AMIDST global debate about the role of women in the Catholic Church, Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge says it will be “a close call” today whether a motion to support women becoming Church deacons is supported at Australia’s historic Plenary Council assembly in Sydney.
Motions aimed at providing women and men equal dignity in the Australian Church are being put to 277 assembly members – a first vote has already been cast by religious, lay men and women – with a final vote – made exclusively by bishops – to be known later today.
To pass, a final vote by bishops on whether to support women deacons would require a two thirds majority.
“I suspect it will be a close call but there are very different perspectives on this all held in good faith,” Archbishop Coleridge, outgoing president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, said.
Inside the Church, he said a “tectonic shift” is happening in terms of allowing women into decision-making positions, however, he added “it can’t be reduced to simply women being ordained deacons” – an action that would ultimately hinge on Pope Francis agreeing to it.
“I think the current model of governance in the Church, where it’s so closely tied to ordination, looks to me to be unsustainable in the future,” Archbishop Coleridge said, outside the closed-door plenary assembly.
“Currently you can only govern in the Church if you are ordained… and I think we have to move more to a team approach to governance and leadership and women will have to be very much part of that.”
Plenary member, Bishop of Wagga Wagga, Mark Edwards OMI, said that if the deaconate for women went ahead the “great advantage it would offer us is that we would hear a woman preaching at Mass”, but he said from his experience the move would not really help with Church governance since “decisions in the parish aren’t made by the deacon they are make by the priest, and decisions in the diocese aren’t made by the deacon they are made by the bishop”.
“So I don’t think it’s a help with governance, governance needs to be addressed in other, creative ways,” he said.
Plenary member, Dr Maeve Heaney, Director, Xavier Centre of Theology at Australian Catholic University, said finding a decision-making space for women in the Church implied thinking how our “baptismal identity as prophets, priests and kings interacts with theologies of priesthood and theologies and episcopate”.
The Plenary Council assembly will also complete voting today on a motion to make the Church community “one in which all the baptised find welcome and inclusion” including women, those who are divorced and those who are not accepted because of their sexuality or gender identity”. (Whether a motion should include the specific term LGBTIQA+ as a group that feels excluded from the Church is itself has been an issue of plenary debate.)
Archbishop Coleridge said he has no problem using the term, which he said now appears on the website of the Synod Office in Rome.
“My view would be it is the preferred self-description of people who are LGBTIQ+. I have no problem,” he said.
“I personally would favour its retention, but it will be a question as to whether that now conventional language is retained or whether go for some rather clumsy circumlocution.”
Yesterday, Day 2 of the assembly, members supported landmark motions relating to Indigenous reconciliation and healing the wounds of Church child sex abuse.
Click here to read the final wording of those motions, while full details of the votes can be found at: https://bit.ly/3IfeHd9.
Motions include a recommitment by the Church to respond with justice and compassion to those who have suffered from the trauma of abuse, including, where appropriate, ongoing pastoral and spiritual support and accompaniment, and setting up local memorials to recognise the harm done through abuse and the need for special care for children.
Ongoing safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults is also an ongoing Church priority.
Plenary member, Francis Sullivan, Chair of Catholic Social Services Australia and former CEO of the Church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council, expressed concerns that “beneath the debate on these issues lies the confronting reality that the culture of the Church can be discriminatory and exclusive”.
“At assemblies like this, the resolutions all come down to words,” he said.
“The Church still tends to merely incorporate the incidences of abuse into its ongoing story rather than letting the scandal confront its very nature and, in turn, its culture.
“It shies from debates about any implicit institutional biases or even how episcopal authority can be corrosive of genuine systemic reform.
“Unless there is a comprehensive acknowledgement of the cultural factors that led to the scandal that concealed its realities and facilitated the evasion from police and other authorities, the institutional response will always appear limp and bureaucratic.”
Archbishop Coleridge conceded motions aimed at healing the trauma of Church abuse were “pretty modest”.
“It’s part of the journey that focuses where we’ve been, and will give us greater impetus in the future,” he said.
“There are many things you can say about those who have been abused sexually, that you would also say about the First Nations people of Australia, both have suffered trauma.
“It has taken me years and years to begin to understand trauma and to move towards what they call a trauma informed response.
“It’s all about the Church responding to trauma in a way that trauma requires.”
Archbishop Coleridge added that the fate of indigenous peoples is “the running sore at the heart of the nation.”
“I think it’s been fascinating through this whole journey of the Plenary Council the way in which indigenous engagement has moved to centre stage,” he said.
Brisbane member, Wuthathi and Meriam woman, Toni Janke, praised the Church current commitment to include First Nations peoples, their culture and heritage, support for the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and for truth-telling about past Church mistreatment.
Inclusion of protocols such as smoking ceremonies and Welcome to Country will become part of parish life, and efforts will be made to “develop options for the liturgically and culturally appropriate use of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander symbols and rituals”.
“This is a really powerful opportunity. And a real spirit-led process that is long overdue, and yet, one that is hopefully going to bring a lot of goodwill and a lot of hope and lot of positive energy and enthusiasm for the future,” Ms Janke said.
The Plenary Council Assembly, the fifth in the history of the Church in Australia, and the first since 1937, is being convened by the Australian bishops, heeding Pope Francis’ invitation to dialogue with society, particularly in light of significant social changes and the findings of the Royal Commission into child sex abuse.
More than 30 motions in eight topic areas are being considered this week.
Sessions are being livestreamed each day from 8.30am AEST.
Follow the assembly at: www.plenarycouncil.catholic.org.au
