As a result, some delegates protested - they refused to take their seats and stood at the back of the meeting room.

The Catholic Weekly understands the protest was led by Francis Sullivan AO and John Warhurst AO.

Sullivan is Chair of Catholic Social Services Australia and the Mater Group of hospitals. He was previously CEO of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council. Warhurst is an Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the Australian National University, and chair of Concerned Catholics Canberra Goulburn.

Sullivan told The Catholic Weekly that a "palpable division" in the Plenary assembly room was evident.

"There was a lot of anger and frustration particularly on behalf of women but also the LGBT or rainbow community if you will," Sullivan said.

"This to my mind goes to the deeper issues confronting the Church over this period of listening and dialogue. Lots of voices have come forward and there is frustration that not all those voices are not actually in the room.

"The second thing is, are we actually being attentive to what those voices are saying to us.

"Underneath it all, I have to say, even from my own experience, there is a deep grief I think that we all feel about where the Church is at, not just for ourselves personally, but collectively there are generations of people who are no longer able to identify with the Church."

The Council had been discussing a two-part set of documents called ‘Witnessing to the Equal Dignity of Women and Men'.

One motion, including the consideration of women for ministry as deacons - should Rome agree - received a qualified majority among consultative voters.

However, it fell just short of a qualified majority among deliberative voters - the bishops - and did not pass.

The other motion asked: "That each Australian diocese and eparchy foster new opportunities for women to participate in ministries and roles that are stable, publicly recognised, and resourced with appropriate formation including theological education and commissioned by the bishop.

"These ministries and roles should engage with the most important aspects of diocesan and parish life and have a real impact on those communities."

The second motion did not receive a qualified majority on either the consultative or the deliberative votes, so was not passed.

During Plenary Council assemblies, consultative votes are exercised by the 277 lay, religious and clerical members and deliberative votes are exercised by the Australian bishops.

Acknowledging the embarrassment the result had caused, Plenary council vice president Bishop Shane Mackinlay said: "This is not the way we were anticipating or hoping the process would go.

"It is disappointing and a lot of people - women and men, priests, laypeople and bishops - were very distressed.

"It was clear our members were not ready to put this to one side and move on to other things."

Mackinlay said council members were trying to redraft the motion so that a new version could be approved on Friday.

"Everybody is absolutely adamant we need to say something about the equal dignity of women and men, and the way we recognise this in the life of the Church," he said.

A four-person writing group has been established to receive recommendations from Members for the drafting of revised motions. The new motions are expected to be considered later in the week.

Source

• Catholic Weekly
• The Sydney Morning Herald
• National Catholic Reporter

Proceedings were carefully choreographed and the agenda was deliberately anodyne.

It took several days before participants found their feet.

The 'deep listening' process of scripture reflection and sharing in small groups did engender a spirit of collegiality.

At the same time, it constrained free-flowing discussion and overwhelmed any effective canvassing of the issues confronting the Church. The upshot was a week devoid of strategic focus.

Given that so much time was spent on prayerful reflection, not enough was available to the task at hand. The Catholic community had supplied 17,500 submissions in an initial consultation phase.

Yet the Plenary was not presented with any report on what those submissions contained, nor was it presented with any draft resolutions from the submissions.

It can only be assumed that the Bishops Steering Group deemed the submissions to be of insignificant value to the Assembly.

The expert theologians, scripture scholars, canonists and public policy advisors were kept at a distance. It was if the participants were meant to start from scratch.

What did emerge was the diversity of views over the role and purpose of the Church. Again, no surprise there! Though more important was the lack of clarity over the actual starting point for the conversation.

Participants were constantly reminded that Pope Francis was calling for a Church motivated by a 'missionary impulse'. It seemed fair to assume therefore that the task was to imagine what that looks like for the Church now and into the future.

Yet the daily feedback from the working groups roamed far and wide from personal devotional practices all the way to cutting edge pastoral outreach.

Again, no surprises when you give Catholics free rein!

The situation would be less distressing if there had been an overt recognition of the crisis the Church faces. A crisis that is both of its own making and one that prompts questions about religious belief in our world today.

This crisis needs to be addressed by the Plenary Council in two fundamental areas: internal organisation and pastoral disposition.

