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Welcome
to PlenaryPost
When the Plenary Council process began, it was
always spoken of as a three-stage journey: Preparation,
Celebration and Implementation. Well, after four-and-a-half
years, the People of God in Australia have reached that third
stage.
Even so, there is still much to be said about the celebration
phase, which concluded when Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB
celebrated the Council's closing Mass at St Mary's Cathedral in
Sydney on July 9. That was itself the culmination of an intense,
prayerful and Spirit-filled second assembly, which we know most
of you will have followed closely.
Much of this edition of PlenaryPost relives the week that was,
but also looks to the future. For now, here's a video that seeks
to capture this journey we have made together.
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Re-live the
Plenary Council journey from 2018 through the second assembly
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FacilitatorFocus:
Church
communities prepare to 'take action' on Council's vision
by Marion
Gambin rsj
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“This
has been a time of grace and for that we give humble thanks.”
These words appear at the end of the Concluding Statement made on
the final day of the second assembly -- a statement affirmed by
all the Members as they prepared to travel home and bring to a
close the role each one has embraced for the past four years.
There is much available on the Plenary
Council website to inform you of the outcomes of the
listening, discernment, dialogue and decision-making that took
place during the second assembly, with prayer and reflection
threaded throughout the program for each day. The Members were
very conscious of the prayerful support coming from the Catholic
Church community across Australia and beyond.
In today’s PlenaryPost you can read some of the individual
reflections written by several Members, describing their personal
experience of the second assembly. These will also be included on
the Plenary Council website along with any others that arrive
over the next couple of weeks.
I really encourage you to read these brief reflections as they
certainly give expression to the amazing diversity, generous
commitment and strong hope for a Church more missionary and
Christ-centred, evident in the group of 277 Members.
So, what happens now? We have moved into the Implementation Phase
and the work continues with a plan, over the next five years, to
regularly review the "taking action" in parishes,
dioceses and organisations the decisions of the Plenary Council
journey. The steps in the next few months, through to November, will
include the finalising of the Acts of the Plenary Council and the
sending of the Decrees to Rome for approval.
The Facilitation Team has begun the process of attending to what
we are calling “tying up the loose ends” before we finish in our
role at the end of August. In this process we have discovered
that we have 110 hard copies of the books which are the collated
material from the Listening and Dialogue Phase. If you would like
one of these books, please send the Facilitation Team your postal
address to our email plenary.council@catholic.org.au
by August 5. We only have 110 books, so it will be first in,
first served.
Please pray that this Implementation phase will continue to
strengthen the seed of hope that has been planted. We look
forward to seeing the seed blossom and flourish as we work
together to be a more synodal, Gospel-focused community.
Many
blessings of peace,
Marion –
for the Facilitation Team
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We will
address a new question in each e-newsletter. To catch up on
previous editions, you can check out the
Plenary Council FAQ page. If you have
a question, email it to us and we will include it in future
editions of PlenaryPost.
The question for this edition is…
The celebration phase of the Plenary Council is
over. What happens now?
The Plenary Council has three phases: preparation, which took
place over more than three years; celebration, which included the
two assemblies and the nine months between them; and
implementation, which started after the second assembly and will
unfold in coming years.
At the second assembly, the following motion passed:
That the Plenary Council adopt the following steps
for ensuring the effectiveness and accountability of the
Implementation phase, to take place over a period of five years:
a. the Bishops Commission for the Plenary Council
will be responsible for establishing terms of review for the
Plenary Council’s implementation;
b. a roundtable body such as that proposed in
Decree 7, Article 2, will be responsible for co-ordinating the
review;
c. interim reports will be published in 2023
and 2025; and
d. the final review report will be published
five years after the Second Assembly, in 2027.
Much of
the work of implementation will take place at the local level,
including at diocesan synods that are expected to take place within
five years of the conclusion of the Plenary Council’s
celebration.
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Baptismal call carried Members through second
assembly
We reflected upon our baptismal call to missionary discipleship
and the ways in which we might strengthen our personal and
communal response. We focused upon the diverse gifts and common
dignity of women and men, and reaffirmed the Church’s commitment
to recognising and fostering the participation of women in all
the avenues of ministry and leadership open to the lay faithful.
