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.

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 Robinson
• Timothy 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 underway
• A church under pressure
• History making at the synod
• Letter to the people of God

Share your thoughts on the Plenary Matters Facebook page

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.

As Australians prepare to vote, how can our Catholic tradition help us to reflect on what matters? And how might the concept of synodality in the church influence broader relationships and decision making in the contemporary society?

Join Geraldine and two seasoned observers of the Australian church and society, John Warhurst and Eva Skira, for a thoughtful discussion on faith and politics today.

Amid polarisation and a changing world order, is synodality, as John says, ‘something that we as a church have to offer at the moment’?

Mentioned in this episode:

• Professor Anna Rowlands’ Trócaire lecture, 'A Politics of Hope and Catholic Social Teaching as a Guiding Light'
• The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference federal election statement, Called to Bring Hope in the Year of Jubilee
• National Catholic Education Commission federal election document
• John Warhurst’s Eureka Street article, 'Synodality and the federal election: What should the bishops say?'
• CathEvents online hub

Let us know your suggestions and feedback via the Plenary Matters Facebook page.

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!

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 people
• Timothy 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 yours
• Interview with Susan Pascoe on The Vatican Briefing
• Christopher White's visit to Australia

Send your feedback via the Plenary Matters Facebook page.

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 synod
• Timothy Radcliffe's third reflection, 'Friendship'
• Prof Ormond Rush's reflection on tradition at the General Congregation

You 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.

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.

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’

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.

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!

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 deacons
• National Catholic Reporter review of Zagano's new book Just Church: Catholic Social Teaching, Synodality and Women

See 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.

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.

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 Synod
• Massimo 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 Street

Thanks for listening! You can send feedback via the Facebook page Plenary Matters.

First up in this new series of Plenary Matters, Geraldine speaks with Fr Hans Zollner, a world expert in the safeguarding and protection of children and adults at risk. He’s been speaking in Australia and New Zealand on the progress made in the Catholic Church, including the leading role of women, as well as the new global and pastoral frontlines of safeguarding.

Change in the church ‘doesn't come like a miracle,’ says Zollner. ‘We need to work constantly in dissemination and in education of people who are committed to safeguarding.’

Don't miss this conversation with a true change agent in the church.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Interview with Archbishop Ryan Jimenez at the synod in Rome
• Pope Francis appoints Sr Simona Brambilla as Vatican’s first female prefect

Thanks for listening! We'd love to hear from you, including suggestions for a new name, via the Plenary Matters Facebook page.

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 plenarymatters2021@gmail.com

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 Street
• Loup Besmond de Senneville's article in La Croix, 'What Catholics Want'
• Geraldine's reflection on Pope Benedict XVI
• Christopher 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 plenarymatters2021@gmail.com

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 interview
• Adsumus prayer

Thanks for listening! Send feedback via the Facebook page Plenary Matters or email plenarymatters2021@gmail.com

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 program
• Research overview published in Re-imagining Senior Secondary Religious Education, Springer 2023

Join the conversation at the Facebook page Plenary Matters or email plenarymatters2021@gmail.com

First up in this new series Geraldine speaks with Dr Monica Dutton who leads the Sisters of the Good Samaritan Study and Mentoring (SAM) Program, helping lay women aged 30+ to pursue theological training. Now in its third year, with the support of male congregation leaders in Australia, the program offers mentoring, spiritual accompaniment and financial assistance to equip women to become future leaders in their chosen fields including education, chaplaincy and canon law.

Further reading/listening:

• Massimo Faggioli's article in La Croix
• Christopher Lamb's interview with Archbishop Tim Costelloe
• Good Samaritan article on the SAM program
• Adsumus prayer for the Synod

Join the conversation at the Facebook page Plenary Matters or email plenarymatters2021@gmail.com

Guests were Sr Nathalie Becquart XMCJ, Undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops; Kirsty Robertson, CEO Caritas Australia; Paul McClintock AO, Chairman of Metlife Care, Director Catholic Health Australia, Chairman St Vincent's Health Australia; and Chiara Porro, Australian Ambassador to the Holy See.

You'll hear Sr Nathalie describe her role at the Vatican and now attending a wide range of different international synodal discussions. Paul McClintock eloquently teases out what's asked of people who realise, to their surprise, that they may need to think of themselves as 'church leaders'. Kirsty Robertson is inspirational, describing the commitment of women in the region. And Ambassador to the Holy See Chiara Porro said she really had noticed the power of the global Church to convene highly effective gatherings tackling entrenched disadvantage.

The discussion was recorded at The Chapel, in the Bethany Centre of the Diocese of Parramatta on Friday February 3. It is also available on the diocese's YouTube channel here.

