Strengthen your weary hands and straighten your trembling knees (Heb 12:12)
2026 Clergy Conference 

Speech

Most Rev Timothy Costelloe SDB
Archbishop of Perth

Tuesday 14 April, 2026
Newman College, Churchlands

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Strengthen your weary hands and straighten your trembling knees (Heb 12:12)

These words from the Letter to the Hebrews may well express the sentiments of some and perhaps many of us as the pressures and demands of our lives and ministry do from time to time threaten to overwhelm us.

I have now begun my 15th year as the Archbishop here in Perth and while I want to repeat the sentiments I expressed at the opening of the Chrism Mass in Holy Week - that I am genuinely filled with admiration at the commitment, generosity and fidelity which clearly mark the vast majority of our priests here in Perth - I also want to acknowledge that some, and again perhaps many of us are tired, at times dispirited and discouraged, and in danger of losing our enthusiasm and our zeal for the ministry of service to God‘s people which is ours.

There are plenty of good reasons for this: as a group, notwithstanding the fine young priests we are so privileged to have among us, we are ageing, with all this implies in terms of energy levels, health challenges etc; we have lived and are still living through the impact of the dreadful revelations of the sexual abuse of children and young people. Many of us, through our pastoral care of people who have experienced abuse, understand the terrible damage that these experiences cause in people’s lives.  Many more of us will be acutely aware of the damage these terrible scandals have done to the faith of our people, to their trust in the Church, and to the confidence they have in us, who are the Church’s leaders. In addition to all this, so many of us now live far from our cultures and countries of origin, far from our families, and far from those men who were our companions in the seminary and in the early years of our priesthood. And, of course, each of us bears the burden of our sinfulness, of our limitations, of unfulfilled hopes and dreams, and of the wounds, spiritual and psychological, that others have inflicted on us.

There are then, as I say, many reasons for us to feel disillusioned, or overwhelmed, or at least to wonder whether we have reached our use-by date. It is both necessary and wise, I think, to acknowledge these realities rather than to try and ignore them or run away from them. But, in doing so, as people of faith and Christian discipleship, and as men conformed through the grace of ordination to the Suffering Servant and compassionate Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep, it is also both necessary and wise to hear the voice of the Lord who says to us, “Come to me if you labour and overburdened and I will give you rest. Take up my yoke and learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt 11:28-30). It is both necessary and wise, when we are feeling overwhelmed, to cry out to the Lord to save us, as Peter did when he began to sink beneath the waves (cf Matt 14:30). It is both necessary and wise to pray daily, in the midst of our difficulties, for the gift of fidelity, trusting that God’s grace can do for us what we perhaps cannot do for ourselves.

The psalms we pray so often in the Prayer of the Church can help us here. They are full of praise to God who, as the psalmist looks back over the past, remembers with gratitude the Lord’s steadfastness and love. As Psalm 76 puts it “I remember the deeds of the Lord, I remember your wonders of old. I muse on all your works and ponder your mighty deeds.

This afternoon, I want to invite us all to do some remembering. I want to invite us to situate our present challenges and difficulties within the larger context of the way the Lord has been present in our lives in the past.

I want to invite us all, therefore, to go back to our ordination as deacons, for the majority of us also as priests, and for just a few of us also as bishops.

I wonder what you can remember about your ordination and perhaps about the years of formation leading up to that day.  How many times did you wonder whether you would ever reach that day or even that you really wanted to reach that day?

But reach it you did - and one year, or 10 years, or 25 years later here we are all together recognising, I hope, that whatever the story of our stumbles and falls and infidelities, there is the greater story of God‘s fidelity to us and the grace which he has given us and with which we have somehow managed to cooperate – a grace which has brought us here this afternoon.

Whenever I think particularly about my priestly ordination, I find myself returning to my ordination card. Like most of us I had to select a phrase from the scriptures which would somehow or other give expression to how I was understanding my priesthood as the bishop’s hands were laid upon me. I wonder if any of you can remember, if you had such a memorial card, why you chose the image you did and why you chose the words you did.

I chose the phrase, “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts” (Ps 94:8) and I remember very clearly why I made that choice. It was an expression of my hope that my ordination and my subsequent life as a priest would somehow or other enable people to open the ears of their mind and heart to hear the voice of God and say yes to Him. Idealistic - yes. A little bit presumptuous - maybe. But imbued with a sense that the faithful living of my priesthood, in every respect, was to be a ministry of service for the good of God’s people and God’s Church - absolutely.