On the first, the organisational life of the Church has already been the subject of intense scrutiny by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

One of the seventeen volumes of the Final Report dealt specifically with the Catholic Church. It contained clear recommendations for governance and culture.

Following this, the bishops and religious leaders commissioned a two-year study that produced The Light From the Southern Cross report into governance and cultural issues. These two reports outline a similar roadmap for change.

But the elephant in the room is the authority of bishops.

Christian anthropology insights of the human sciences

Almost before the ink dried on the reports some bishops dismissed their recommendations as an attack on episcopal authority.

Some even went as far to say that the reports would make the Catholic Church too 'Anglican'! Talk of shared governance models and expanding the influential role of the laity, especially women, was a bridge too far for those content with 'business as usual'.

This despite the evidence that most indicators the Church was going backwards.

Calls for Church leaders to introduce measures enhancing best practice accountability and transparency, vital to regaining the public trust lost after the abuse scandal and cover-ups, continue to be met with shrill warnings about erosion of episcopal control.

This issue must be faced head-on. Whether the Church can embark on a new missionary strategy is dependent on getting its own house in order.

That is, demonstrating that the culture to conceal and deal in the dark is over. That best practice governance is commonplace. That transparency in how decisions are made and by whom is the norm.

That the laity, especially more women, are effectively involved in and jointly accountable for the life and future direction of the Church. These are the obvious indicators of a changed culture and structure. One that has some chance of being believed when they say 'trust us'!

On the issue of the pastoral disposition of the Church, the way forward is more fraught. The mindset and culture of our Church is still based on an outmoded understanding of personhood.

Our Christian anthropology has not kept pace with the insights of the human sciences and contemporary understandings of personal development, including sexuality, gender identity and its diversity.

This is a fundamental disconnect for the Church in the Western world. It puts at risk the effectiveness of its mission.

This is particularly the case for the Church's relevance to young people exploring their place in the world; or in bridging the chasm with the LGBTIQA+ people in their full participation in the life of the Church; or in embracing divorced and remarried Catholics, including their reception of the Eucharist.

A more nuanced theology of personhood would better inform our pastoral practice and deliver a genuinely inclusive, compassionate missionary outreach.

This is what the Plenary Council must address. Building trust is a two-way street. Being trusted to act in an ethical manner, both in its business and organisational dealings and in the dealings with people, in and out of the Church, is non-negotiable.

Reaching out with compassion, affirming people, being for others, goes to the heart of a 'missionary impulse'. Doing it without conditions goes to the heart of the Gospel. Anything less looks like 'business as usual'.

• Francis Sullivan AO is Chair of Catholic Social Services Australia and the Mater Group of hospitals. He was previously CEO of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council.
• Published in La-Croix International.

Yet to assume that the institution is exclusively the Church is to miss the point: Cardinal Pell has been sentenced, not Australia's Catholics.

Believers, and those who identify with the Catholic faith tradition, are the real Church. The institution is but an organised mechanism to give expression to some of that believing community's social and practical activities.

For the Church to survive, its members need to take responsibility for their future.

The clerical caste has failed us in its mismanagement of the abuse scandal. The protectionism and closed shop mentality that comes with clericalism is a curse for my Church.

Too many clerics have been too self-interested to seek the health of the Church above their own sense of entitlement and advancement. Organisationally they hold all the cards.

What should be done now?

Accountability

The Australian bishops must act. They are accountable only to the Pope and he is struggling to get on top of the issue.

They should voluntarily subject themselves to a transparent accountable mechanism that is not run by clerics. They must not use Canon Law as an excuse to avoid being accountable to both the Catholic and wider communities.

Governance

It is time for an independent body, perhaps an ombudsman model, to oversee the cultural reform of the Australian Church and the performance of bishops.

This body needs to be separate from the hierarchy, conducted under accepted public service principles and staffed by experts in fields of governance, cultural anthropology and ecclesiology.

Equality

The bishops have instigated a Church-wide future directions dialogue within the Catholic community. Known as a Plenary Council, it is an important initiative but risks being clouded by perceptions of overt clerical control. To date, only bishops chair the important forums and only bishops and male clergy have full voting rights.

