40th Anniversary Diocese of Broken Bay

40th Anniversary

Diocese of Broken Bay

8 April 2026

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in this radiant Easter season, as the Church continues to rejoice in the victory of the Risen Lord, we gather in our cathedral for a moment of profound thanksgiving.

On this Easter Wednesday, we mark the fortieth anniversary of the proclamation of our Diocese, established on 8 April 1986, when Pope John Paul II decreed that Broken Bay should be a Local Church and that Bishop Patrick Murphy was to be our first bishop. What began as a young and hopeful community of the Church has, by the grace of God, grown and matured across four decades of faith, service, and witness.

The Word of God today invites us to reflect deeply on who we are and what we have been given.

In the Acts of the Apostles, Saint Peter encounters a man who has known only limitation and dependence. Peter says to him with striking simplicity and conviction:

“I have neither silver nor gold, but I will give you what I have: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk.”

Acts 3:6

Peter offers not wealth or status, but the power and presence of Jesus Christ. And that is everything.

Over these forty years, our Diocese has sought to do precisely that: to give what we have received. From an initial Catholic population of around one hundred and fifty thousand within a wider population of six hundred and fifty thousand, we grew to more than three hundred and eighty thousand Catholics before recent changes in census reporting. Today, we are about two hundred and fifty thousand Catholics among just over one million people.

One in every four inhabitants in our region is Catholic. Yet this is not a matter of numbers alone. It is a reminder of presence, responsibility, and mission. Faithful Catholic women and men, young and old, Indigenous and Australian born, and those who have come to these shores seeking a new home, have built up this local Church in remarkable ways.

Through Catholic education, engagement in public schools, health care, aged care, pastoral ministry, and countless acts of mercy and charity, the clergy and people of this Diocese have sought to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ not only in word, but in action. In doing so, they have helped to shape communities of grace marked by care, reconciliation, and peace across the North Shore, the Northern Beaches, and the Central Coast.

Yet we also acknowledge, with humility and sorrow, that there have been times when we have failed in our mission. Some members of the Church, both clerics and laity, have caused harm, particularly to children and vulnerable people. For this, we ask pardon and forgiveness. We renew our commitment to ensure that our communities are places of safety, dignity, and protection, where crime and sin find no shelter, and where every person is respected as a child of God.

The Gospel today offers us a powerful image of who we are called to be. The disciples on the road to Emmaus walk together in confusion and grief. They speak, they question, they listen, and they enter into dialogue. The Risen Jesus draws near and walks with them, though they do not at first recognise him. It is only when they offer him hospitality, when he sits with them at table, and when the bread is broken, that their eyes are opened and they recognise him. (Luke 24:35)

This is the pattern of the Christian life. This is the pattern of a synodal Church. We walk together. We listen to one another. We engage with the world around us. We invite Christ into our midst. And in the breaking of the bread, in the Eucharist, we recognise him present among us.

The Resurrection of Jesus is not simply an event of the past; it is the living reality that sustains us and sends us forth. It is no coincidence that our Diocese was founded in the Easter season. From the beginning, we have been marked by the Light of Christ in the Resurrection.

For forty years, we have walked together as a diocesan community, seeking to recognise the Lord in our midst and to make him known to others. Like Saint Peter, we may not always have had material wealth or worldly power, but we have had something far greater: the name of Jesus Christ, and the call to proclaim him.

Today, as we celebrate this anniversary, we are invited into a renewed encounter with the Risen Lord. Jesus stands among us. He walks with us. He speaks to our hearts. He is present in his Word and in the breaking of the bread. And he sends us out, as witnesses in this time and place, to bring hope, healing, and life to the world.

Let this anniversary be a moment of truth and grace, a time to give thanks for all that has been good, and to acknowledge honestly what has not been. May we embrace anew the Good News of Jesus Christ and renew our commitment to discipleship, to fidelity to God, and to living the Gospel with courage and love through the power of the Holy Spirit.

As we look to the future, may we never forget where we have come from, so that we do not lose sight of where God is leading us and sending us.

“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad. Alleluia!”

Psalm 117:24