The Bread of Life for all 

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Frank Brennan SJ, Rector of Newman College, The University of Melbourne, preached this homily on the state of play on ordination of women as deacons on 25 July 2021. [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]

During these Sundays of Ordinary Time, we have been listening to the Gospel of Mark. For the next five weeks, we take a detour to Chapter 6 of John’s Gospel, ‘the longest complete sequence in the Fourth Gospel…held together by the motif of Jesus as “the Bread of Life” and the response this evokes from the crowds and the disciples’. There are more than 5,000 to be fed and there is nothing to work with, except the five barley loaves and two fish which the small boy has and happily hands over. Note, the boy does not keep a loaf or half a fish for himself. He gives all that he has. And Jesus works with that. There will be 12 basket loads of scraps left over. There’s plenty for everyone. This story of the bounty of the bread of life has added poignancy in a time of lockdown when the Eucharist is not available to any but a few. This story occasions deeper reflection at a time when the Australian Church is coming to terms with the reality that there are no longer enough Australian-born celibate male priests to go around, increasingly restricting the availability of the bread of life.

A couple of weeks ago, I was a visitor celebrating a parish mass. I was introduced to the congregation by the choir leader who had sung at my diaconate ordination 36 years ago.

After mass, she expressed her displeasure that Pope Francis had announced changes to the Code of Canon Law, lumping together the issues of child sexual abuse and women’s ordination. I had not read the changes nor the rationale for same. Hearing her characterisation of the matter, I said, ‘I can understand your frustration.’ She promptly retorted, ‘It’s not frustration; it’s anger. You have to understand how hard it is for us women to remain.’

Canon law has never been a favourite subject of mine. I thought I had better get up to speed.

Church authority to ordain women

In 1994, Pope John Paul II solemnly declared ‘that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.’ In 1998, Pope John Paul II then amended the Code of Canon Law to provide that ‘anyone who rejects propositions which are to be held definitively sets himself against the teaching of the Catholic Church’. Anyone who obstinately rejected such a teaching and refused to retract when warned by their bishop was to be punished with a just penalty. Pope Francis has now authorised a further change to the Code of Canon Law so that the obstinate non-retractor is to be punished with a censure and deprivation of office. The canonical screws are being tightened.

Pope Francis has authorised a comprehensive re-write of Book VI of the Code of Canon Law which defines certain offences and sets down sanctions. Quite rightly he has brought in a string of new offences against human life, dignity and liberty, dealing with child sexual abuse, grooming, pornography, and failing to report abuse. He has also introduced a new suite of offences against the sacraments. Until now the Code has dealt with those who are not ordained but who attempt to celebrate mass and those who purport to hear confessions though they are unable to give absolution. The Code also had a more general provision providing for the punishment of an ineligible person pretending to administer a sacrament.

Pope Francis has seen fit to move into the Code a provision (Canon 1379(3)): Both a person who attempts to confer a sacred order on a woman, and the woman who attempts to receive the sacred order, incur a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; a cleric, moreover, may be punished by dismissal from the clerical state.

Understandably this has left many people upset, including the woman who sang at my ordination 36 years ago. Why the need for a further specific penal provision to be added at this time to the Code of Canon Law, and at the same time as the much needed overdue legal reforms dealing with child sexual abuse? Why not leave things as they were? This new provision in the Code might not only deal with someone purporting to ordain a woman as priest. It could also apply to anyone purporting to confer diaconate on a woman, and the punishment would also apply to the woman seeking the conferral of the sacred order.

Can women be ordained?

For many years, there has been discussion about two distinct matters: the theological possibility of women priests and the historical evidence for women deacons in various branches of the Catholic Church. Back in 1988, Cardinal Ratzinger, as he then was, spoke at an event in New York where he agreed ‘that the God of philosophy is neither male nor female, and the God of theology is both’. He told the audience that the matter of women’s ministry as deacons or priests was under study by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In 2002, after 28 years of consideration of the matter, the International Theological Commission could not come to a definitive answer on the historical reality of women deacons concluding that ‘it pertains to the ministry of discernment which the Lord established in his Church to pronounce authoritatively on this question.’ Whatever that means!

In 2016, the International Union of Superiors General asked Pope Francis to consider the possibility of women deacons in the contemporary Church. He set up a commission. On 7 May 2019, Pope Francis was asked about the work of the commission during a press conference on a flight back to Rome. He said: ‘The commission was created and has worked for almost two years. They were all different, all “toads from different wells”.

