Pope Francis greets Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr Baumann, an Australian Aboriginal elder,
educator and artist, after his weekly general audience May 31, 2023, in St Peter’s Square
at the Vatican. Looking on is Chiara Porro, Australian ambassador to the Holy See. (CNS
photo/Lola Gomez) Amid the Catholic Church’s push under Pope Francis to increasingly engage with and welcome Indigenous peoples and cultures, Australia’s bishops have approved a new liturgy incorporating elements of Aboriginal language and culture.
Called the ‘Mass of the Land of the Holy Spirit’, or Missa Terra Spiritus Sancti in Latin, the liturgy was formally approved for use in the Diocese of Broome in Western Australia last Tuesday during a plenary meeting of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference in Sydney.
According to a May 7 statement from the Australian bishops, the motion to approve the Mass was brought forward by the Bishops’ Commission for Liturgy and was co-sponsored by the Bishops Commission for Relations with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
Throughout his papacy, Pope Francis has made of point of meeting with Indigenous groups and has often spoken out about respecting their land and cultural customs. During his 2019 Synod of Bishops on the Amazon and in his subsequent exhortation on the meeting, Querida Amazonia, the Pope stressed the need for a better inculturation of the faith in Indigenous communities, particularly through the liturgy and in the establishment of more seminaries to help foster local vocations.
In a statement about the approval of the new Aboriginal Mass, Bishop Michael Morrissey, who serves as apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Broome, said, “We have to walk with Aboriginal people. I am so pleased that after such a long period of use the Missa Terra Spiritus Sancti has been given official recognition by the bishops of Australia”.
“We recognise there are many Aboriginal cultures in Australia and we pray that they all be guided by the Holy Spirit to develop the best way of celebrating the Eucharist in the most appropriate ways with their people, within the life of the Church,” he said.
Two elders from the Bidyadanga, or La Grange parish, Maureen Yanawana and Madeleine Jadai, participated in Tuesday’s meeting in Sydney to present a printed copy of the Mass to the bishops and to discuss their experience with it.
“Singing at the top of our voices brings us peace,” Ms Yanawana said, saying, “We would like to see you, all our bishops, stepping in our shoes, be invited to sit around our people, have that patience and just listen.”
Though formally approved last week, the Mass, according to the bishops, has been in use in the Broome Diocese for over 50 years, and is celebrated in multiple languages.