From Australia has come a new online book, The Francis Effect: Living the Joy of the Gospel, which offers insights from Catholic leaders in the country on the challenges and inspiration needed to fully live the joy of the Gospel in varied ministries.  Jointly published by Catholic Mission and Catholic Religious Australia, The Francis Effect is an opportunity to engage with Evangelii Gaudium in an active and practical way.    

In his foreword, mission theologian Fr Stephen Bevans SVD writes, “the twelve Australian Catholic leaders who have written these essays rather spontaneously in the days after the release of the Exhortation, are women and men who also ‘smell like the sheep’.”

Professor Anne Cummins, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Australian Catholic University, is one of the authors featured. Her perspective titled ‘The Transformative Power of Education’ offers some insight into the courage required to teach with love, examining the vocation of teaching.  With schools being one of the largest Catholic employers, Professor Cummins asks, “How do Catholic employers avoid an ‘economy of exclusion and inequality?” (EG 53).   She also considers possible roles for women in the Church highlighting Pope Francis’ call that “we need to create still broader opportunities for a more incisive female presence in the Church” (EG 103).

Other authors include Graeme Mundine, Executive Officer, Aboriginal Catholic Ministry in the Archdiocese of Sydney, who offers a poignant reflection highlighting some of the continuing struggle Aboriginal people face even in the most basic traditions of prayer; and Joe Maloney, Research Officer for Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee, who writes of the perpetuated fears across much of our society towards those seeking asylum manifested from self-centeredness.  Also featured are Julie Edwards, CEO of Jesuit Social Services, and Sandie Cornish, a long-time collaborator of the Jesuits in Australia.

But joy remains the central theme and message of both Evangelii Gaudium and The Francis Effect and as Father Bevans writes, “Despite an atmosphere in the Church that is sceptical and scandalised, Pope Francis calls the Church to hope, to the central message of Christianity” as do each of the authors. What are we waiting for? The joy of the Gospel is there for us all.

Read The Francis Effect – Living the Joy of the Gospel free online.