The People Speak Out

Report on the national synthesis from their region

Introduction.

This synthesis was compiled on the basis, mainly, of submissions to an online portal and earlier submissions to the Australian Plenary Council process.

1. What are the core inclusions from the bishops in your region?

Core inclusions were:

 On Synodality

 Great approval for synodality but more aspirational than achievement. Few practical suggestions for implementation

On Communion.

People are concerned and feel a need for a deeper sense of community.

A desire to grow in the faith, in spiritual formation, catechesis for young people.

On Participation

Synodality is about welcoming and inclusion but expressions of ‘welcoming back to the Eucharistic table’ are undermined by reference to subjective feelings related to ‘seemingly restrictive practices’. Until those who are excluded, LGBTIQA+ people, divorced and remarried and cohabiting couples, are unconditionally welcomed to the Eucharist, exclusion is practiced and endorsed.

It is recognised that the hierarchical model of decision-making can have negative implications which can be the antithesis of synodality.

In all areas of the Church, there is a desire for greater confidence that decision-making processes would be inclusive, transparent, responsible and accountable.

On Mission

There is a strong current advocating for more action on social justice and care of the Earth

Accompaniment of specific groups, such as children, families, young people and immigrants is needed but we are left vague on the ‘How to’, as was a desire for all the baptised to be missionary disciples.

There is a need for acknowledgement, encouragement and development of a culture in which all the baptised are called to be missionary disciples.

Through their outreach to various groups, many Catholic agencies and schools in Australia are already acknowledged as concrete expressions of synodal living, but the efficiency of religious education in schools and parishes is questioned.

Encouragement for Catholics, both within and beyond the parish communities, to engage in service to those on the margins is desired.

There needs to be ongoing cooperation with other Christian churches, particularly those in the same area, to identify opportunities for greater collaboration.

It was noted that, rather than expecting people to ‘come in’, all Catholics were called to reach out.

2. What is left out?

Synodality

Recognition of the disastrous decline in church engagement was not followed up with any possible strategy for reversing the trend. Outreach to the disconnected and alienated is noted as a concern but not addressed.

Communion

Community formation needs to be grounded in personal and community experience.      

The distinction suggested between what is essential and unchangeable, and traditions that may be developed, is not elaborated on.

The need for people to speak up and for clergy to listen, are noted but no action is suggested.

On issues such as abortion, euthanasia and same-sex marriage, there is no acknowledgement that for many if not most Catholics, the consciences and voices of the faithful and the formal teaching of the church are not the same

Participation

There is no reference to the extent to which parishes are controlled by the clergy.

The statement that clericalism is ‘widely regarded as a barrier to synodality’ is a gross understatement.

There is no acknowledgement that the treatment of women in the church, (role, status and function) is out of step with the higher standards of contemporary civil society. While women do not have access to every position, including priestly ordination, equality is incomplete and discrimination has a foothold.  

There are no suggestions as to how the negative implications of hierarchy could be countered or how confidence can be restored in decision-making.

On Mission

There is no reference to an overarching vision that would provide context for ecumenical collaboration.

The call for all Catholics to reach out to others is not accompanied by any recognition that most are estranged for church activities because of church deficiencies and practices. How can anyone speak confidently about something that does not even convince themselves? Even among regular Mass-goers, there are serious unaddressed questions.

Conclusion

The Conclusion refers to a National Catholic Synodal Roundtable ‘to foster and promote the synodality of the Church nationally. Let us hope that the Roundtable takes a more positive progressive approach than this synthesis

Summary.

This synthesis covers a lot of ground and touches on many important issues. However it amounts to a collection of alternative views on almost every topic. It offers little in the way of leadership, a coherent vision or a bold mission. It reflects a focus on the internal concerns of the Catholic church in Australia with minimal reference to the wider society in which we all live.

It is essentially a compilation of calls, desires, concerns and sectional recommendations, loaded with parenthood statements stating the obvious and the aspirational, rather than a serious effort to confront critical issues.

A more complete list of issues inadequately addressed:

• The role and status of women in the church;
• Exclusion/inclusion, equality and access, especially in relation to LGBTIQA+ people;
• Accountability and transparency;
• Clericalism;
• Response to the suffering and healing of victims and survivors of religious sexual abuse;
• Pastoral outreach to those who are cut off from the Church by its official teaching, e.g., on

divorce and remarriage, contraception, annulments, LGBTIQA+;

• Need for improved presentation of Jesus’ vision and mission through better educated preaching and scriptural interpretation;
• Community formation;
• Synodal structures such a DPCs and PPCs;
• Recognition of the ‘Sins of the Past’ and the ‘Signs of the Times’;
• Baptismal priesthood;
• Archaic and outdated liturgical forms;
• Co-responsibility for articulating and promoting the vision and mission of Jesus;
• The recommendations of the report, ‘The Light from the Southern Cross’;
• Developments in the natural and human sciences over the last 500 years;
• The exercise of authority in the Church;
• The functional relationship between synodality and hierarchical structure;
• The introduction of the experience, knowledge and wisdom of lay Catholics, into the deliberative phase of the synodal process and at the Synod of Bishops itself.

Synod of Bishops Australian Synthesis