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Australia s plenary council: Listening brings liberation, archbishop says
Jun 3, 2021 catholic news service
Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane, Australia, is seen during the Synod of Bishops on the family at the Vatican in this Oct. 14, 2015, file photo. Archbishop Coleridge said the 2015 synod was a lightbulb moment for him when he came to understand the synodal process Pope Francis wants to follow. (Credit: Paul Haring/CNS.)
Pope Francis insists synodality requires listening and not only on the part of people in the pews.
ROME Pope Francis insists “synodality” requires listening and not only on the part of people in the pews.
But it is not easy, said Archbishop Mark Coleridge, president of the bishops’ conference of Australia, which will hold the first assembly of its plenary council in October.
Pope Francis poses for a selfie during a gathering of youth delegates at the Pontifical International Maria Mater Ecclesiae College in Rome, ahead of the Synod of Bishops on young people in 2018. (CNS/Vatican Media)
Ecclesial synodality is something very old and, at the same time, something very recent. It is an integral part of the tradition of the Church.
As the report of the International Theological Commission,
Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church (2018), says in the opening section: Synod is an ancient and venerable word in the Tradition of the Church, whose meaning draws on the deepest themes of Revelation.
Letter from Rome: No stopping pope s push for synodality
Archbishop Coleridge says the days of the autocratic, monarchical Church are over and supports the German synodal path
Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane. (Photo: Wikipedia)
Pope Francis has no one in his small circle of advisers, known as the Council of Cardinals, who is from Oceania.
While the other continents have a seat in the seven-member kitchen cabinet or C7, Oceania s chair has been empty since October 2018. That s when the pope thanked Australian Cardinal George Pell for his services and removed him from the group.
There are three cardinals from Oceania who are all still under the age of 80 that could have easily taken the place of Pell John Dew of New Zealand, John Ribat of Papua New Guinea and Soane Patita Mafi of Tonga.