The Fifth Plenary Council of Australia, initiated in March 2018, held its first assembly from October 3-10, 2021 and its second from July 3-9, 2022. Both sessions were rocked by heated differences, particularly over the diaconate women.
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What is a plenary council?
Canon law distinguishes general councils from particular councils. The first bring together all the bishops belonging to the Catholic Church, they are then called “ecumenical”, which means, according to the etymology: universal.
The latter are of several types:
– they can bring together a diocese, this is the diocesan synod, which brings together the clergy around the bishop;
– they can bring together the bishops of an ecclesiastical province, and are convened by the metropolitan bishop;
– they can also bring together the bishops of several ecclesiastical provinces forming a region;
– Finally, they can bring together all the bishops of a country, and are called national or plenary councils. It is this type of council that is in question here.
A brief history of plenary councils in Australia
Before holding plenary councils, Australia – and New Zealand which were a single province – held provincial councils.
Plenary councils were held in 1885, 1895, 1905 and 1937, and are referred to as the First, Second, Third and Fourth Councils of Sydney, as that city was the primatial seat of the country. It should be noted that the first was that of the plenary council of Australasia, the second and the third, plenary councils of Australia, and the fourth, plenary council of Australia and New Zealand.
Canonical rules applying to a plenary council
It must be convened by the conference of bishops, which must fix all the material circumstances, as well as the questions to be dealt with.
The rules also specify the members who must be summoned to this council: diocesan bishops, coadjutor and auxiliary bishops, other titular bishops. All these members have a deliberative vote.
The vicars general and the episcopal vicars, the major superiors of religious institutes, the rectors of ecclesiastical universities, some rectors of major seminaries must also be convened with an advisory vote.
Other members can be called to a particular council, with only consultative suffrage: priests and faithful, “in such a way, however, that their number does not exceed half of those in question” in the first two points.
Finally, the decisions of the plenary council must be validated by the Holy See.
The Convocation of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia
At the first assembly, 266 delegates were appointed: 180 of them were among those to be summoned. The others were in the third category. At the second assembly, there were 277 delegates, the composition remaining roughly the same.
The reasons given for the convocation of this plenary council were the following: the invitation of Pope Francis to dialogue; changes in Australian society; and the outcome of the Royal Commission’s inquiry into abuse. This last point seems to have been decisive, and gives a similarity with the German Synodal Way. However, he chose a path of its own kind, while the plenary council is one of the traditional instruments of the Church. Apart from the fact that the new canon law, which is quoted above, makes it possible to introduce a number of people apart from the bishops, the only ones summoned before this reform.
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