The Catholic Weekly 3 July 2022

catholicweekly.com.au 2 PLENARY 2022 26, June, 2022 amendments, the fourth Ple- nary published a joint pasto- ral letter which celebrated the progress of the Church and warned against the dangers of social upheaval in the 1930s. “The Catholic who does THE FOURTH Plenary Coun- cil of Australia was held in 1937, mostly at the initiative of the Apostolic Nuncio Arch- bishop Giovanni Panico. Its main aim was to bring the church’s governance into line with the 1917 Code of Canon Law . The fourth Plenary was at- tended by 31 archbishops and bishops of Australia and New Zealand, along with Archbish- op Panico and 53 other clergy – no laity attended. Aside from its 685 decrees, which were passed with few not live really and sincerely according to the faith he pro- fesses will not long be master of himself in these days of strife and persecution,” the letter said. “Atheistic Communism” was a particular focus of the letter, which said it “aims at overthrow of religion and re- fuses to human life any sacred or spiritual character”. The Catholic Church was left to face this menace prac- tically single-handed, the pas- toral letter said, and young men were urged to “be on their guard against the crafty methods by which this move- ment is being propagated”. The letter also applaud- ed Catholic education and expressed appreciation for priests, brothers and nuns in teaching orders, while also mourning the prejudicial de- Different issues for a differe Mass is celebrated in St Mary’s Cathedral in 1937 for the Fourth Plenary of the Church in Australia. PHOTOS: ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY ARCHIVES ¾ Adam Wesselinoff ‘Atheistic Communism’ was a particular focus of the letter, which said it ‘aims at overthrow of reli- gion and refuses to human life any sacred or spiritual character’.” Name goes in here Renewing the Church in our time The Second Assembly of the Plenary Council has much to consider as it charts the future for the Church in Australia. Where to start? The desperate need for spiritual rebirth is obvious I n coming days, the fifth Plenary Council of Aus- tralia will commence its second assembly here in the Archdiocese of Sydney. It is the concluding chapter of the first Plenary Council in over eighty years. It will see 300 or so dele- gates and advisors gather at the site of Australia’s first ca- thedral for prayer, discussion and decision at a critical time in the history of our Church. The Plenary Council con- venes in the midst of a grad- ual decline in both Catholic affiliation and participation in Australia, with a need for the (re)evangelisation of our own people and evangelical out- reach to others. Pressing on the Church too is a decades-long drift from sacramental life, including a present crisis in matrimony, vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Following decades of scan- dal, trust remains low within and beyond the Church. The gifts of many laity, including women and lay men, remain untapped. Emerging social trends and assaults on religious free- dom in states and territories must be confronted and call for prophetic leadership, lest future generations think our own were simply blind or in- different to the challenges at our door. Whether such leadership and clarity emerge from the Council and in its implemen- tation over the years to come is yet to be seen. As reported in The Cath- olic Weekly , some have ap- proached this week’s Council in almost apocalyptic terms, as the apparent “last straw” for the Church in Australia upon which all the frustrated desires of past decades might be lumped. Others are more modest in their expectations and ap- praisal of the Council’s worth, recognising it as one step in an ongoing story of Catholic life in this country and cer- tainly not the last word for emerging leaders and spiri- tually hungry generations to come. Still others have been by- standers on the road to the Council assemblies, content to watch (or not) the process unfold without contribution, even as the communities to which they belong age and di- minish in firm faith and apos- tolic creativity. So, there are different start- ing points and foci among the hundreds of members of the Council, their advisors and the commentators that hang about its edge. Perhaps this mixed pic- ture is quite ‘catholic’ in that respect, but amid the sheer diversity of approaches and expectations around this Council surfaces an import- ant consideration. Whether one thinks the Church in Australia is in un- redeemable crisis, has not one thing to change or lies somewhere in between, it is ultimately the culture of the Church that will determine if this Council bears lasting fruit for Catholic life and the spir- itual and material needs of Australian society. As the say- Daniel Ang ing goes, culture eats strategy for breakfast. It also eats papal encyclicals, policies, and Ple- nary Councils. It is the culture of the Church – its constellation of relationships, universe of ideas and material reality – that contributed to the tragic incidents of sexual abuse in the Church in Australia, and it is also the soil in which im- mense good and grace has flourished over the past cen- tury and a half of our history, to the benefit of generation upon generation of the faith- ful and the broader constitu- tion of Australian life. The key task for members of the Plenary Council will be to anchor or ground the var- ious motions, amendments and proposals of the Coun- cil in that living foundation of the Church’s culture and promise. When the Lord gave us the great commission to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19), he called us to an active, intention- al and personal discipleship. The Church serves this calling as the sacrament and aposto- late of Christ in history. This deeper grounding of the various Plenary Council motions in, and their evalua- tion of their utility toward/by, Emerging so- cial trends and assaults on re- ligious free- dom in states and territories must be confronted and call for prophetic leadership ...” Daniel Ang