The medieval patriarchy of the institution is starkly out of touch. Continue reading

• An Australian perspecrtive, offered by Francis Sullivan is the former CEO of the Catholic Church in Australia's Truth, Justice and Healing Council.

McClellan is the Chair of Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The Commission learned that child sex abuse has occurred in almost every type of institution where children lived or attended.

Furthermore, "it is not a case of a few rotten apples," he says.

"Society's major institutions have seriously failed.

"In many cases those failings have been exacerbated by a manifestly inadequate response to the abused person.

"The problems have been so widespread, and the nature of the abuse so heinous, that it is difficult to comprehend."

More than 15,000 survivors or their relatives have contacted the Royal Commission since it was created in 2012.

McClellan says each of the more than 8,000 personal stories told to Commissioners in private sessions had a profound impact on them and their staff.

It has been "a privilege for the Commissioners to sit with and listen to survivors," McClellan says.

"The survivors are remarkable people with a common concern to do what they can to ensure that other children are not abused.

"They deserve our nation's thanks.

"Alleged perpetrators were often allowed to have access to children even when religious leaders knew they posed a danger."

Rather than reporting the crimes when they came to light, alleged perpetrators were often transferred to other locations where they had further access to children.

Furthermore, McClellan says the Royal Commission received evidence that "at least in Sydney and Melbourne there was for many years an understanding that the police would protect members of the Church who may have offended".

The Royal Commission is due to have its last public sitting in Sydney next month.

It will then deliver its final report to Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove.

At the same time, it will be thanking the community for its support.

Francis Sullivan, the CEO of the Catholic Church's Truth, Justice and Healing Council, says the report is likely to comprise up to 17 volumes.

At least three of those volumes concern the Catholic Church.

It is not yet known when the report will be made public.

Usually this occurs only after tabling in Parliament.

It may not be released to the public until Australia's federal and state legislatures sit again in early 2018.

Source

• The Tablet
• The Times
• Image: The Australian

The Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will hold a final hearing regarding the Catholic Church in February, 2017, the Australian Associated Press reported.

The commission is seeking submissions about any factors that may have contributed to child sex abuse in Catholic institutions or affected the Church's response.

The structure and governance of the Catholic Church and the Vatican's role are among the issues that will be examined.

Also to be looked at will be what the Church has done and plans to do to protect children and prevent abuse.

Other issues identified by the commission include canon law, mandatory celibacy and the selection, screening, training and ongoing support and supervision of working priests.

"We wish to examine to what extent these and other factors have contributed to the occurrence of child sexual abuse in Catholic institutions, or whether these issues have affected the institutional response to child sexual abuse," commission chief executive Philip Reed said last week.

The hearing will also reveal data on the extent of child sexual abuse within Catholic institutions in Australia.

The Church's Truth, Justice and Healing Council chief executive Francis Sullivan has acknowledged the Catholic Church is the single largest institutional setting in Australia in which children have been abused.

The 14 Catholic-focused public hearings by the commission have revealed elements of its culture that promote secrecy, concealment and complicity, Mr Sullivan said last month.

"Most of all they showed that the instinctive reaction to defend the Church, to prevent scandal and to uphold institutional reputation drove the management of child sex abuse cases and relegated the needs of victims below those of the Church," Mr Sullivan said.

"Maladministration and clericalism, along with abuse of power and privilege, ensured that the sex abuse scandal was concealed for so long."

Sources

• Australian Associated Press
• Image: Lawsarasota.com

Labor will set aside A$33million for the creation of a scheme.

This is aimed at offering counselling services and compensation for survivors of institutional child sex abuse.

The agency would report to the federal attorney general.

There would be three broad goals for the national scheme:

• The chance for survivors to receive a direct personal response from their abuser or the institution that housed their abuser
• Monetary compensation for the abuse suffered
• Counselling and psychological support that is accessible through the course of their lives.

The redress scheme Labor is proposing is essentially that recommended by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

As many as 60,000 people could be eligible for between A$10,000 and A$200,000 in compensation, a report by the royal commission found.

The average compensation payment will be A$65,000.

The cost of redress should be met by the perpetrators of abuse, the commission stated. A figure of $A4billion overall was suggested.

The Commonwealth and state and territory governments should only step in to pay as a last resort.

