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Fresh from her meeting with Pope Francis, Associate Professor Maeve Heaney VDMF joined Geraldine at the Spiritual Care Australia conference to speak about holding together tension in the church, and how music has helped her to name experiences of vulnerability through illness.
Two years on from Australia’s Plenary Council, and in the wake of Francis’ ‘no’ to women’s ordination to the diaconate during his CBS interview, Maeve thinks we need to find ways truthfully and creatively to ‘untie the knot’ between ordination and authority in the church.
Mentioned in the episode:
Maeve's meeting with Pope Francis as part of the International Network of Societies for Catholic Theology (INSeCT)Brisbane and Sydney forums on synodality with synod delegate and Jesuit Fr OrobatorPapal nuncio to US Cardinal Christophe Pierre's address, 'Becoming a universal church'International theologian Dr Myriam Wijlen's lectures in Sydney and Melbourne in August, and in Brisbane at Holy Spirit Seminary on 24 July.Get in touch via the Plenary Matters Facebook page!
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At the Spiritual Care Australia conference held at the Australian Catholic University in North Sydney, Geraldine sat down with keynote speaker, Rev Jon Owen, CEO and pastor of the Wayside Chapel, which turns 60 this year.
They discuss the spiritual needs of communities still seeking ritual, as in the aftermath of the Bondi shootings where Wayside has opened a chapel. It's when we come together to share stories, Jon says, that we can remedy the social impacts of loneliness and mitigate the temptation to retreat into easy answers.
Mentioned in the episode:
Papal nuncio to US Cardinal Christophe Pierre's address, 'Becoming a universal church'.International theologian Dr Myriam Wijlen's lectures in Sydney and Melbourne in August. She will also be speaking at Holy Spirit Seminary in Brisbane on 24 July.Thank you for listening! Would love to hear your feedback on the Plenary Matters Facebook page.
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Hear from some inspired leaders, fresh from an international conference in Canberra, about a church alive in Catholic education today.
Barbara Coupar from Scottish Catholic Education Service, Ross Fox from Catholic Education Canberra Goulburn and Peter Woods from the ACU La Salle Academy have all seen the confidence-building of students, teachers and leaders where conversations about faith are encouraged in and outside the classroom.
And they want the conversations to extend beyond schools to the whole church.
Read more about the conference, A Current of Grace: Renewing Catholic Schools as Centres of Evangelisation.
Share your ideas and suggestions via the Plenary Matters Facebook page.
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Two years on from Australia’s Plenary Council, Catholic schools are taking up Pope Francis’ call for bold action in living the contemporary mission of the Church in Australia.
Deputy CEO of Catholic Schools NSW Danielle Cronin says Catholic schools are no longer immune to the challenges of social cohesion. But it’s ‘in our DNA,’ she says, to see the whole child, including the families and communities around them, as the mission of Catholic education today.
From the Diocese of Lismore to the tiny town of Wee Waa, the ‘Connected Catholic Communities’ initiative is responding to the diverse and distant needs inside and beyond the school gate. It’s a holistic model, based on partnerships – and hope.
Read La Civilta Cattolica's interview with Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, ‘The Church is more than it seems’ Contact Catholic Schools NSW for more information about 'Connected Catholic Communities'See details about the May 26 forum, 'Becoming synodal people' Catch up also on the March forum on women deacons.Thanks for listening! Get in touch via the Plenary Matters Facebook page.
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In this special episode of Plenary Matters Geraldine speaks about hope with Dominican priest Timothy Radcliffe during his recent visit to Australia.
Pope Francis appointed Fr Timothy as spiritual advisor to the synod on synodality and his series of talks and meditations to synod delegates set the tone for the synod’s call to journey together as a global human family.
Timothy tells Geraldine he thinks the church has something to offer a multipolar world. But it may cost us. ‘This crisis will really put us to the test whether we are the body of Christ in which the walls are broken down between north and south and east and west,’ he says.
Mentioned in the show:
Ezra Klein's interview with author Marilynne RobinsonTimothy Radcliffe's new book with Lukasz Popko, Questioning God (Bloomsbury)See also Timothy's synod reflections and talks, Listening Together: Meditations on Synodality (Liturgical Press)You can also catch up on Plenary Matters' coverage from Rome:
The synod gets underwayA church under pressureHistory making at the synodLetter to the people of GodShare your thoughts on the Plenary Matters Facebook page
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Welcome back to a new season of Plenary Matters!