Join the conversation at the Facebook page "Plenary Matters" or email plenarymatters2021@gmail.com

Extra reading:

• Article in Catholic Outlook
• Synod, Synodality and Conversation
• 'Enlarge the Space of your tent'
• Contemporary Challenges for Global Catholicism

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

In this new episode, Geraldine speaks to Archbishop Tim Costelloe, president of the Australian Bishops Council and Bishop Shane Mackinlay, bishop of Sandhurst in Victoria and vice-president of the Plenary Council. Speaking during afternoon breaks of the bishops’ regular November meeting, they both reflect on the significant impact of Australia’s five year Plenary Council journey; on the eventful two public sessions, on how many Australians Catholics chose to contribute while also recognising how many in and out of the pews probably knew little about proceedings. And they have both met Pope Francis in these last couple of months and reported, personally, on the experience for them and others, of such ambitious gatherings. In Bishop Mackinlay’s words, “I told the Pope the Church in Australia was alive”.

For those in Sydney, Bishop Mackinlay is speaking in the afternoon at 1.30, Nov 13 at the Crypt at St Patrick’s in The Rocks, as a guest of Catalyst For Renewal. It should be a very good conversation and all are welcome.

Here is the promised bonus episode in this series.

It offers a very rich---and bracingly realistic set of observations---about a Council from a seasoned Church participant, Fr David Ranson.

He was secretary to the Council and deeply absorbed, as you'll hear, in the lead-up, in the events of the week itself and now in assessing what comes next.

He might surprise you with his judgements. They're delivered by a man with an acute sense of Church procedures but also with an eye to possibilities. Let me know what you think.

Join the conversation at the Facebook page "Plenary Matters"

It's wrap-up time after a very big week in the life of the Church.

Listen and ponder these first thoughts from two key contributors to the Council: Sr Patty Fawkner, head of the Good Samaritan Sisters and a member of the Council organising committee.

Alongside Emeritus Professor John Warhurst, who was a scrutineer at the Council, ensuring the propriety of voting. He's a prominent member of the Concerned Catholics for Church Reform group from the Canberra-Goulburn diocese. They both feel transformational moments occurred but that there is much to come still, to ensure a welcoming, holy and world-facing Church.

Thanks for listening! Join the conversation at the Facebook page "Plenary Matters" or email plenarymatters2021@gmail.com

Well prepare yourself for some powerful listening in this episode. Two guests join me who've been at the core of events this past week of surprises at the 2nd Assembly...and they're still pretty raw from the sheer intensity of it all.

First Archbishop Mark Coleridge, who as President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Council, persuaded his confreres to call this Council back in 2015, in an inspired moment following the Rome 2015 Synod on the Family.

Then Dr Maeve Heaney joins me, a feisty but faithful theologian/liturgist, who's President of the Aust Catholic Theological Assn (ACTA) plus Director of the Xavier Centre for Theological Formation and one of the launchers of the Xavier School of Preaching, in the Canberra-Goulburn archdiocese. I hope they convey some of the acute emotions on display this week: suggesting a Church far from Death Row, as has occasionally been the public impression portrayed over the last few years.

Two of Australia’s most seasoned representatives at the Synod in Rome, Susan Pascoe AM and Bishop Shane Mackinlay, join Geraldine to discuss what’s in the final document and what happens next. While the pace of change may vary in different parts of the church, they both have witnessed moments of conversion – and grace – throughout the 3-year process.

For Susan Pascoe, a facilitator and member of the methodology commission that produced the initial guide for the global synod on synodality, and part of the writing team for the continental stage, the authenticity of the process now needs to be reflected in the implementation phase. And Shane Mackinlay sees parallels with Australia’s Plenary Council in how synod delegates responded to the process around the issue of women in the church.

With thanks to the Polish Sisters of the Resurrection in Rome for hosting our recording of this Plenary Matters episode!

• Read Christopher White's article, 'Synod's final report calls for all baptized Catholics to shape future church'
• Watch the final press briefing with Cardinals Hollerich and Grech
• Cardinal Fernández: Let us work to give women more space and power
• Cardinal Grech's homily on Monday of synod's final week
• Australia's Archbishop Timothy Costelloe elected to the synod council

Thankyou for following our coverage from Rome! Send us feedback and suggestions via the Plenary Matters Facebook page.

Geraldine gives a preview of the big final day of the Plenary Council.

There'll be another longer episode out this afternoon.

Well today, day 3, really drew out the latent tensions and challenges always inherent in this Plenary Council process, ones that could not be dodged for much longer. It is not entirely clear as I write, what the final vote will be on issues around men and women’s status in the Church. So this issue could hardly be more significant.

