The synod will be known locally as the "Parramatta Way".

The Parramatta Way, held in two phases, in October this year and in mid-2024, will develop a pastoral plan and a "path of renewal" for the Diocese of Parramatta.

In a letter convoking the synod, Bishop Long said the synod would significantly impact how the community and mission are carried out in the diocese.

Bishop Long has been an active and enthusiastic promoter of synodality.

In a talk given on 25 January to Catholic school leaders in the area, Bishop Long emphasised the need for a "radical shift from the ‘business as usual' approach".

The "Parramatta Way"

The upcoming synod will build on the work done in the governance review and develop a pastoral plan to guide the diocese in the coming years.

The synod will also promote a culture of synodality in the diocese, which the reviewers recognised as the "Parramatta Way."

"I am proud to say that the Diocese of Parramatta is solidly on its way to becoming a synodal Church that Pope Francis is calling us to," said Bishop Long.

"The upcoming synod is an important step in this journey and will help us to renew our commitment to the mission of the Church in Parramatta."

According to Dr Elissa Roper, a key figure in the drafting process for the Plenary Council, synodality is "a call to listen in ever-widening circles of interest".

"We live with ideas, with pastoral plans, with curiosity, with pre-established solutions. But it's necessary to live with the heart.

"Living with our hearts means we respond as Jesus did to suffering and injustice.

"When Jesus looked at the hungry crowds and was moved with pity, the Greek word [in the Gospel] is splagchnizomai, this means to be moved in one's bowels or inner parts—that is, compassion that moves the very depths of your being.

"The church on the margins, on the peripheries of a comfortable and functional life, is where we see the value of compassionate guts."

Sources

The Catholic Weekly

The recommendation to open meetings with ‘Welcome to Country' is contained in proposals to the Church's Plenary Council. The proposal will be voted on at an assembly of bishops and others later this year.

The draft document, which will be controversial among many Mass-goers, aligns with parts of the Greens/Teals agenda.

The document, given to The Australian, will be circulated within the church hierarchy on Monday.

It was written by theologian Dr Elissa Roper, a specialist in Synodality, and others, as part of a two-year consultation process involving two Plenary Council assemblies and widespread consultation across the church.

The process drew 17,457 submissions from individuals and groups representing more than 222,000 people.

As part of the process, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council (NATSICC) made a submission "in the hope that the Catholic Church in Australia will more resemble the Church that Jesus Christ wants her to be in relation to Australia's First Peoples".

NATSICC recommended that "the traditional custodians of the land on which the church, school, parish or organisation stands be acknowledged in a prominent and appropriate manner. Verbal acknowledgment prior to meetings and Mass is also encouraged''.

The overall proposal urges the Plenary Council to joyfully accept NATSICC's recommendations.

The Plenary Council it says should say "sorry to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in and beyond the Church for the part played by the church in the harms they have suffered'' and commit "to continuing to work towards recognition and reconciliation''.

It said that, in Australia, the Catholic Church had been caught up in Indigenous People's history of dispossession, Stolen Generations and the undermining of language, culture and racism.

However, Australian Catholic University's Dr Kevin Donnelly says he can see "no real reason" for a recommendation for the Catholic Mass to begin with a ‘Welcome to Country' ceremony.

"I'd say it's time for people of good faith to focus on the issues that really matter, not to virtue signal (sic), not to have that sort of moral superiority," Dr Donnelly told Sky News host Andrew Bolt.

"That they actually focus on the real issue here, as Jacinta Price argues ... as to what we can do in a practical, realistic way."

Sources

The Australian

Sky News