The fifteen people to represent the ‘Oceania continent’ at the 2021-2014 Synod were announced in Rome late Friday night.
The ‘Oceania continent‘ is the term the Vatican has used for the purpose of the Synod to group Australia and the mission churches in the South Pacific.
Of the fifteen, six women and nine men will represent the Oceania continent.
Seven of the nine men are clergy, meaning only two laymen are attending from Oceania.
All participants have voting rights.
As well as the lack of laymen, what also stands out is that with Archbishop Paul Martin, Mr Manuel Beazley and Fr Dennis Nacorda, New Zealand is the only country to have an all-male representation.
Earlier in the synodal process, two New Zealand women helped formulate the final New Zealand response – Mrs Anne Dickinson, Cardinal John Dew’s Pastoral Assistant and Dr Therese Lautua, a theologian and researcher at the University of Auckland.
Also of note is that there seems to be little room for representation from Fiji, Tonga and Western Samoa, all of which had significant input to the final document from the ‘Oceania continent’.
Fiji actually hosted the final stage of the Federation of Catholic Bishops’ of Oceania submission to the Synod.
However, Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania (FCBCO) Bishop Anthony Randazzo of Broken Bay, NSW, has expressed his confidence in the inclusion of 10 non-bishop members from the region in the upcoming Synod of Bishops.
Bishop Anthony Randazzo, who assumed the presidency of FCBCO in February, commended the abundance of qualified and faithful individuals in Oceania who could offer their lived experiences during the two sessions of the Synod of Bishops scheduled for October this year and October next year.
“Our region stands out as one of the most diverse in the world, considering the presence of approximately 20 nations in this corner of the globe,” said Randazzo.
“This diversity enriches the Church in Oceania, and I am confident it will contribute significantly to the deliberations at the Synod gatherings in Rome.”
Earlier this year, Pope Francis extended an invitation to each of the seven world ‘continents’ to nominate twenty individuals who have actively contributed to local initiatives for the Synod of Bishops.
From the list of nominees, Pope Francis personally handpicked ten representatives from each region.
The Pope’s representative in Australia is former New Zealand Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Charles Balvo, while Archbishop Novatus Rugambwa serves as the Apostolic Nuncio to New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.
Attending the Federation of Catholic Bishops’ of Oceania Conference was Sr Nathalie Becquart, undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops.
Originally a Synod of Bishops, Pope Francis has opened the doors to lay men and women, and the Vatican now simply calls it the Synod 2021 – 2024.
As October approaches, anticipation grows for the Synod, which will bring together clergy, theologians and laity from around the world to address pertinent issues facing the Catholic Church in the contemporary era.
Those attending the Synod from the “Oceania Continent” are:
Australia
- Dr Trudy Dantis – Director of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference’s National Centre for Pastoral Research
- Mr John Lochowiak – National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council Chair
- Bishop Shane Mackinlay – Bishop of Sandhurst
- Archbishop Patrick O’Regan – Archbishop of Adelaide
- Mrs Kelly Paget – Chancellor of the Diocese of Broken Bay
- Professor Renee Kohler-Ryan – Head of the School of Philosophy and Theology at the University of Notre Dame Australia
New Zealand
- Mr Manuel Bazley – Vicar for Maori in the Auckland Diocese
- Archbishop Paul Martin – Archbishop of Wellington
- Fr Dennis Nacorda – Parish Priest of Levin
Pacific
- Bishop Paul Donoghue – Bishop of Cook Islands
- Sr Mary Angela Perez – Director of Mission Effectiveness Mariana Islands
- Dr Susan Sela – Director of Technical and Further Education University of the South Pacific, Fiji
Papua New Guinea / Solomon Islands
- Bishop Dariusz Kaluza – Bishop of Bougainville
- Ms Grace Wrakia – Pastoral and Teaching roles for De La Salle Brothers
Syro-Malabar Eparchy
- Dr Sijeesh Pullenkunnel – Chancellor of the Syro-Malabar Eparchy of Melbourne
Additional Experts and facilitators
- Dr Sandie Cornish – Practitioner and academic in Catholic Social Teaching
- Br Ian Cribb – Expert in spiritual conversation – Australia
- Adjunct Professor Susan Pascoe – Member of Synod’s Methodology Commission – Australia
- Fr Asaeli Rass – Provincial of the Divine Word Missionaries – Australia
- Fr Ormond Rush – Theologian – Australia
Source
- Supplied
- CathNews