It would appear (I am choosing my words carefully because a lot is opaque) that neither the broader members (the Consultative voters) nor the Bishops (Deliberative voters) gave these moves the requisite majority today. It is possible that the final motion lumped together a range of strands which proved too much for various members, lay and ordained alike. Emotions tipped over apparently within the Assembly and must have raised alarm bells. Because all the scheduled debates have been moved and the whole group sent back for further ‘discernment’: in other words code for ‘re-draw the motions’. Go back and re-think seems to be the message. It’s the first real set of clashes around nuance, tone and theology to my eyes. Virginia Bourke, a prominent Melbourne lay-woman well-known in health and legal realms in Victoria, will bring us up to speed in the second part of today’s pod. She is a lawyer, chair of Mercy Health and St John Ambulance Victoria and just appointed as pro-chancellor of the Australian Catholic University.

My first guest is Christopher Lamb - the Rome correspondent for the vital London Tablet magazine. He has been brought out for a range of speaking duties including the Helder Camara Lecture in Melbourne next week and one at Parramatta Diocese last night, as guest of Bishop Vincent Leong. He outlines the hostility to Francis from particular quarters but thinks Francis is playing “the long game” of finally seeing Vatican Two put into practice. It’s fascinating.

Today’s discussions about women and men was a bit of a wake-up call for optimists like me.

Two key issues have been on the discernment and consideration list for the Plenary Council members these past two days:

Reconciliation: Healing Wounds, Receiving Gifts - with an apology to Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander peoples and the role of Catholic education in the life of the Church. And as we'll hear, in the wider Australian community.

In this episode, Geraldine speaks to John Lochowiak, chair of NATSICC, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council, born in Cooper Pedy to an Aboriginal mother and Polish father.

And to Jacinta Collins, head of the National Catholic Education Commission, and former Labor Senator.

Both guests are intimately connected with these stories. In their different ways, they bring alive big visions for the role played in the past by the Church, where it could include new elements of worship and especially in the case of education, where it could broadcast how much it has offered wider society and why it will continue to do so.

Thanks for listening! Join the conversation at the Facebook page "Plenary Matters" or email plenarymatters2021@gmail.com

The Plenary Council is back in session, which means another season of Plenary Matters awaits.

In this episode Geraldine talks to Sarah Moffatt, a member of the Plenary Council Organising & Executive Committee. She's also the Director of Pastoral Life & Mission at Archdiocese of Adelaide.

Thanks for listening!

Join the conversation at the Facebook page "Plenary Matters" or email plenarymatters2021@gmail.com

In this final episode of The Young and Restless, we meet Madeline Ford.

At just 25 years of age, she’s one of the youngest members of the Plenary Council and she’s passionate about ensuring that the voice of young people forms part of the Plenary Council process.

So where to now for the church and how best do we nurture the faith for future generations?

Geraldine talks to 28-year-old Luke Smith.

Raised a Catholic and educated at Riverview College in Sydney, he’s a thinker and a searcher.

While he may not be sure where it all might take him, he knows that he wants to go somewhere that is decent.

But how does the church relate to his search for meaning?

Thanks for listening! Join the conversation at the Facebook page "Plenary matters".

In this podcast of the Young and Restless, Geraldine catches up with Fr Andy Nguyen.

Born in Vietnam, he studied architecture in the US, came to Australia to do a master’s degree, became a Catholic and entered the Jesuits in 2009 before being ordained a priest in 2019. His journey of faith and how he became a priest is fascinating.

He has cautious optimism for the Plenary Council and his great hope is that all the important questions that can be asked, are asked.

Thanks for listening!

Join the conversation at the Facebook group "Plenary Matters" or email plenarymatters2021@gmail.com

27yo Joe Wehbe is an author, entrepreneur, writer, and deep thinker, with more than a touch of leadership about him.

He has his own podcast, a blog and he’s the co-founder and lead of the ‘Constant Student Community’. That's a place where young people starting out in their careers can find support and guidance ‘which is all about changing education, and supporting those who want to change the world.’

Joe tells Geraldine that his Jesuit education - where community service was a big part of the curriculum - still influences his thinking. But where does the church fit into his life today?

Join the conversation at our Facebook page "Plenary Matters" or email 'plenarymatters2021@gmail.com'

Thanks for listening!

In this episode Geraldine talks to Grace Brennan, who’s been instrumental in uniting Australia’s communities in the city and country.

Raised in Sydney, she went to school at Loreto Kirribilli. Her story of marrying a farmer and moving to Warren in western NSW, becoming a mother and starting up ‘Buy from The Bush’ is inspirational.