Up first is renowned Czech theologian Tomáš Halík, in Australia last month to discuss his new book, The Afternoon of Christianity, with Australian Jesuit Frank Brennan. Drawing on his experience of an underground church, Tomáš calls for a deepening spirituality that goes beyond the institutional and mental borders of Christianity to meet the ‘Galilee of today’.
Is the church ready for the task?
Watch the discussion on the Diocese of Parramatta's YouTube channel, as part of the 'Bishop Vincent Presents' series, and leave your feedback via the Plenary Matters Facebook page.
Read the National Catholic Reporter's review of Tomáš Halík’s book: 'The Afternoon of Christianity' sets stage for courageous change
We’ll also post a link in future episodes to the discussion on women deacons Geraldine mentions at the end of the episode.
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Christopher White, Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, sat down with Geraldine during his recent visit to the Diocese of Parramatta to give some revealing anecdotes and insights into the synod's first assembly.While the dismantling of hierarchy may be a step still too far for some delegates, he believes the next papal enclave will be a referendum on synodality.
He also told Geraldine any correspondence to the pope on matters like women deacons can be sent c/- Prefecture of the Papal Household, 00120 Vatican City State.
You can watch the interview on the Diocese of Parramatta's YouTube channel, as part of the 'Bishop Vincent Presents' series.
Keep up to date via the Plenary Matters Facebook page!
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The synod released its letter to the People of God, while Pope Francis made his own intervention on the Church as 'God's faithful people.' Geraldine chats with Julie on her last day on the press floor about her experience observing on the ground and how synodality might be made more concrete in the coming months.
On Vatican News:
Synod General Assembly to People of God: 'Church must listen to everyone'Pope: I like to think of the Church as God’s faithful peopleTimothy Radcliffe's spiritual reflection, 'The seed germinates'On National Catholic Reporter:
Francis wants the synod in every parish. Here's how to bring it to yoursInterview with Susan Pascoe on The Vatican BriefingChristopher White's visit to AustraliaSend your feedback via the Plenary Matters Facebook page.
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As the synod prepares its final documents to go out from Rome to the whole Church at the end of this week, the real work of the first assembly is only beginning. The Tablet correspondent Christopher Lamb, who covered the Plenary Council in Australia, tells Geraldine that this synod is history in the making despite some questioning its legitimacy.
This episode was recorded on the floor of the press room and filmed by a PBS documentary team. We are trying to resolve the audio issues on Geraldine's end, please bear with us!
Mentioned in this episode:
Christopher Lamb's Tablet article, 'At synod they wept, but have they truly changed?'Archbishop Anthony Fisher's interview on the synodTimothy Radcliffe's third reflection, 'Friendship' Prof Ormond Rush's reflection on tradition at the General CongregationYou can also read Br Mark O'Connor's fourth letter from the synod, 'The meaning is in the waiting'.
Thanks for listening! Follow more Rome coverage on our Plenary Matters Facebook page.
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Just over the halfway point of this first assembly of the synod and the tensions on the floor are no surprise, according to Australian Augustinian Fr Tony Banks. He has a unique vantage point living with five of the synod delegates right beside St Peter's Square and tells Geraldine that the emotions and personal testimonies in the room, which are reportedly disturbing some delegates, are part of the process. While the effects of synodality won't be felt for some years to come, he believes this synod is cementing the notion of a church under pressure to change.
Read Loup Besmond de Senneville's article, 'Discordant voices inside the Synod'
Watch Cardinal Hollerich and Fr Timothy Radcliffe speak at the opening of the final module in the Instrumentum Laboris on participation, governance and authority.
You can also read Timothy Radcliffe's reflection on the woman at the well, as well as Mark O'Connor's third letter from Rome via the Diocese of Parramatta's Catholic Outlook.
Follow more Rome coverage on our Plenary Matters Facebook page.
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As the first full week of the synod wraps up Geraldine speaks to Br Mark O’Connor who is in Rome watching and listening on the ground. The pre-synod retreat led by Dominican priest Timothy Radcliffe set a reflective tone for the men and women who will spend the rest of October at round tables just like at Australia’s Plenary Council.
While inside the synod hall delegates seem to be learning the new rules of engagement, Mark is also keeping a close eye and ear on Vatican press proceedings.