They all thought differently, but they have worked together and have agreed to a certain extent. But, each of them has their own vision that does not agree with that of the others. And there they have stopped as a commission and each one is studying how to move forward.’ He concluded his answer by saying, ‘we have reached a point and now each of the members is studying according to their thesis. This is good. Varietas delectat.
(Variety delights!)’

Some months later, the participants in the Special Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region voted 137 to 30 in favour of the Pope investigating further the possibility of women deacons. In his final address to the Synod, Pope Francis indicated that he welcomed ‘the request to reconvene the Commission and perhaps expand it with new members in order to continue to study the permanent diaconate that existed in the early Church’.

One of those who served on the 2016 commission is the highly respected American theologian Phyllis Zagano. Prior to her appointment, she published an academic article on ‘Women Deacons in the Maronite Church’ stating, ‘Without question, women were ordained as deacons in many Eastern churches, as copious research demonstrates.’ Since completing her term on the papal commission, she has published a book entitled Women: Icons of Christ.

She concedes that ‘the Church teaches women cannot be ordained as priests’. But she then states correctly: ‘it does not teach definitively that women cannot be ordained deacons.’ She reminds us that ‘Phoebe is the only person in Scripture with the descriptor “deacon” and that Paul did not feminise her title to “deaconess”.’ She concludes: ‘That women deacons existed cannot be denied, nor can their participation in sacramental ministry.’ What troubles her most is that ‘Beneath every objection to restoring women to the ordained diaconate is the suggestion that women cannot image Christ.’ For her, this is not only a scandal: ‘it is the disfigurement on the entire Body of Christ’ and it ‘is probably formally heretical’. I quote her because she spent years researching this topic before being appointed to the papal commission. She expressed such views before her appointment, and she has consistently expressed them since.

Can women be ‘icons of Christ’?

We who are called to share the bread of life believe that Jesus had to be human so that we might be saved. Being human, he had to be either male or female. He could not be both.

That did not mean that only half humanity could be saved. Nor did it mean that only half humanity could be ‘icons of Christ’.

Zagano demonstrates in her researches that women were ordained deacons in situations when there was a need for women to minister particularly to women and girls. They were ‘included in the order of deacon, not only in the early church but at least until the twelfth century in the west (and the East up to modern times)’. Back in 2012, Zagano said, ‘at some point, however, bishops are going to have to answer the question the International Theological Commission attempted to answer.’

Having reflected on the writings of Zagano, I now more readily understand why the woman who spoke to me after mass a couple of weeks ago was not just frustrated. She was angry and rightly so. The question about women deacons deserves an answer now. Not even Pope John Paul II claimed to have closed the door on that one. The matter has been crying out for the discernment called for by the International Theological Commission in 2002. Having given up on his first commission of ‘toads from different wells’ and having only recently set up his second commission on the matter, surely Pope Francis could have told the canon lawyers to stay their hand when it came to instituting a specific new offence in canon law dealing with the purported ordination of a woman deacon. The canon lawyers had more than enough on their plate with new offences dealing with child sexual abuse. Zagano takes heart that the Vatican official explaining why the new canonical provision was not confined specifically to priestly ordination said, ‘If we come to a different theological conclusion, we will modify the norm.’

During the week, we celebrated the feast of St Mary Magdalene who in the Byzantine Liturgy is called ‘the apostle to the apostles’. I recall the cartoon of the bearded apostles greeting the women with the words, ‘So ladies, thanks for being the first to witness and report the resurrection and we’ll take it from here.’ It’s the women like the one who spoke to me after mass who still front up each Sunday offering us five barley loaves and two fish.

For how much longer can we turn them away? The people are hungry for the Bread of Life, and it’s not just the women. It’s time for a discerned decision which reflects the delightful variety of the faithful. [/s2If]

The Plenary Council – the Spirit inspires but we must act on this inspiration

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Nimmi Candappa, a member of the Plenary Council from Melbourne, explores the challenge of discernment of the Spirit explaining that it must be bold and courageous. [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]

When I was younger, I appeared to have a knack at finding things and would be asked by my family to help find a lost item. So, after a quick prayer to St Anthony, I would scoot around the house looking under this, or behind that, opening drawers, ruffling through papers. The family member with the lost item would often trail behind me, showing me likely places the item could be in but then dismissing the need to look there because “I’ve already looked there”. I would insist on re-looking anyway, and inevitably, the item would be in a place already searched. My thinking was that if I looked and it was not there, there was nothing lost.