She describes herself as a proud Catholic, but says that she’s trying to navigate some of the more challenging positions of the church.

In 2019 with much of the country experiencing devastating drought and bushfires, she founded the ‘Buy from The Bush’ campaign. In the process, Grace started conversations, lifted spirits, created jobs, and saved businesses that otherwise may have failed.

Andy Hamilton is a Jesuit priest, a deep thinker and the final subject of this Wise Old Souls series. For many years Andy has contributed widely to theological and religious journals and has been editorial consultant for Eureka Street.

He’s taught theology and church history at the United Faculty of Theology in Melbourne for many years and he’s worked extensively with refugee communities and has written on the conditions of asylum seekers in Australia.

So where now for the church and how best do we nurture the faith for future generations?

For Andy Hamilton the answer lies in the need to integrate the faith into the world in which we live and relating it to the everyday issues that we all face.

As the Synod on Synodality enters its final week, Timothy Radcliffe urged delegates to speak with freedom as they consider and vote on the final document. Delegates were also addressed by head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith Cardinal Fernandez, whose absence from a meeting on women's ministries provoked indignation among delegates.

Synod expert and papal biographer Austen Ivereigh attended the Friday meeting of study group 5 and says it was an important moment for seeing synodality in action.

He tells Geraldine this synod is 'a holy process' with the Spirit 'pouring out gifts and charisms on us all, which need to be better recognised by the Church.’ It's a call to both rights and responsibilities for the transformation of the Church.

Links from episode:

• Cardinal Fernandez's statement
• Timothy Radcliffe's meditation also available on YouTube
• NCR's Christopher White report, 'Outrage follows Vatican doctrine chief's absence from synod meeting on secretive women's study group'
• Synod forum with Timothy Costelloe and Catherine Clifford
• Austen's Tablet report, 'View from the Synod'
• Austen's article on compost, 'A Steaming Synod'

Thanks for listening! Follow more Rome coverage via our Plenary Matters Facebook page.

Geraldine talks to Dr Jo Laffin a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Theology and Philosophy at the Australian Catholic University. She lectures in church history and biblical studies and is currently researching the impact of the Second Vatican Council on the archdiocese of Adelaide.

Raised a protestant, Jo Laffin became a Catholic in 1994 and has dedicated her life to the understanding and teaching of Catholic spirituality and history.

Her doctoral thesis is a biography of Archbishop Matthew Beovich whose influence on Catholic belief and practice was highly significant.

Jo describes the profound changes brought about by the Second Vatican Council, and the unintended expectations placed upon priests as a result.

Geraldine catches up with Michael McGirr, best-selling author, former publisher of Eureka St and editor of Australian Catholics. His writings are known for their wisdom and gentle wit, but how has growing up Catholic influenced the life of Michael McGirr?

Born in 1961, he's had quite a journey both inside and outside the Church, joining the Jesuits at the age of 18 where he worked for 21 years (seven as a priest). He left the order in 2000, got married and had three children.

Today he's the director for mission at Caritas Australia, the Catholic Church's international aid and development agency.

He says that after leaving the priesthood his faith became more focused and more deeply spiritual. He became invigorated and excited by his faith, finding new purpose and meaning in community, work and friendships.

As the second Plenary gets underway, Michael McGirr offers some sage advice about the future shape of the church and is not timid with his admonishments.

In this episode Geraldine talks to wise old soul Clare Condon, a woman of great integrity and leadership in the Catholic Church.

Clare has been a Good Samaritan Sister for 50 years, including 12 as congregational leader. She's also the winner of a humanitarian award by the Human Rights Commission for her work with indigenous Australiasn, asylum seekers and victims of domestic violence.

As co-chair of the National Committee of Professional Standards from 2012 to 2017 she believes there should be a better response to the church to the findings of the Royal Commission.

She suggests that creating 'Liturgies of Lamet' and 'Rituals of Sorrow' may be a way to help deal with the grief and shame of what has happened, where mere words are not enough, to welcome back victims into the church and also as a public witness to the wider community.

Geraldine talks to Edmund Campion, a Sydney priest, writer, historian and academic.

Witty and profound, he describes the many changes in the religious lives of Australian Catholics and what those changes have meant.

Edmund Campion has been described as an encyclopedia of Australian Catholicism, ready to look backwards with a chronicler's honesty and gratitude as he is to look foward in hope.

In this interview Edmund Campion tells of the little-known role that lay-led organisations played 60 years ago in educating the rest of the church about the changes brought about by the Second Vatican Council.

Geraldine asks him where people today should place their best efforts in contributing to the church of the future.