We considered our baptismal invitation to receive and to live the
gift of the Trinitarian life of grace, and how we might enrich and
deepen our sacramental life, which both draws us from the world
and leads us back. We sought to discover new and creative ways to
form our communities and their leaders in ministry and for
mission.
We committed the Church in Australia to greater participation of
all the laity, women and men, in our governance processes and
leadership structures. We acknowledged the urgent need to make
commitments to care for our common home and to be open to the
integral and ecological conversion required to work with God who
makes all things new (Rev 21:5).
We carry forth into the world the seeds of fresh possibilities,
sown in a hidden yet abundant way by the great Sower of
everything, who makes these seeds flourish in unexpected places
for the sake of the Kingdom (Matt. 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, Luke
8:4-15).
We bear a rich heritage: the many ways in which the Catholic
community has enhanced life in Australia through its care for the
sick and marginalised, its commitment to education, and its
advocacy for social justice, especially the needs of refugees and
asylum seekers. We commit ourselves to seek and serve the human
flourishing of all Australians, and to care for Earth, our common
home, by cherishing, preserving, and healing the land.
We have seen God at work in these days, comforting and disrupting
in order to lead his people into a future of God’s making. This
has been a time of grace, and for that we give humble thanks. May
God who has begun the good work in us bring it to fulfilment (cf.
Phil 1:6).
-- An
excerpt from the concluding statement of the Plenary Council's
second assembly. Click
here to read the full statement.
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'Re-imagine
the Church through a missionary lens'
Plenary Council president Archbishop Timothy
Costelloe SDB has encouraged Council Members to continue relying
upon the Holy Spirit as they move into the future.
Archbishop Costelloe was the principal celebrant and homilist at
the closing Mass of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia
celebrated in St Mary’s Cathedral on Saturday, July 9.
Citing the words of St John the Baptist, he urged the Members to
take to heart that “He – Jesus – must grow greater, and I must
grow smaller”.
As Members look towards the “re-enlivening” of the Church,
Archbishop Costelloe said they must remember: “There will be no
renewal of the Church if we put ourselves above Christ or in some
perverse way push him to the margins.”
The experience of the early Church at Pentecost is one that needs
to be taken up by the Church each day, he said.
“The enlivening of the infant Church, gathered in prayer in the
upper room, was not a ‘once-only’ event. It is the daily reality
of the Church and the enduring foundation of the Church’s
identity.”
The Plenary Council was a new experience in many ways, Archbishop
Costelloe said, lived in a “tentative and incomplete fashion” as
the Members tried to “reimagine the Church in Australia through a
missionary lens”.
“We have tried, and at times struggled, and perhaps occasionally
failed, to listen carefully to each other,” he said.
“The Lord never promised that discipleship would be without its
challenges.”
Click here to read
the full story.
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What
motions passed during the second assembly?
The Motions and
Amendments document for the Plenary Council's second
assembly, which followed the earlier Framework for Motions
document, was the key guide for the Members' prayer
and discernment. During the course of the assembly, additional
amendments were made to various motions.
The final wording of all motions that achieved a qualified
majority in the deliberative vote -- two-thirds of such
members -- have been captured in the decrees of the Plenary
Council. After the November 2022 meeting of the Australian
Catholic Bishops Conference, the decrees will be sent to the
Apostolic See. In accordance with canon 446 of the Code of Canon
Law, decrees are not to be promulgated until they have been
reviewed by the Apostolic See. They will be promulgated in the Australasian Catholic
Record and the website of the Australian Catholic
Bishops Conference in accordance with its usual practice. The
decrees will oblige six months after promulgation.
Click here
to access the decrees of the Council and also to access the
outcomes of votes taken during the second assembly. The
introduction from the Motions and Amendments document, as amended
by the Members, is also accessible there.
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Members
reflect on their role during the Council
Plenary Council Members experienced a wide range
of emotions during the Council journey, and especially during the
two assemblies. After the second assembly concluded, Members were
invited to -- if they wish -- share a reflection on their
personal experience, as part of a larger group drawn from the
People of God across Australia.
Many members have agreed to have their reflections published on
the Plenary Council website. Here are some excerpts from the
reflections.
"For me personally, the Plenary Council journey; the
formation, the connections, the new friendships, the new skills,
and the experience of both assemblies has been life changing. As
a young lay Catholic woman, it has inspired me to “take the road
less travelled”. When many other young people are turning away
from the Church, I feel that it is my calling to play a
continuing role in our wider Australian Church, both personally
and professionally. Being a part of the Second Assembly has
confirmed this as a future vocational direction for me." -- Ms
Gemma Thomson.