Now, nearly 40 years later, I wonder to what extent the prayer at the end of every ordination - may God who has begun the good work in you bring it to fulfilment- has actually been achieved. I hope it has to some extent, but I know that it has not to the extent that I dreamt of and hoped for on the day of my ordination.

Fidelity is such an important concept for us as ordained ministers in the Church. And it is good for us, I believe, especially on an occasion such as this, to reflect a little, even with a certain brutal honesty, about our fidelity to the commitments we made in response to the questions put to us by the Bishop.

Let me just remind you of them – or at least a selection of them taken from the ordination rites for deacons, priests and bishops.

• Do you resolve to hold fast to the mystery of faith with a clear conscience, as the apostle urges, and to proclaim this faith in Word and deed according to the gospel and the Church’s tradition?
• Do you resolve to keep forever the commitment to remain celibate as a sign of your dedication to Christ the Lord for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven, in the service of God and man?
• Do you resolve to celebrate faithfully and reverently, in accord with the Church’s tradition, the mysteries of Christ, especially the sacrifice of the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation, for the glory of God and the sanctification of the Christian people?
• Do you resolve to be united more closely every day to Christ the High Priest, who offered Himself for us to the Father as a pure sacrifice, and with Him to consecrate yourself to God for the salvation of all?
• Do you promise respect and obedience to me and my successors?
• Do you resolve as a Good Shepherd to seek out the sheep who stray and gather them into the Lord's fold?
• Do you resolve to render obedience faithfully to the successor of the Blessed Apostle Peter?

As we listen to these solemn promises once made with absolute sincerity, I want to make a couple of suggestions for us all. And the first is this.

While each question has in a sense its own content and its own specificity, at a more profound level each of these questions is intimately connected with all the others. It is only when we take them together that we have the image, the icon if you like, of the Priestly ministry which, we must always remind ourselves, is not a creation of the Church as an institution but a gift from God to the Church as the body of Christ.

You cannot be a good priest, or at least not as the Lord would wish us to be, if you are faithful to your prayers but not to your promise of celibate chastity. You cannot be a good priest, or at least not as the Lord would wish us to be, if you put yourself generously at the service of your people but are disrespectful of or disobedient to your Bishop. You cannot be a good priest, or at least not as the Lord would wish us to be, if you piously celebrate the Eucharist every day but do not make yourself generously available to your people in a spirit of humble service.

Deacons are asked seven of these kinds of questions at their ordination, priests are asked a further six , and bishops are asked a further nine. I say a further six or nine because of course deacons don’t trade in their diaconate at the door of the church at the beginning of their priestly ordination Mass, and priests don’t hand back their priesthood when they are ordained as bishops. In our Catholic tradition, once a deacon always a deacon. Once a priest always a priest who is also a deacon. And once a bishop always a bishop who is also a priest and a deacon. I don’t know if this is a particularly elegant way of putting things theologically, but you know what I mean.  There is a unity and a brotherhood and a mutuality of care, concern and responsibility for each other which is part of entering into the community of ordained ministers in the Church.

I want to suggest to us all this afternoon, then, that we are intimately connected to each other, dependent on each other,  responsible for each other and capable of either enhancing or, sadly, diminishing each other’s ministry and the witness we are called to give together to God‘s holy people.

As I bring these few reflections to a close as my last formal contribution so to speak to our Conference this year I want to remind us all again that we are part of a Church which, as Pope Leo has very recently said, must follow the Synodal path upon which Pope Francis, under the inspiration of God‘s Holy Spirit according to Pope Leo, has set us.

It brings me back to the theme of our days together: what must we do, brothers?

At the end of our three days together, I hope we will have made some real progress in discerning an answer, the Lord‘s answer, to that question.  What must we do, what can we do together, to renew, to revive, to reinvigorate the life and ministry, the service and spiritual energy of our brotherhood?

Some of the possible answers may be very practical. Is there a better way to organise the Council of Priests? Should we try to revive Priest Support Groups? Should we try to develop further the model of parish hubs where a small number of parishes collaborate together on a number of projects? Practical proposals are very helpful. Renewed or reimagined structures, or new ones which we create to meet our own particular situation, can sometimes bring new life and energy, but as the old saying goes, culture eats structures for breakfast.

I dare to suggest that we also need, and need urgently, a renewal of the priestly heart; we need a rediscovery of our priestly identity; we need a re-founding of our Apostolic and missionary zeal. What must we do, brothers? What can we do, brothers, to make this possible? At the end of this first day of our time together this is the question. I hope we can grapple with it, and discern, together.