Follow Plenary Matters in Rome on the Plenary Matters Facebook page.
Highly recommended:
• Timothy Radcliffe’s six retreat talks: Hoping against hope; At home in God and God at home in us; Friendship; Conversation on the way to Emmaus; Authority; The Spirit of Truth
• Mark’s Letter One and Two from the synod
• Christopher Lamb’s Tablet podcast with Austen Ivereigh
• New York Times article, ‘Vatican Conference Draws All Stripes to Rome, Welcome or Not’
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Google synodality, then discuss: how can Catholicism attract modern searchers? Geraldine goes back to two ‘Young and the Restless’ guests from last year, Grace Brennan and Joe Wehbe, to explore how they each think the church can better serve diverse communities.
In regional Australia Grace sees a parallel between empty shopfronts and empty churches, in need of creative solutions to arrest decline. For Joe, it’s the individuals who can hold communities together and are often unaware of their influence on those around them who emerge as the true leaders. But how do people become the protagonists and not just passive recipients, as the recent World Youth Day in Portugal also showed?
Plenary Matters will return in October for a new series during the synod in Rome.
Further reading:Austin Ivereigh's article on World Youth Day, 'A Church with room for everyone,' La Croix
Thanks for your feedback! Go to Plenary Matters Facebook page.
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How does the church engage creatively with the modern world? For Richard Lennan, who did his doctorate in Austria on Karl Rahner, looking to the future to see how we should be in the present has been the project of his theological life for nearly four decades. This is the 'Gaudium et spes' approach to the world: neither naïve nor fearful about the future, but always moving ourselves towards God rather than reducing God to our place and time.
Now professor at Boston College teaching the next generation of theologians, he wants church leaders to better support these lay women and men in bridging the gulf between theology and the church. He thinks Francis should hold a synod on the role of theology, which he sees as the antidote to the growing polarisation in the church and society.
Further reading:
Richard's new book, Tilling the Church: Theology for an Unfinished Project (Liturgical Press)Richard's article on the Plenary Council (abstract only without subscription)Massimo Faggioli on 'The great displacement of theology' in La Croix.Your feedback very welcome via the Facebook page Plenary Matters!
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The restoration of women to the diaconate is the urgent issue of our time, says Dr Phyllis Zagano. How many of us even understand the essence of deacons’ roles: its emphasis on service but also its impressive history in the life of the church. The early church ordained deacons to provide vital pastoral and social services. Deacons could be made bishops and, in a few cases, even made pope! Deacons disappeared into the priesthood after the 12th century until the Second Vatican Council restored the diaconal ministry, but so far not for women.
Until a woman can stand alongside the Pope in St Peter’s, proclaiming the Gospel and preaching, the church will remain silent on the dignity of all humans, Phyllis Zagano believes. Francis has introduced women into managerial functions of the church, and the issue of women’s ministerial roles, including the diaconate, is on the agenda for the synod in Rome. Could the stained glass ceiling be about to break open, restoring women to the centre of the church?
Further reading:
Phyllis Zagano's Commonweal article on women deaconsNational Catholic Reporter review of Zagano's new book Just Church: Catholic Social Teaching, Synodality and WomenSee also two Australian resources: Liturgy on the margins on diaconal ministry and the Australian Women Preach podcast.
Thanks for listening! Let us know your thoughts via the Plenary Matters Facebook page.
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The future church must be more incarnational, says Professor Massimo Faggioli, if it is to respond to the needs of modern Catholics. That is the big question on the table at the upcoming synod in Rome: who will be the ministers in this church?
Critics of the synod reject what they see as a ‘paperwork church’ – a technocracy dressed in any ideological guise. The church is less centralised than it was during Vatican II, but the tone struck so far in this synod has also been different from Vatican II: more respectful, less radical, more hopeful perhaps?
Further reading:Massimo's recent articles in La Croix, 'The Synod as a spiritual response to the fantasies' and 'Understanding the anti-synodal sentiment and tactics.'
Feedback very welcome via the Facebook page Plenary Matters.
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Australia’s Plenary Council set the scene for the global synod as onlookers at home and in Rome wondered if the Australian church would emerge intact. Now it’s the turn of some of our seasoned Council members, Sr Clare Condon, Emeritus Professor John Warhurst and Francis Sullivan to reflect on their disappointments and hopes in a synodal church.
