Six months into his role as Catholic bishop of Townsville, Tim Harris has big plans for church engagement with the community.
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Speaking on his first visit to Mount Isa he said he hoped to come back in February and lead a pastoral visitation which he sees as akin to a community cabinet.
“I want to go to all four of my deaneries and talk to finance boards, parish councils, talk to people at Mass or even those not Mass or not even Catholic I’d like to speak to them as well,” Bishop Harris said.
“In other words, it’s like when the cabinet comes to town and they get together in the town hall, well I would like to do the same.”
Bishop Harris said he would like to come with experts in various fields such as finance, education, and community organisations, such as St Vincent de Paul.
“It may be four or five people who can come with me and help me hear what people are saying and then respond,” he said.
“I’d just open it up to the wider community and say ‘what’s going on in your town, what do we need to hear, how can the Church help.”
Bishop Harris said it was about remaining relevant and seeing if they could lend a hand in some way. “Not necessarily a hand out but a hand up,” he said.
Bishop Harris said the Mount Isa parish was already doing an enormous amount of social work under the leadership of Father Mick Lowcock.
“The outreach to the community, Catholic and non-Catholic, particularly to the Indigenous people of this part of the world, is absolutely extraordinary,” he said.
“No one judges, the church is on the front foot, being there for the needs of many of our Indigenous brothers and sisters.
“I was in the parish officer observing Father Mick and the other staff and the phone never stopped and many of those calls were for help.”
The bishop was proud of the Church’s drop-in centre in Burke St. “They come across from the riverbed and they sit outside, but there’s a shower there, there’s some fresh food, it’s a sort of safe haven,” he said.
The bishop also paid tribute to Father Mick’s work as diocesan administration after the death of the previous bishop, Michael Putney in 2014.
“No one believed he would still be in that role three years after he was appointed,” he said. “We were all talking about it. Father Mick had to be parish priest in Mount Isa and go to Townsville every couple of weeks, spend some time there and fly back – we can’t underestimate the pressure he was under, he did a superb job, it probably took quite a lot out of him, so I’m very grateful and on my ordination I publicly thanked him and the whole community stood up and gave him a standing ovation.”
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
