THREE Brisbane-based religious women and men will bring the voice and experience of their vocation to the Plenary Council’s first session in October.
Canossian Sister Melissa Dwyer, Dominican provincial Fr Anthony Walsh and Mercy Congregation leader Sr Catherine Reuter are all eager to participate, encourage and listen in the session.
Sr Dwyer said one thing she liked from the recently-released agenda was the invitation of the members to create concrete proposals that are leading to a more missionary and Christ-centred Church.
“I love that statement,” she said.
“Why I love it is because it talks about two things that I believe are really crucial – the call to mission and the need for the Church to be always focused on Christ; and it also has that nature of the concrete proposals.
“A concern could be from the plenary council that it just becomes a talk-fest; that we’ve had these years of preparation, this long journey, and nothing concrete actually comes of it.”
She said it was “really encouraging” to see calls for action.
Sr Dwyer said her passion for mission and passion for Christ are right at the centre of the plenary council agenda.
“Another thing I also really like is the point that references the need for the Church in Australia to consider how we can meet the needs of the most vulnerable; to go to the peripheries.”
“That’s something that we need to grow in the Church – to look to the margins and how we can be more attentive to those people who are on the margins of society – that’s what Jesus did and that’s our call.”
She said she was looking forward to how the Church is going to concretely promote a culture of inclusion moving forward.
Sr Dwyer said it was important to remember this is the first time that women are going to be present at the council and lay-people present.
“This is good news,” she said.
“This is fantastic; we can become discouraged and… get lost in what we can’t do and our expectations can be too high.
“What encourages me is to be grateful that we have made this significant step and for the first time there are going to be conversations with lay-people and women and women religious – and that’s exciting.”
Fr Walsh said he saw hope in the plenary process, especially seeing the openness of Australian Catholics to the Holy Spirit in leading the Church.
He said the agenda met many of the needs of the future of the Church.
“We’re all co-responsible, all the baptised are co-responsible, for the mission and how we live that out – we’re all going to be manifesting that in different ways according to our own vocation, our own calling as lay, religious or priest.
“I think part of this process is learning to recognise and affirm the different gifts that they’ve been given by the Holy Spirit and how those gifts work together for the unity of the Church.”
He said, while at the council, he wanted to make people aware of the importance of religious life for the Church.
Religious in Australia, especially women religious, were dropping substantially, he said.
“This is really a situation that needs to be looked at carefully; religious are signs of the Kingdom in their vows – following the poor, obedient and chaste Christ,” he said.
“The other part of that is that the most important vocation in the Church is the lay vocation in the sense that priestly and religious vocations flourish from a healthy lay vocation.”
Sr Reuter said the inclusion of “formation and structures as key themes on the agenda captured her interest, as did the journey of discernment (an ongoing Spirit-filled process) that we are called to engage in and commit ourselves to”.
“I hope to be surprised by the acknowledgement of governance as an aspect of Church life that we (the Catholic community) create so that we can be together,” she said.
“And that in this complex reality, where there will be tension, that there is a realisation we (the Church) are graced and human, guided by the Spirit, are continually refining our relationships for the sake of mission and are moving away from our disproportionate
leaning towards hierarchy.
“So synodal formation could prompt and enable governance/structures that while rigorous are diverse and inclusive of laymen but more especially of women.”
She said she hoped the “inclusive decision-making practices that will be spoken about, engaged in and prompted by the Plenary sessions be promoted into the future within the Australian Church”.