Both the working document for the synod and the list of people who will participate in the meetings in Rome have the makings of a meeting like no other in church history. But will the restless movement that we are invited to join lead to a church that is still recognisably Catholic? Can diversity hold us together in the end?
Further reading:
Instrumentum Laboris (Working document) for the first assembly of the SynodMassimo Faggioli’s piece in La Croix, ‘What the list of Synod members tells us about the current state of the Church’Reflections on the working document by Fr Bill Uren SJ and John Warhurst in Eureka StreetThanks for listening! You can send feedback via the Facebook page Plenary Matters.
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Here's a chance to hear a qualitatively different voice and tone reflecting the Church's possible future--listen and see if you agree.
Professor Anna Rowlands is a political theologian helping to shape the future of the Catholic Church. She presented the pope’s 2020 encyclical Fratelli Tutti at the Vatican and now she's been seconded from her university to work with the global synod team as well as supporting the Vatican’s research on politics, economics, climate and migration.
Ahead of the release of the synod working document that will set the agenda for the October meeting in Rome, she speaks with Geraldine about Francis’ vision to bring the separate voices of the church together. It’s not a papal diversity and inclusion strategy, although lay women and men will participate in this synod for the first time. But it does demand a new quality of encounter, one which is unafraid of conflict and fragility and can cope with mess! This is the ‘pearl of great price’ she says is what is personally being asked of us all.
You can watch the press conference and find the working document on the synod website.
Further reading:
'Synod preparations show the Church is fracturing, perhaps even imploding’ in La Croix Massimo Faggioli’s article, 'A Synod that's less episcopal, but perhaps more papal?'Article in Jesuit magazine America, ‘Could you explain what the Synod on Synodality is to a 10-year-old?’Join the conversation at the Facebook page Plenary Matters or email [email protected]
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Fr Bill Uren SJ offers sage advice and a history lesson in the lead up to the synod in Rome. The late Cardinal Pell warned that synodal reform would water down bishops’ authority, but Fr Uren takes the long view that earlier popes had already centralised church decision-making in reaction to 19th century revolutions and part unintended consequence of Vatican II. He also detects in Pope Francis’ response to Germany’s synodal way a deep fear of an irrecoverable loss of direction.
Further reading/listening:
Fr Bill Uren's article in Eureka StreetLoup Besmond de Senneville's article in La Croix, 'What Catholics Want'Geraldine's reflection on Pope Benedict XVIChristopher Lamb's episode on the German synodal path on his podcast, The Church’s Radical Reform.Thanks for listening! Send feedback via the Facebook page Plenary Matters or email [email protected]
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Geraldine teases out both the potholes and possibilities of church renewal with keen observer Br Mark O’Connor fms. He’s clear-eyed about opposition to the pope’s reforms but ultimately, he believes, the synod is the best hope of implementing Vatican II.
Cardinal Martini in his last interview said: ‘Vatican II gave the Bible back to Catholics. Only those who perceive this Word in their heart can be part of those who will help achieve renewal of the church, and who will know how to respond to personal questions with the right choice.... Neither the clergy nor ecclesiastical law can substitute for the inner life of the human person.’
Further listening/reading:
Roundtable with Sr Nathalie Becquart Br Mark O'Connor's article, 'Cling to the Rock'Cardinal Martini's final interviewAdsumus prayerThanks for listening! Send feedback via the Facebook page Plenary Matters or email [email protected]
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The need for Catholic educators to adapt religion to the modern classroom, operating amidst lower levels of religious literacy, has produced some good results in the Brisbane archdiocese. Their new RE program, Religion, Meaning and Life has been offered as a pilot course to Yr 11 and Yr 12 students across 17 Catholic schools since 2020 with an emphasis on personal reflection and dialogue in the classroom. Plus evaluation results among post-school students showed considerably raised interest in RE and in the worth of Catholic education more broadly.
Guests are Associate Professor Bill Sultmann, Deputy Dean of Australian Catholic University’s La Salle Academy, Mark Craig, Education Officer at Brisbane Catholic Education, and Catherine Rodden, Lead Education Advisor RE for Brisbane Catholic Education.
Further reading:
Brisbane Catholic Education's Religion, Meaning and Life RE programResearch overview published in Re-imagining Senior Secondary Religious Education, Springer 2023Join the conversation at the Facebook page Plenary Matters or email [email protected]
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