Still Listening to the Spirit: Woman and Man Twenty Years Later

By Australian Catholic Bishops Conference

This collection of essays celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Woman and Man: One in Christ Jesus, which reported the results of research undertaken by the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference in partnership with the Australian Catholic University and the Australian Conference of Leaders of Religious Insti

• Language: English
• Publisher: Australian Catholic Bishops Conference
• Release date: Nov 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9780648372769

Book preview

PREFACE

Andrea Dean

This anthology marks twenty years since the publication of Woman and Man: One in Christ Jesus, research findings on the participation of women in the Catholic Church in Australia.¹ This research project was undertaken for the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference by the Bishops Committee for Justice, Development and Peace, the Australian Catholic University and the Australian Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutes.

The findings delivered a strong message to the Church community:

The dominant issue arising from the research was gender equality, recognising the equal dignity of women and men created in the image and likeness of God. This understanding of equality did not imply the sameness of men and women, but rather their complementarity and mutuality. The Church was seen to be lagging behind the wider Australian society in recognising the changing role of women as one of the signs of the times and affirming the equality of women. The very limited participation of women in decision-making at present and the need to increase women’s involvement in decision-making at all levels were constant and major themes.²

The bishops responded to the research in the Social Justice Sunday Statement for 2000. The Statement included nine decisions of national significance and thirty-one proposals for implementation at diocesan level. The decisions addressed greater leadership opportunities for women, more theological research, investigating liturgical matters, providing pastoral and spiritual support, promoting best practice in ministry, shared decision-making with Aboriginal women and establishing the Australian Catholic Commission for Women.³

This varied collection of essays provides a series of snapshots into the lives of Australian Catholic women in 2019. Some essays reference the research findings and/or the Social Justice Statement for 2000. Others provide a theological reflection on contemporary dimensions of women’s lives or issues of significance. Several essays emerged from the Triennial Colloquium hosted by the Council for Australian Catholic Women in Adelaide in February 2019.

Every essay contributes to creating a range of opportunities in the Church for respectful listening and dialogue concerning the experiences, needs and aspirations of women.

Every author has given freely of her/his time and expertise knowing that ultimately this book continues the quest of the original authors of Woman and Man: One in Christ Jesus, to recognise the equal dignity of women and men created in the image and likeness of God.

Once again, the Office for Social Justice has worked cooperatively and generously with the Council for Australian Catholic Women believing that the dignity of every person is independent of ethnicity, creed, ability, sexuality, age or gender.

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1 Marie Macdonald, Peter Carpenter, Sandie Cornish, Michael Costigan, Robert Dixon, Margaret Malone, Kevin Manning, Sonia Wagner, Woman and Man: One in Christ Jesus, (Pymble, NSW: Harper Collins, 1999).

2 Macdonald et. al., Woman and Man. vii-viii.

3 Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Woman and Man: The Bishops Respond, 2000. https://socialjustice.catholic.org.au/files/SJSandresources/2000-SJSS-Statement.pdf Accessed 5 September 2019.

INTRODUCTION

Sandie Cornish

This collection of essays celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Woman and Man: One in Christ Jesus¹, and responds to a key concern that emerged in the listening stage of the preparation for the Plenary Council of the Catholic Church in Australia to be held in 2020.² It brings together a diverse range of perspectives on issues concerning women in the Church and in society, providing food for thought and prayer in the discernment phase of the Plenary Council preparations. The contributors offer their insights as internationally recognised scholars, women in leadership roles, young women, pastoral workers and mothers. This collection makes the fruit of their listening to the Spirit available to the writing and discernment groups which are preparing input to guide the development of the agenda of the first session of the Plenary Council, and to the whole Catholic community.

In the twenty years since the publication of the results of research undertaken by the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference in partnership with the Australian Catholic University and the Australian Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutes (now known as Catholic Religious Australia) concerning the participation of women in the Catholic Church in Australia, the world has changed significantly. Many of the major themes that emerged in the research results, published in Woman and Man: One in Christ Jesus, remain live and contentious. While there have been advances in some areas, little seems to have changed in others, and in some matters, things seem to have gone backwards.

Part one of this collection looks back on the research and forward to the future. The first essay comes from First Nations’ woman Kelly Humphrey. While declaring impatience for a spiritual revolution, she takes a long view of the makings of such revolutions, and finds reasons for hope. Twenty years after eight groups of Aboriginal women courageously took part in the research on the participation of women in the Church in Australia, a greater sense of urgency on the part of all members of the Church is needed so that the contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women to the Church may be joyfully received.

The second essay, by Geraldine Hawkes, places before us a choice between dispositions of love and fear. Geraldine was the inaugural chair of the Commission for Australian Catholic Women, which was established in response to the research. She contrasts the fear and gate-keeping that has thwarted progress in deepening women’s participation in the Church with the disposition of love and receptivity that is consistently encouraged by the Gospel. She sees hope in the example of Archbishop Faulkner’s shared leadership and governance of the Archdiocese of Adelaide, and views the Plenary Council as an opportunity to receive what the Spirit is saying to and through all of us.

Part two turns to a major finding of the research – the widespread desire to improve women’s limited participation in leadership and decision-making within the Church. Religious women have been standard-bearers and trailblazers in women’s participation in leadership and decision-making within the Church in Australia, as elsewhere. Clare Condon SGS recalls the journey of religious women in Australia as they discerned and responded to the call of Vatican II. She also shares how they continue to innovate in their models of leadership and governance in attentiveness to the Spirit. The courage, graciousness and inclusivity of religious women as they not only open but hand over leadership and governance of the works which they established to lay people, is in itself an important act of leadership within the Church.

Theologian Maeve Louise Heaney then takes up the question of reimagining ways of sharing decision-making, power and leadership within the Church. She presents the reflections on gender justice of the International Network for Societies of Catholic Theology, and notes their convergence with some of the key recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Maeve proposes three ways forward. First, an inclusive conversation that gathers and listens to diversity; second, dismissing fear as an advisor, and third, greater formation in the history of women’s involvement in the Church, in the historicity of our grasp of truth and the development of doctrine, and in an ecclesiology of structured communion founded on baptism.

Debra Zanella reflects on her experience of leading a Catholic social service organisation. She finds inspiration for her development of a leadership framework for service and being in the teachings concerning mission and mercy of Pope Francis, and of former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. Debra’s vision and practice of mission and leadership invites us to go outwards towards others, to where they live and work, and where they struggle.

Part three addresses women’s ministry within the church. Elizabeth Delaney SGS’s essay on canon law sets out a significant element of the context for the following essays. She expertly provides interpretive keys to the law of the Church and its development. Elizabeth identifies practical situations in which canon law allows women to have a voice. These include determining the readiness of children for the sacraments, participation in diocesan and parish structures and, perhaps surprisingly, the selection of