Australian Opposition leader Bill Shorten said "Labor established the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse to give the thousands of people affected by these evil crimes an opportunity to finally be heard. "

"But we always knew this would only be the start of the process of healing," his statement said.

The Australian federal government has yet to respond to the royal commission's final recommendation on redress handed down three months ago.

Chief executive officer of the Catholic Church's Truth Justice and Healing Council, Francis Sullivan, said Labor's announcement was the first concrete commitment from a political party, state or federal, to the royal commission's redress proposals.

"Unfortunately it is our current elected representatives that need to be making commitments to a redress scheme," Mr Sullivan said.

Sources

• Guardian Australia
• Perth Now
• Sydney Morning Herald
• Image: Herald Sun

Last week, the Vatican announced a new tribunal within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith "to judge bishops with regard to crimes of the abuse of office when connected to the abuse of minors".

Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors member Marie Collins sought and received confirmation from the Vatican that the tribunal could deal with retrospective cases of neglect by bishops.

The head of the Australian Catholic Church's Truth, Justice and Healing Council, Francis Sullivan, said he wouldn't speculate on whether a hearing would take place involving a local bishop.

Mr Sullivan said "the way the Vatican works . . . it won't work on speculation or on unsubstantiated claims".

"It will work on final determinations of courts or commissions of inquiry like the royal commission [on institutional responses to child sexual abuse]," he said.

The commission is expected to conclude its public hearings in early 2017, with a final report due on December 15 of that year.

Mr Sullivan doubted that the Vatican's tribunal had already started investigating bishops.

But he believed the work would be accelerated under Pope Francis.

Mr Sullivan said Church leaders have been placed on notice that they have a role to do in responding to and preventing child sexual abuse.

If they fail, they will be judged and possibly lose their jobs, he added.

Complaints against bishops would initially be investigated by one of three Vatican departments, depending on the jurisdiction under which the bishops fall, before being judged by the doctrinal tribunal.

The new tribunal will reportedly have lay members, men and women.

Ms Collins, an abuse survivor, believes a similar tribunal would be set up to deal with religious superiors.

Sources

• Sydney Morning Herald
• Irish Times
• Image: Media Blog

The Church's Truth, Justice and Healing Council chief, Francis Sullivan, said this to a royal commission hearing last week.

Mr Sullivan said the Church supported a national scheme administered by the federal government and funded by institutions responsible for abuse.

This model was widely supported by victims and advocacy groups.

Mr Sullivan said the compensation of abuse victims needs to be handled independently.

"The days of the Church doing its own investigations are over," he said.

Continue reading

The Church's Truth, Justice and Healing Council told Australia's Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that such a scheme should be run by the federal government.

The council's submission also recommended that victims who have already received compensation be able to access the new scheme, for an independent review of past settlements.

The scheme also recommends redress should be capped and the limit determined "in line with community standards".

But the Church wants to maintain the legally binding deeds of release already signed by many victims so they could access the Church's Towards Healing process.

"A deed of release in a legal sense is about releasing various parties from civil litigation and that's what they've signed," the council's chief executive, Francis Sullivan, told Guardian Australia.

"Most people signed deeds of release with legal advice and with knowledge of that," he said.

Under the scheme proposed by the Church, there would be no time limit for making a claim and redress should take into account medical and counselling expenses as well as past and future lost earnings.

Claimants should be allowed to access low-cost legal advice and those who are unsuccessful in the federal scheme should then have the option of instigating civil proceedings.

The proposal also extends the provision of compensation to the immediate family of victims.

Mr Sullivan said the scheme would offer fair and compassionate compensation.

"The days of the Catholic Church investigating itself are over," he said.

"For the sake of the survivors of clerical sexual abuse within the Church and all other institutions, the development of an independent national victims' redress scheme is a giant step forward in delivering justice for people suffering the devastating impacts of child sexual abuse."

The Uniting Church in Australia has backed a similar scheme which is mandatory for all relevant institutions, but the Salvation Army says it should be on an "opt-in" basis.

Care Leavers Australia Network executive officer Leonie Sheedy said many survivors had just received "breadcrumbs" to compensate them for the abuse they suffered.

She said a fair redress scheme was well overdue.

