I have been given the opportunity over the past three years to have privileged insights into the leadership of Catholic secondary schools. Most recently this experience included Mary Aikenhead Education’s 2024 leadership symposium. I have previously described Catholic secondary education as a ‘parallel church’, a provocative image which I have been told does not please episcopal leaders who hold education closer to their hearts than any other ministry. Education does, after all, represent Catholicism to the wider community more than anything else. While the image appeals to many in schools, it may not please some others who view the church as a whole rather than in isolated parts.
The image captures useful aspects, though it needs refinement and overstates the parallelism at play. What I sought to capture was the contrast between the flourishing Catholic education sector and the diminishing episcopal/diocesan/parish sector. The former is now largely lay, while the latter, by definition, is still clerical. More than that I sought to highlight the contrast between the type of church found in the two sectors.
One, the clerical, is increasingly at war with contemporary society in many dioceses, while the other, the schools, are embracing it. The latter, despite some pushback from many senior diocesan bishops, is a much more inclusive church open to contemporary values, especially in the areas of gender and sexuality. Women’s empowerment and the inclusion of diverse sexualities are non-negotiable in schools, but this is not yet the case in many parishes and dioceses.
Dioceses and schools are not strictly on parallel paths, because there is some contact and overlap. They can come together on matters like the environment and Indigenous peoples. Some parents, teachers, and students live in both worlds. But for the vast majority the ‘parallel’ image stands because there is a gulf between the two.
The education sector is also the home to the newly emerging canonical form, Ministerial Public Juridic Persons (MPJPs), a church term for an entity established by Canon Law ‘to perform a specific function’. Ministerial is the key word which distinguishes them from dioceses, parishes and religious institutes, which are also Public Juridic Persons.
The current fourteen MPJPs are still not well-known by this name in the wider Catholic community, although their activities (schools, hospitals, and aged care) may be. They have grown out of the religious institutes (Sisters of Charity in the case of Mary Aikenhead Ministries), which played such a large part in Catholic education, health and other ministries but are now in decline. Others include Edmund Rice Education Australia (Christian Brothers) and Kildare Ministries (Brigidine and Presentation Sisters). It is a passing of the flame from one religious institute generation to a new lay-led generation, inspired by Vatican II and utilising the new structures now available. The new entities are led by canonical stewards or trustees, of which there were about 80 in all in 2023.
The MPJPs are one of the rising forces in the church, coming together in the Association of Ministerial Public Juridic Persons (AMPJP). They carry forward in a new, evolving way the charisms or particular spiritual gifts, of the religious institutes and have high aspirations. After its recent AMPJP AGM, Dinner and Forum 2024, its executive officer, Martin Teulan, reported in its newsletter that the new strategic plan ‘seeks to help MPJPs emerge from an essential period of initial development and settling in, to a new stage of life, where they also take their place as key leadership bodies in the wider Church’.
'Each of the MPJPs also brings expertise, experience and special charisms. They are now flourishing oases in church life. Serious doubts exist, however, about the ‘tripod’ image. It remains just an aspiration if it is meant to imply equality within the Church.'
In terms of wider church governance, this is already happening. The MPJPs have been officially named as the third tripod in the structure of a newly emerging, synodal church alongside the bishops (represented by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference) and the religious institutes (represented by Catholic Religious Australia). This was the case at the Plenary Council (PC) assemblies in 2021-22. When the PC concluded, the three-legged tripod was accorded pride of place within its implementation arrangements. This hasn’t happened yet, because the Decrees have not yet been approved by the Vatican, but the intention remains.
My co-presenter at the Mary Aikenhead Education Symposium 2024 and keynote speaker at the AMPJP event, Susan Pascoe, has joined with the Australian Catholic University and other researchers to launch a new world-wide church governance initiative. It is known as ‘Inclusive Governance in a Synodal Church’. This project ties together the idea of synodality and the MPJPs as the future of church governance. Pascoe, who holds various positions with the Synod on Synodality in Rome, is well-placed to do this given her leading roles in both developments. She has extensive experience in the church governance world.
The MPJPs in Australia bring a fresh perspective to the table. Teulan claims that ‘the size of MPJP ministries, led mostly by lay people, is now perhaps 50 times greater than that of the remaining religious order ministries.’
Each of the MPJPs also brings expertise, experience and special charisms. They are now flourishing oases in church life. Serious doubts exist, however, about the ‘tripod’ image. It remains just an aspiration if it is meant to imply equality within the Church.
The first query is whether the three legs of this church governance image are anywhere near as equal as the simple image implies. A cursory look shows that they are not, and the authority structure and culture of the church does not allow them to be. The ‘old’ power structure, represented within the hierarchical church by the ACBC, remains dominant, not just because of tradition, but because of its size and resources. CRA has never been accorded the respect it deserves by the ACBC and remains in a subservient position despite the autonomy and independence of religious institutes. The MPJPs (not a user-friendly term), have still got a lot of growth and relationship building within the wider church to undertake. They remain the weakest leg of the tripod.
The second query is whether the tripod fully represents the diversity of the Church in Australia or whether the tripod squeezes out other elements, including most laity. If most lay Catholics are excluded it contradicts the aspirations of a synodal church for the People of God. The tripod needs a fourth leg to represent those lay Catholics who have no ties to the AMPJP. The fourth leg, perhaps a new National Council of the Laity, would represent lay individuals and independent lay groups, like Vinnies. Only then will the future governance of the Church in Australia be fully inclusive and synodal in the spirit of the synodality championed by Pope Francis.
John Warhurst is an Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the Australian National University.