Keywords: Plenary Council 2020
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RELIGION
- Paul Collins
- 05 January 2023
The Plenary Council (PC) is over and the time has come for assessments. What did it achieve? In positive terms it brought together an enormously generous group of people whose dedication to Catholicism is extraordinary. It also demonstrated the diverse complexity of the community.
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RELIGION
- Paul Collins
- 12 July 2022
33 Comments
The Plenary Council (PC) is over and the time has come for assessments. What did it achieve? In positive terms it brought together an enormously generous group of people whose dedication to Catholicism is extraordinary. It also demonstrated the diverse complexity of the community.
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RELIGION
- Paul Collins
- 28 June 2022
7 Comments
A basic principle was laid down in the pope’s recent Apostolic Constitution entitled Praedicate evangelium that is profoundly important with far-reaching consequences for the whole church. This principle states that any baptised Catholic ‘can preside over a dicastery,’ that is run a Vatican department. Previously only ordained clerics could do this.
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RELIGION
- John Warhurst
- 10 February 2022
37 Comments
The Church in Australia has taken a step towards greater transparency with the release by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) of its first ever Annual Report-this one for the 2020 year. This step is welcome, but there is more to be done. Synodality and co-responsibility presumes that those who are walking together have equal access to information upon which to discern the future of the Church at all levels.
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RELIGION
- John Warhurst
- 25 February 2020
7 Comments
Approaches to governance are in flux within church agencies, sectors, dioceses and at the national level, either driven by the demands of state regulations or in response to the challenging new situation the church finds itself in. There is so much change going on that it is difficult to follow.
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RELIGION
- John Warhurst
- 28 January 2020
57 Comments
Australia's bishops have yet to demonstrate the new openness to the Catholic community necessary for a successful Plenary Council. Their inclination to secrecy remains an impediment. They just don't get transparency as a virtue and they have twice demonstrated their adherence to old ways of doing things in recent months.
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RELIGION
- Nick Brodie
- 16 January 2020
55 Comments
Cardinal Sarah's scandal-causing book arguing against changes to the rule of mandatory celibacy was a transparent attempt to thwart proposals coming out of the Amazonian Synod of 2019. Whatever the fallout, it should not be allowed to scare Australia's bishops off from discussing the subject during Plenary Council 2020.
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RELIGION
- John Warhurst
- 14 October 2019
8 Comments
The royal commission concluded that child safety, in all its organisational ramifications, raised questions of culture and governance for the church. If the Plenary Council 2020 doesn't take such issues seriously then it will be one indicator that the momentum around last year's official national apology has slowed.
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RELIGION
- Andrew Hamilton
- 09 October 2019
11 Comments
For Catholics who are interested in the Australian Church, its future and the Plenary Council, this is essential reading. Given its focus on governance, it may also be of interest to a wider audience. Many of the strains of dysfunction it finds in Church governance are similar to those in public life in Australia and internationally.
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RELIGION
- Paul Collins
- 04 September 2019
42 Comments
Anyone in the past who called attention to these issues was accused at best of exaggeration'. Getting Back on Mission points out that until the church accepts good governance characterised by accountability, transparency, inclusion and a recognition of the equality of women, it will continue its culture of clericalism and secrecy.
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RELIGION
- John Warhurst
- 24 July 2019
80 Comments
Whatever the legitimate logistical and financial challenges, the Australian church leadership should move heaven and earth to put on an event in which delegates and observers, bishops, religious and laity, traditionalists and reformers are free to mingle and interact in the best spirit of collegiality and joint discernment about the future.
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FAITH DOING JUSTICE
- Andrew Hamilton
- 02 May 2019
11 Comments
The Australian bishops' statement on the federal election is significant as much for the fact it was made as for its argument. Given the polarisation of public debate, they might well have thought it wiser to remain silent. For them the greatest success of the statement may be that, when they spoke of public issues, the sky did not fall in.
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