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Decentralisation is likely to be the order of the day from now on, says Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane. “The days of Dioceses as independent fiefdoms and the bishops as a law unto themselves are gone.”
Coleridge (pictured), who is the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference’s outgoing president, explains what he means by this in his foreword to the Conference’s 2021 Annual Report.
While “the real powers in the Church rest with the dioceses, not with the Conference”, under Pope Francis, Bishops’ Conferences are now “a work in progress”, he says in the foreword.
“Given that Pope Francis wants to encourage what he calls ‘a healthy decentralisation’, passing more responsibility to the bishops’ conferences, it is clear that the profile and function of the bishops conferences is changing,”
The Plenary Council journey has shown bishops that they must learn to work with all the baptised, religious and ministerial public juridic persons, Coleridge says.
“The Bishops have to learn to listen to all the voices in the Church in order to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, since unless we Bishops hear the voice of the Spirit we will end up in an echo-chamber where we hear only our own voice.
“In that sense, episcopal authority is not being undermined but resituated – and the resituating will only strengthen and clarify genuine episcopal authority, the authority of service.
“In this report, it is not only the voice of the Bishops that is heard. That is why it is much more than a company report or a bureaucratic manifesto.”
Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB, of Perth Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president.
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