"It sounds encouraging but talk is cheap; it's what's in the fine print that matters," she said.

Sources

• Sydney Morning Herald
• Guardian Australia
• Image: The Australian

This step is part of a reform agenda described as potentially "the most significant overhaul of the Church's approach to clerical sexual abuse in its more than 200-year history in Australia".

The reform proposals are outlined in the submission of the Church's lay-led Truth Justice and Healing Council to the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.

The proposals include:

• Appointing independent compensation commissioners to determine payments to victims who go through the victim response process known as Towards Healing. This would separate the pastoral responses in Towards Healing from the determination of financial payments.
• the appointment of lay and independent experts to strengthen the Church's National Committee of Professional Standards.
• The introduction of an independent national board to develop and administer national child protection standards. The board would monitor adherence to these standards and publicly report on compliance.
• The board would also provide more rigorous assessment, monitoring, auditing and enforcement of Towards Healing practices.
• The introduction of greater transparency through public reporting by both the new national board and the Towards Healing process.

The chief executive officer of the Truth Justice and Healing Council, Francis Sullivan, said ultimately it may be appropriate for the Church to merge the reparation element of Towards Healing into a national compensation scheme to which all relevant institutions would contribute to, should this be a recommendation of the royal commission.

Mr Sullivan said the reforms are now being fully developed and will be presented to Church leaders in the first half of 2014.

Sources:

Sydney Morning Herald

Truth Justice and Healing Council

Image: Truth Justice and Healing Council

The chief executive of the Church's Truth, Justice and Healing Council — which will represent the Church at the royal commission — said the experience will be embarrassing but it is imperative the truth emerges.

"We are going to encourage, wherever possible, individuals to come forward with their experiences so that the truth can come out," said Francis Sullivan.

"The Church leadership in Australia have made it clear that they are going to be open and honest and co-operate fully."

He said any existing confidentiality agreements would be cancelled so victims could tell their stories. On compensation, he said: "We are dead keen on making sure that compensation, and appropriate compensation, is put in place."

Sullivan said the task of the council also involves advising the Church on the best practice changes to protect children and prevent sexual abuse.

"This is a crucial task as the Church demonstrates through its actions that the welfare and safety of children are the highest priority," he said.

When the royal commission opened its sittings on April 3, the chairman, Justice Peter McClellan, said more than 5000 submissions were expected, so it was unlikely that the deadllne of December 2015 would be met.

Justice McClellan said the commission would aim to right the wrongs of the past.

"Although a painful process, if a community is to move forward, it must come to understand where wrongs have occurred and so far as possible, right those wrongs," he said.

"It must develop principles which, when implemented through legislation and changes in the culture and management practices of institutions and the behaviour of individuals, will ensure a better future for subsequent generations."

Sources:

AAP

Catholic Leader

Radio Australia

Royal Commission website

Image: News.com

Its chairman will be a retired Supreme Court judge, Barry O'Keefe, QC and its chief executive officer will be another prominent layman, Francis Sullivan.

The only other member named so far is Dr Maree Marsh, a Brigidine sister and psychologist who has counselled sex abuse victims.

Announcing the Catholic commission, the chairman of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference, Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne, said the Church recognised it needed a sophisticated and co-ordinated response.

He promised a new era of transparency and honesty, saying the Church would co-operate "completely, fully and readily", including providing all documents that might be requested.

Archbishop Hart said the new commission would also work with victims of clergy sex abuse.

Mr O'Keefe is a former commissioner of the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption, former chief judge of the NSW Supreme Court, chairman of Interpol's International Group of Experts on Corruption and chairman of the International Anti-corruption Conference.

He is also the brother of Australian rock and roll pioneer Johnny O'Keefe.

Mr Sullivan has been secretary-general of the Australian Medical Association, chief executive of Catholic Health Australia and a consultor of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry.

Mr O'Keefe said it would not be the council's role to prepare Church witnesses for the royal commission.

Mr Sullivan said the Church will consider having a victim represented among the council's 10 members.

"I would think that if there was a way in which it could be, a person would feel that they were able to participate in the council, that it wasn't traumatic in any way, then that would be good," he said.

Sources:

Sydney Morning Herald

ABC News

Courier Mail

Canberra Times

Image: Canberra Times