"We arrived as strangers and left as friends. The assembly
hall at the Cathedral was filled with round tables. I had
never met my companions who would accompany me on the Plenary
journey over a week. Over the week we worked hard as we came to
learn each of each other’s faith-filled hopes for the Church in
Australia." -- Fr Peter Slack.
"What happened during the Second Assembly was a profound
experience that I will carry with me always. The disruption of
the Spirit in the process moved us from being ‘nice’ to being
more ‘real’ with each other, and the gifts of the Spirit and each
person enabled us to experience a way of being Church
differently, together in our diversity." -- Dr Jodi Steel.
"I was also fully aware of the uniqueness of bishops,
religious, priests, deacons and lay faithful gathered to discuss
and to vote. I have kept my red and green voting cards as a
reminder of this! Sitting at individual tables in mixed groups
was an important part of the Council for me. I delighted in the
depth and richness of the experience and love of the church
gathered together, even though it brought with it
differences." -- Fr Denis Stanley.
Find more
reflections on this page of the Plenary Council website.
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Virginia Bourke, Sr Melissa Dwyer FDCC and
Archbishop Mark Coleridge appeared on a Plenary Council media
briefing during the second assembly.
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How a
regional diocese will carry the Plenary forward
With the celebration phase of the Plenary Council
having concluded, the "rubber" is now about to hit the
proverbial road. With implementation of the outcomes of the
Council to be lived out across dioceses, parishes and other
communities, consideration has moved to how that will happen.
Townsville Bishop Tim Harris, whose diocese covers large
parts of northern Queensland, is thinking what the outcomes will
mean for his communities.
He told The Catholic Leader that he believed the Spirit was
present in the Council "from beginning to end".
“And I think the Spirit was shaking us up a bit and saying to the
Church gathered – bishops, priests, lay people religious, ‘Look,
you know, be prepared for some surprises that things may not go
according to plan',” he said.
“What has transpired I think, is a pivotal moment for us… I trust
the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit has taken us through the
plenary process to where we are now.
“We’ve now got to implement these decisions once they’re approved
by Rome. I’m hopeful that we will achieve, or the Holy Spirit
will achieve, great things for the Church.”
Click here to read
the full story.
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The five observers at the Plenary Council, seated
at top, helped demonstrate synodality in the work of the Council
as the Church globally seeks to embrace the concept.
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The
Plenary Council and Synodality
As the global Church journeys towards the 2023
Synod of Bishops on Synodality, one of the expert advisers to the
Plenary Council has spoken highly of the evidence of synodality
in the Council's work.
Fr Gerard Kelly, a lecturer in theology at the Catholic
Institute of Sydney, said the world was watching Australia as the
People of God undertook the Plenary Council to see how it might
be a model of what "a synodal church might look like".
Fr Kelly said the presence of the Pope's ambassador to Australia
Archbishop Charles Balvo, New Zealand Cardinal John Dew and
Cardinal Charles Bo from Myanmar was "a constant reminder
that the plenary council was indeed a synodal gathering",
not focused solely on itself, "but aware that its actions
were for building up the communion of the whole Church".
"Throughout the week of the plenary council, the members
learnt the truth of the words of the pope in his October 2015
address, namely that 'synod' is an easy concept
to put into words, but not so easy to put into practice," Fr
Kelly said.
"The starting point for synodality is listening – listening
to the Holy Spirit by listening to one another. The presumption
must be that the other person has something to say that is true
and good and important.
"Moreover, as the pope said in his Pentecost homily this
year, 'oddly, the Holy Spirit is the author of division, of
ruckus, of a certain disorder. … He creates division with
charisms and he creates harmony with all this division'."
Click here to read Fr
Kelly's reflection.
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Farewell,
but not goodbye
While the Plenary Council's celebration phase has
concluded, the PlenaryPost community has grown to several
thousand over the past four years. In coming weeks, we will
consider how to continue to keep this community informed about
news related to the Catholic Church in Australia. We will be in
touch soon to invite you to remain connected.
If you aren't already a subscriber to CathNews, that is one great
way to follow news of interest to Catholics in Australia. Click here to
subscribe.
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