We must do the same in this upcoming Plenary Council, open ourselves fully to the Spirit, even the areas we are sure we have ‘correct’, confident that no harm can come from opening up anything to the Spirit. Some 80 years since the last Plenary Council, with a backdrop of diminished congregational numbers, limited priestly numbers, and the Royal Commission into sexual abuse, it seems timely to formally ask the Spirit once again to help guide our Church in Australia in this next stage of our faith journey. 

It is a humble yet enlightened move to revamp our God-focus. It is an initiative to help us as Church be more fully a Christ-centred Church, throbbing with love for our neighbour; and to identify obstacles to achieving this goal. So it makes no sense to put up, in some areas, barriers to the all-encompassing gaze of the Spirit, effectively saying to the Spirit – ‘look inside here but not there’, ‘come thus far but no further’, ‘don’t bother looking there Spirit, we’ve already looked there’.

In order to reap the bounteous fruits available to us from this Council, we need to be humble enough to hold up all aspects of our Church to the Spirit; be daring enough to truly hear what the Spirit has to say in all these aspects, no matter how challenging; and then be prepared to act on it all, with conviction, determination and staying power.

The agenda for the Plenary Council, as with any agenda, includes broad categories under which the details must be discussed. If however, the resulting discussion under this Agenda remains broad and safe, coy of any of the key issues raised in the first stage of discernment, we risk a perfunctory effort at discernment of the Spirit, likely to do more harm than good overall. Even during the initial discernment stages, when parishioners were asked what God is asking of us in Australia at this time, some cynicism of the possibility of tangible outcomes of this latest discernment efforts had crept in, respondents asking in return ‘why would this time be any different?’. 

Perhaps the respondents remembered the 1996 attempt of the Woman and Man: One in Christ Jesus project that considered means of creating a greater involvement of women in the Church, extensive attempts that defined clear decisions and actions, actions which remain mostly undone 25 years later. Or perhaps the cynicism related to the road blocks we can create for ourselves as Church, tying ourselves up in knots through many artificial mandates, insisting that we must do in the future, what and how we have done in the past, and then wondering why we find ourselves in the same ineffective situations. 

When we seek the Spirit’s guidance in this Council, we must place complete trust in the Spirit and in the Plenary Council process and dare to raise to
the scrutiny of the Spirit, everything identified in the initial discernment stages. It is after all the one Spirit that guides us, in all the areas, in the past and today. 

Council members must also be daring and resolute in truly hearing it all. We know only too well that as humans, few if any of us, act as the perfect conduit for the Spirit’s voice, conscious and unconscious bias, along with our own opinions, at some level, playing a part in any discernment. Yet much effort has been made by the Plenary Team to enable members to more clearly hear the Spirit amidst these other influences. It is up to the members to be willing to listen without filters, knowing the role of the Council member is to offer a voice for the Spirit, not a voice for one’s opinion. Recognising that the Spirit guides but does not impose, an unwavering focus by each member is needed to hear the challenging, as clearly as the comfortable.

Then, we must act on the discerned guidance: imagining ourselves as those first Christians, awe-struck by the presence and recollections of Jesus, intoxicated by Love, emboldened by the Resurrection, open, supple of heart, generous to a fault and protective of other believers. With this attitude, in this light, obstacles melt away, fear of change converts to hopeful anticipation, current limitations are understood and embraced with tolerance; and discerned action is inevitable. When we are open and unresisting to the Spirit, we become willing collaborators with the Spirit, united and tenacious in creating the flourishing Christ-centred Church we so desire. [/s2If]

The struggle for real reform in the Australian Catholic Church: Catholics and their bishops are at odds 

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Terry Fewtrell, member of Concerned Catholics of Canberra Goulburn, says Australians should be worried about what is happening currently in the Catholic church. Catholics are engaged in a review of their church in this country, yet there is growing evidence the process is being manipulated. Reprinted from Pearls and Irritations, 26 May. https://johnmenadue.com

After seeking input from lay Catholics, a process known as a Plenary Council, the Catholic church is soon to begin formal sessions. But there is growing evidence the process is being manipulated, as traditionalists try to reconstruct reality, including downplaying Royal Commission findings. [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]

Certainly, many lay Catholics have great suspicions and doubts as to the integrity and good faith of the process. They made that clear in submissions early in the Plenary process, which resulted, in part, from the scathing findings by the Royal Commission into institutional sexual abuse. Those findings included two areas of cultural and structural failures, namely governance and clericalism. Both issues figured prominently in the 17,000+ submissions made by lay Catholics in the first stage of this process.

