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Conclusion

Discerning a Catholic perspective for ministry

Through this research we have seen how contemporary secular culture can pose
significant challenges to religion and indeed those involved in faith ministry. Post-

modernism can have a tendency to reduce matters of faith and belief from a level of
transcendence and otherness, to one of interiority and self-validation (CES 2005:16-

18). This turn to the subject as we have explored, emanates throughout our culture
and as a result places increased demands upon individuals based largely on financial

and performance priorities. Through Vatican II the Church is mandated to engage
and transform this culture as part of its mission of evangelisation (GS §40-45). Every

secular order and institution therefore becomes a valid arena for this encounter. The
police service is no exception and by exploring this particular context we begin to
determine both where the challenges arise, and indeed where opportunities for

evangelisation exist. It is in identifying these tensions and openings that we can
begin to discern the principles of a Catholic approach to ministry.

Clearly the first principle of a Catholic method for ministry should be a proper
attentiveness to secular culture. Environments like the police service have to be

accepted positively as the terrain in which faith and life reach a full synthesis (GS
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§43) . The challenge for the Church is in determining where it must challenge and
indeed where it should embrace the expressions of secular culture. On the one hand
for example those responsible for ministry may need to remind the police service of

the dignity of the human person in the face of a prevailing organisational
performance culture (CES 2005:24). On the other hand however the Church may
need to reflect upon the positive ethos of pastoral welfare present within the service

that also incorporates a secular hermeneutic of spiritual care. The challenge for those
involved in faith ministry is to both ‘translate’ and ‘be translated’ by these secular

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The world is also identified as “the field in which the faithful are called to fulfil their mission” (CL §3).