As PC member John Warhurst commented: 'In political terms we [Catholics] range from One Nation to the Greens and everything in between' (Blog, 9 July).

That's true, but PC votes consistently indicated that the large majority of Catholics strongly support church renewal. Out of 277 members, the most those opposed to renewal could muster was 65 even when you count the juxta modumvotes as 'no' votes.

The PC's most positive achievement was its strong support for the Uluru Statement from the Heart, calling for a First Nations voice to Parliament to be enshrined in Australia's constitution.

In some ways Catholics are ahead of the general community on First Nations concerns. The reason: this has been an issue for the church for decades and was pushed by pioneers like Shirley 'Mum Shirl' Smith, Ted Kennedy and many others, making it central to mainstream Catholicism

On the issue of equality, the PC eventually semi-caught-up with the 20th century in a vote on a set of re-drafted motions supporting equal dignity for women and men.

Perth Archbishop, Tim Costelloe, in an understatement, commented: 'There is a long way to go …in understanding the proper role of women in the life of the Church.' Exactly, archbishop!

But the problem is that Catholicism has long resisted equality as a 'feminist plot' so that we've now just caught-up with the 1970s. As Costelloe admitted, 'there's still a long way to go' to get the church into the 21stcentury.

Within the constraints of canon law

This debate takes us to the core weakness of the PC. Because some bishops and laity have long resisted the basic reforms of Vatican II, particularly that of living in the real world as mandated by Gaudium et spes ('The Church in the Modern World'), we are endlessly at a disadvantage, always playing catch-up.

As someone said, we're entangled in 'pathetic incrementalism.'

For example, there are a set of motions asking bishops to establish diocesan pastoral councils and parish councils, structures already legislated in the Code of Canon Law (canons 511-514 and 536).

Another example: the PC encourages all Catholics 'to accept Pope Francis' invitation to join the Laudato Si' Action Platform…as a vehicle…for their ecological conversion.'

But the environmental movement developed plans like these decades ago, while the church has been stymied by some Catholics talking about ecology as 'pagan religion' filling a spiritual void in the post-Christian West and claiming that global warming is 'the hysteria of alarmists.'

This, despite the fact that Catholicism has had an ecological theology and spirituality for more than fifty years with thinkers like Thomas Berry. Here in Australia, we'd already developed a theological approach and the term 'environmental conversion' actually originated here.

Environmentalists moved-on years ago to real issues like winding-down coal mining, stopping native forest logging, confronting global warming and overpopulation.

The PC's 'integral ecology' sounds like something from the 1980s. Again, the church is lagging behind the world and pious platitudes are meaningless as we face environmental catastrophe.

Sure, I understand that all the PC could do was to act within the constraints of canon law and find formulations on which members could agree. Sadly, the process was flawed from the beginning and major issues facing the local church were simply ignored.

For instance, there was no forensic analysis of contemporary Australian society. The church must understand the world to speak to it.

We live, as Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor says in a secular world where religion and God are literally expelled from the public sphere and relegated to the private. Public spaces, Taylor says, have been 'emptied of God, or of any reference to ultimate reality.'

All is not lost

He says we have moved 'from a society in which it was virtually impossible not to believe in God to one in which faith, even for the staunchest believer, is one possibility among others. God is no longer axiomatic.'

The contemporary assumption is that religion is fading away as science explains everything and people search for their own meaning and ethical norms.

Given this context, the PC's failure to consider questions regarding gender and sexuality was a mistake. These questions are, to use Taylor's word, 'axiomatic' for people today and can't be ignored.

For young people the church's irrelevance is demonstrated by the fact that it stubbornly resists these issues.

Again, if the hard work had been done several decades ago, we wouldn't be dealing, as Francis Sullivan says, with some PC members' 'gobsmacking level of political correctness over the politics of sex and gender…As if making any reference to "those who identify as LGBTIQA+" is somehow running counter to the missionary outreach of the Church beggar's belief' (Blog, 5 July).

Another issue that was largely ignored was the priesthood and the question of ordination itself, especially in light of the fact that over 55% of all priests now working in Australian parishes are foreign-born.

The anodyne motion on priesthood says nothing new, and seminaries, the seedbeds of clericalism, were hardly mentioned.

Again, this is one of those unaddressed issues from decades ago. Its not that some of us haven't asked questions. My first public disagreement in the mid-1980s with the then Father George Pell was over his approach to formation in the Melbourne seminary.

So, while thankful for what was achieved, the PC simply side-stepped the major issues facing Australian Catholicism. But all is not lost.

Awareness has been raised, Catholics wanting renewal are clearly the majority, prominent lay leaders have emerged, and many of the bishops 'get' the real issues. And there's always Sancta Sophia, the Holy Spirit, guiding us.

• Paul Collins is the author of 15 books, several of which focus on church governance and Australian Catholicism.
• First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.

The International Network of Church Reform Movements conference, organised by Fr Tony Flannery, is expected to attract 40 representatives.

Fr Flannery said the topics expected to be discussed include the "reform agenda of Pope Francis, the future of parishes and communities, women's equality and how to communicate with the Vatican".

According to The Tablet, among those attending will be Martha Heizer, head of We Are Church Austria, who was excommunicated by the Vatican along with her husband, Gert Heizer, for celebrating Mass without a priest present.

Other participants include Australian Paul Collins who resigned his priesthood in 2001 over the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's censure of his book, Papal Power.

Another attendee will be American Loreto Sr Jeannine Gramick who champions the cause of equal rights for gay people in the Catholic Church, and who has had a long running dispute with Rome.

On his blog, Fr Flannery said this would be the first time "such a large gathering of leaders of the Church Reform Movement have met".

Fr Flannery said the "main focus of the event will be to get to know each other, with the aim of supporting Church reform, both at the level of structures of authority and at the grass-roots".

"This is the first time that this group will come together, so a lot of it will be sharing experiences and ideas on Church reform."

No member of the Irish hierarchy had been invited to attend the conference, Fr Flannery said, adding that the priests attending will be representing priests' associations.

The public is invited to attend the final session of the conference to be held in a hotel in Limerick from April 13-16.

Fr Flannery was banned from ministry by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2012 for his views on the Eucharist and priesthood.

Sources

• The Tablet
• Fr Tony Flannery blog
• Image: Irish Examiner

Most just think the Vatican is corrupt and busy laundering vast sums of Mafia money through the 'Vatican Bank'. The papacy hasn't helped itself with its insistence on an absurd level of secrecy and its earlier involvement with criminals like Sindona and Calvi.

Well, now for the first time we actually have some hard facts.

Benedict XVI has been determined to clean up the Holy See's finances. In February 2011 he called in the Council of Europe's experts on anti-money laundering and financing of terrorism, Moneyval. Moneyval and their 241 page July 2012 report (plus annexes) gives us an enormous trove of factual material about the Vatican. Continue reading

Image: ABC