Plenary Matters – Details, episodes & analysis

After almost four years, at home and in Rome, Plenary Matters is packing up...and preparing for a new venture! Following her coverage of the funeral of Pope Francis and the conclave that elected Pope Leo, Geraldine reflects on Australia's plenary council, the world synod and what's still to come. And Julie has recorded it all in a book about to be launched along with a new podcast, which we can finally announce!

Recommendations:

• Geraldine's Eureka Street article, ABC interview with Vatican foreign minister Paul Gallagher, and Compass episode on the conclave
• Mark O'Connor, 'What might we expect from Pope Leo?'
• Michael Sean Winters on the synod implementation document
• Time's 'The Making of an American Pope'
• Mauricio Lopez speaking in Sydney on 23 July and with Geraldine in Melbourne on 30 July, along with the book launch of Reasons for Hope: Hélder Câmara, Global Catholicism and the Australian Church

Thanks for your support, find us on Facebook, and please keep listening!

Who will carry the Australian church’s mission into the future? And how will the next generation of lay Catholics be accompanied to lead the church’s vital education, health, social and spiritual ministries, especially in regional and rural communities?

‘Lay people are running on empty when it comes to the critical decision making they’re being called into in 2025,’ says Virginia Ryan. She's inaugural CEO of the Catholic Leadership Foundation, recently launched by the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in response to the call of Australia’s Plenary Council and the global synod for lay Catholics to be formed for mission in a church which has prioritised the formation of ordained and consecrated members.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Article on Cardinal McElroy
• Synod final document summary in The Tablet, 2 Nov 2024, and whole document on synod website
• Cardinal Grech’s letter on the accompaniment process of the implementation phase of the synod

Enquiries about the Catholic Leadership Foundation can be emailed to ceo@catholicleadershipfoundation.com. Follow Plenary Matters on Facebook, and stay tuned for our new name – and look – still to come!

God nudging us along, is how synod expert Eamonn Conway describes the process happening inside the Paul VI hall. He attended a previous synod, in 2012, but this synod he believes is fundamentally reshaping the mission of the global church, which 'can only succeed if the gifts and charism being given by the Holy Spirit to every single baptised faithful is enabled to flourish.' The choice, as he says, is whether we choose change or have change overtake us.

• You can follow the opening prayers each day inside the synod hall via Vatican YouTube.
• Watch Massimo Faggioli's webinar, sponsored by the Australasian Catholic Coalition for Church Reform and Garratt Publishing.

Let us know your thoughts via the Plenary Matters Facebook page!

Welcome to Roma where the global Catholic church is meeting for this final assembly of the Synod on Synodality. To set the scene Geraldine chats with Br Mark O'Connor, Vicar for Communications for the Diocese of Parramatta, who has a close eye on the proceedings and participants, including the men whom Pope Francis has just named cardinals in a move that has renewed attention on the global shifts underway in Catholicism following his recent visit to our region.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Mark O'Connor's 1st letter from the Synod in Catholic Outlook
• Michael W. Higgins' book, The Jesuit Disruptor: A Personal Portrait of Pope Francis
• Geraldine's Compass episode, 'Pope Francis: The Disruptor,' on ABC iview

Let us know your thoughts via our Plenary Matters Facebook page.

Ahead of Pope Francis’ trip to our region, Plenary Matters caught up again with Augustinian Assistant General Fr Tony Banks during his recent visit to Australia. He’s been involved with preparations for the pope’s visit to the border between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea where prayer and diplomacy meet.

He believes that the real impacts of synodality are on the ground, in local decision making, and the implementation of regional differences that put people at the centre of pastoral work. And like Francis, the bishops still have a journey to go.

Geraldine will be back soon! You can join her along with Jesuit priest Fr Frank Brennan, synod advisor Dr Sandie Cornish, and members of Australian Catholics Exploring the Diaconate (ACED), at the St Phoebe Webinar on 3rd September.

Get in touch via our Plenary Matters Facebook page!

Synodality is ‘a different way of living’ unity in diversity, according to theologian and canon lawyer Myriam Wijlens who has been closely involved in the global synod. And Europe’s diplomatic leaders are taking note.

Cardinal Hollerich, one of four male clerics who presented the working document for the second session of the synod in Rome, thinks synodality can bridge polarities. But can the church be a credible witness while only ordaining men to speak on its behalf?

The people of God need new lenses, Myriam tells Geraldine, that can focus on the local church while remaining recognisably Catholic. And it’s this multi-focal approach that the synod is also testing for women to speak and lead in the church.

You can watch the interview with Myriam Wijlens, recorded at the Diocese of Parramatta as part of the Bishop Vincent Presents series, and also read an interview with Cardinal Hollerich, ‘If women do not feel comfortable in the church, we have failed’.

As always, please share your thoughts via the Plenary Matters Facebook page!

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 Orobator
• 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, and in Brisbane at Holy Spirit Seminary on 24 July.

Get in touch via the Plenary Matters Facebook page!

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.

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.

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.