While it is almost a year since the official closing of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia, a new resource from the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference – launched on Pentecost Sunday – aims to ensure the momentum of the Council is not lost.
The resource acknowledges the decrees will not be officially promulgated until they have received recognitio from the Dicastery for Bishops. However, faith communities are invited to consider a variety of ways to explore the introductions and decrees made by the Council.
“We are mindful of the enthusiasm that existed around the Plenary Council and the desire to start building on the decisions that were made in that historic moment for the Church in Australia,” said Bishop Shane Mackinlay, who was the Council’s vice-president.
“By preparing Carrying Forward the Plenary Council, we are encouraging Catholic parishes, schools and other communities to pray about, reflect upon and review what their community is already doing, or could be doing, in relation to acting on the commitments the Council members made.”
The new document offers practical suggestions as to how communities can continue to carry forward the work of the Plenary Council. For example:
- A simple guide to the discernment process has been provided to enable dialogue and action.
- How to encourage engagement with those who aren’t regularly part of the worshipping community.
- A short checklist to help ensure projects are progressed beyond the “talking” stage.
- The option to consider decrees in an incremental way. It is not necessary to try and tackle every decree at once. Communities can begin with one of the decrees, before expanding their scope and strategies to address all of them over time.
The Study Guide focuses on the following decrees:
- Reconciliation: Healing Wounds, Receiving Gifts
- Choosing Repentance – Seeking Healing
- Called by Christ – Sent Forth as Missionary Disciples
- Witnessing to the Equal Dignity of Women and Men
- Communion in Grace: Sacrament to the World
- Formation and Leadership for Mission and Ministry
- At the Service of Communion, Participation and Mission: Governance
- Integral Ecology and Conversion for the Sake of Our Common Home
We encourage you to download the free resource and see how it might benefit your community. It is our hope that this resource will assist parishes and other faith communities to move from “talking about” to “acting on” what the Holy Spirit is calling the Church in Australia to be.
For more information, visit the Plenary Council website.
Words: Sharon Brewer