The Catholic Church in Australia will not be the Church that Jesus wants until the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have made a contribution to the life of the Church and until it has been joyfully received by others.
This one of the ‘motions’ distributed by the church’s drafting committee and circulated among Council membership before the Plenary’s second general assembly on July 4-9.
The motion labels the sincere efforts of many as “misguided”.
“Much suffering has been inflicted by the misguided attempts of those who were ignorant of the cultural richness of these peoples,” is says.
Among the other motions on mission, one commits the church in Australia to being “centred on Christ,” and promoting hospitality, encounter, dialogue, and mercy.
It also calls for dialogue with those who experience marginalisation and for the proclamation of the Gospel through Catholic engagement in the public arena and contribution to the public debate on issues relating to marriage and sexuality.
Another motion calls for equality between men and women, and for the enhancement of the role of women in the church, including further conversation – both locally and with the Vatican – about the possibility of ordaining women into the diaconate, more public recognition for women, and if necessary, to “remunerate more appropriately” those women who are already leading and serving in the church.
The Plenary Council is also looking to approve the establishment of provisions for lay people to preach.
The draft motions will be to be considered for a vote, drawn from the discussion at previous gatherings of the Council’s lay and clerical participants.
The Plenary Council has until 15 June to propose amendments to the motions described in the document. Its amendments and motions will be voted on during the Second Assembly.
The document also suggests ways to respond to crimes of a sexual nature perpetrated by church employees, clerics and laity.
It says the Church must apologise to survivors and their families; commit to responding with justice and compassion to those suffering; implement safeguarding measures and invite all members of the Church to ensure safe and respectful environments within the institution.
The council has embraced the “urgent need” to develop an “integral ecology of life” that requires what recent popes have dubbed an “ecological conversion”.
Also among the proposed measures includes a call to more frequent use of a communal form of the sacrament of penance, despite strict canonical litations of its use.
If adopted by the Plenary Council, some of the proposals mean the Australian Catholic Church will need to ask the Vatican for dispensations from canon law governing the liturgical discipline of the universal Latin Church.
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