the Sacraments administered, the word of God proclaimed, Our Lord Jesus Christ will dwell sacramentally. From this house salvation will go forth. Like the stream that flowed from the temple in Jerusalem, a constant stream of grace and blessing will flow out from this temple to nourish spiritually the Diocese of Parramatta.
My dear brothers and sisters of the Diocese of Parramatta, this is your Cathedral. Not only have you contributed to the restoration in so many different ways, but you are the community which will bring these cold materials of construction alive. You are the living stones that give life and meaning to this beautiful building, "living stones to be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ - a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, the People of God".
God does not only dwell in temples made by man, structures of wood or stone or cement, but, above all, he lives in the soul, which is made after his own image. The people of God are living stones built by the great craftsman himself. St Paul tells us clearly: "God's temple is holy, and that temple you are".
The Diocese of Parramatta is still a very young ecclesiastical entity, even though Parramatta has a significant place in the history of the Catholic Church in Australia.
The Holy Father in sending me to you as his special Envoy for this occasion calls on you, the Bishop, priests, religious and laity of the Diocese to accept this new beginning of your Cathedral as a call for a new spirit of evangelisation. Pope John Paul II sees the Church at the beginning of the third Christian millennium to be "on a new stage of its journey". He calls on be part of that journey by us "starting afresh from Christ".
The Altar that very shortly will be blessed and anointed, and then made ready for the celebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice, stands permanently as a sign of Christ himself, Christ who is the priest, the victim and the altar of his own sacrifice. It is around this altar that we gather as a community, and to whom we look for guidance in our witness to the faith in this new millennium. As the Holy Father has written: "There is no need of inventing new programs. The program already exists: it is the plan found in the Gospel and in the living Tradition; it is the same as ever. It has its centre in Christ himself, who is to be known, loved and imitated, so that in him we may have the life of the Trinity, and with him transform history until its fulfilment in the Heavenly Jerusalem."
This new Cathedral then, my dear Bishop, priests, religious and laity of the Diocese of Parramatta challenges you to "launch out into the deep" (as the Holy Father has asked us to do at this time), placing all your trust in Our Lord Jesus Christ, who will walk alongside you in this pilgrimage. He will guide you as you seek to plan together the pastoral initiatives that will allow you to follow his way, proclaim his truth and live his life, and so have a deep and incisive influence in bringing Gospel values to bear in our society and culture.
The new St Patrick's will be a constant reminder, in the midst of that secular and greatly secularised society, of the existence of God and of other values, values that lead to life, not death, to hope, not despair, to peace and not to war.
Pope John Paul II has sent you his Apostolic Blessing and we join with him in asking God to bless abundantly this Diocese, Bishop Manning, the clergy, religious and all the people of God, as together you move forward into this new period in the history of the Diocese.