What is a Plenary Council?

A Plenary Council is the highest formal gathering of all local churches in a country.

“Plenary” refers to the Council being attended by all local churches that are in Australia. This means the geographical dioceses such as Brisbane Archdiocese, Lismore Diocese etc., as well as the other local churches, which include the Military Diocese, Eastern Church Eparchies and others of this nature. Altogether, Australia has 34 “local churches”.

The decisions that are made at the Council become binding for the Catholic Church in Australia. A Synod does not have this legislative and governance authority.

 Our Plenary Council 2020 is being held so that we can all participate in dialogue about the future of the Catholic Church in Australia.

There are many reasons for having a Plenary Council for the Catholic Church in Australia, the main ones being: -

• Pope Francis has invited the local church to dialogue;
• the contemporary society of Australia has changed significantly,
• the Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse has been a significant and influential event that requires deep consideration and response.

When the Australian Catholic Bishops announced the decision to hold a Plenary Council, Archbishop of Brisbane Mark Coleridge said that “the Church is not the presence in our society it once was. We need to take a measure of that and make decisions accordingly. The culture in which we have to proclaim the Gospel is very different to what it was even 20 or 30 years ago.”

In 2018, the entire People of God in Australia began preparing for this historic moment by listening to God, by listening to one another’s stories of faith. The whole of Australia was encouraged to submit responses to the question;

WHAT IS GOD ASKING OF US AS CHURCH IN AUSTRALIA?

More than 222,000 people participated in listening and dialogue encounters and contributed submissions during the first stage of preparation for the Australian Plenary Council.

IN OUR DIOCESE

In 2016 Bishop Michael McCarthy of the Rockhampton Diocese, had begun a two-year process of listening to the people throughout this far flung area. This process dovetailed with the National Plenary council process. In the Rockhampton Diocese, each region experienced two sessions, months apart.

 The first session was to find out what the issues and the dreams were for the people in each region and see what they saw as barriers or assists needed to achieve those dreams.

The second session was to prioritize those issues that had arisen and to address them as they were relevant to each particular region of the Diocese and formulate ideas as to how they could see ways to achieve those dreams.

This was followed up by a Diocesan Assembly in March 2019 where the representatives of the regions explored and discussed the issues that had been raised and came up with concrete plans.

There was a great sense of consensus during the Assembly. Now we have collated themes for further work.

There is close correlation between what has come from the national discussions and our own diocesan discussions.  The Plenary Council themes for discussion and discernment are

HOW IS GOD CALLING US TO BE A CHRIST-CENTERED CHURCH THAT IS…..

• MISSIONARY AND EVANGELIZING

(bringing ourselves and others to live the gospel more closely)

• INCLUSIVE, PARTICIPATORY AND SYNODAL

(sharing ideas and inspirations with respect so we can move forward together)

• PRAYERFUL AND EUCHARISTIC

(continually seeking the guidance of the Spirit)

• HUMBLE, HEALING AND MERCIFUL

(revealing God’s healing and ever-present love through our lives)

• A JOYFUL, HOPE-FILLED AND SERVANT COMMUNITY

(recognizing the light of Christ shining even in the darkest of time)

• OPEN TO CONVERSION, RENEWAL AND REFORM

(recognizing our need to change if we are to be a catalyst for good in our world)

Plenary Council will be held in two sessions.

The first will be held on October 4th to 11th, 2020, in Adelaide,

and the second session will be held in mid-2021 (possibly in May).

The Council will be held in two sessions in order to enable to deeper discernment, further learning, dialogue and listening where it may be needed and to write or rewrite anything in response to the dialogue of the first session.

Most importantly, the time in between sessions will allow us to ensure we are “listening to what the spirit is saying”. Rev 2:7

TIMETABLE IN OUR DIOCESE FOR DISCUSSION AND DISCERNMENT OF THEMES in 2019-

EVANGELISING: September. MISSIONARY: October. PRAYERFUL AND EUCHARISTIC: November.

Sr Noreen Dunne smsm