But now, at a very advanced stage, in a document (Continuing the Journey) intended to facilitate a meaningful agenda, both issues are minimised, in ways that distort earlier submissions, deflect the significance of Commission findings and point to ‘business as usual’ outcomes.

Sadly, the document also attempts to deflect serious consideration of the role of women in the Australian church, referring to ‘the perceived (my emphasis) under-representation of women in formal leadership and decision-making roles’.

Ducking away from the agenda of the Plenary submissions

These developments speak of a disregard or overlooking of conscientious lay analysis and input on the church’s mission, and they are markers in what can only be considered a deceitful process, seemingly being run by traditionalists, with the blessing and encouragement of many Australian bishops.

Clericalism is dealt with in a manner that understates its real significance. It is implied as being a problem in only some places and there is no comprehension of its very real cultural, structural, and behavioural elements. It is a perspective on clericalism that is decidedly clericalist. In seeking to downplay it, the document succeeds in proving the opposite.

What makes the minimisation of clericalism issues more perplexing is that it is one matter about which Pope Francis has been quite explicit and categoric saying: Clericalism is an evil… to say ‘No’ to sexual abuse is to say an emphatic ‘No’ to all forms of clericalism. Every Australian and Catholic should ask themselves: Why is the Australian church trying to duck this issue?

It is a similar picture with governance where reform is needed to bring transparency and accountability to a church structure that is antiquated and opaque, and effectively aids ‘the cover-up’. In response to the Royal Commission, the bishops established a governance review team to shed light and clarity on how these matters could be addressed. That group reported last August – The Light from the Southern Cross – providing a roadmap for reform in these areas.

But again, the latest pre-agenda Plenary document makes little mention of what has been internationally praised as showing the way forward for the church, not just in Australia but worldwide. Rather than leverage the clarity and insight it provides, the emphasis is on confusing and deflecting, in what can reasonably be assessed as a delaying tactic.

Given all that has happened in the past 10 years, it is breathtaking that an official Catholic church document supposedly aimed at facilitating constructive decision making, could so blatantly attempt to minimise, confound, and deflect the need for reform in these areas. Lay Catholics will not stand for it and neither should the broader Australian community.

Will we see real reform with the current Plenary Council agenda?

If we are to believe him, the President of the Australian Bishops Conference, Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane, says that ‘business as usual’ outcomes from the Plenary are out of the question. He describes the process as coming at ‘a moment of crisis’ for the church. He is not wrong. But how will he bridge the gap and achieve meaningful and real reform outcomes?

He seems to think the Holy Spirit is on the job with him. One would hope he is right. He says that to even have established a Plenary Council process is evidence of the work of the Spirit. As the person who championed the calling of a Plenary Council, Coleridge is probably well placed to claim it is the work of the Spirit, as he better than anyone would know the strength of the resistance from his brother bishops to its establishment.

Genuine discernment needed

The whole process has been presented to Catholics as principally about listening to what the Spirit is saying. The term that covers this process is religious Discernment – a venerable tradition in the line of Ignatius and Benedict, dating back to the 6th century. Sadly, the process and its evident manipulation at various stages is giving this ancient practice a bad name. As the earnest evidence put forward by the People of God in Australia has been ground down to a gruel, it is becoming stark that the clerics seem compelled to insist they manage the franchise on the Holy Spirit.

There must be some frank and honest conversation about Discernment both prior to and at the start of the formal Plenary sessions. The views of the bulk of ordinary lay Catholics must be expressed in the agenda for the formal discussion sessions. Ultimately, we know that the bishops will make the big decisions, but increasingly it is evident they don’t even want there to be a perception that they may be at odds with the laity.

A key message from lay Catholics at the submission stage was the stark lack of confidence that they have in their bishops. Attempts to minimise aspects of Royal Commission findings are dangerous. There is already enough evidence that the Australian bishops are on a very curious, if not calamitous path, digging-in on positions that are rejected by their people and by the Pope. Watch this space. Ordinary Catholics certainly are, and they invite all Australians to join them. [/s2If]

Synodality high on the agenda of Pope Francis 

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Nihal Abeyasingha is a Sri Lankan theologian. He writes about the current synodal practice in various parts of the world leading to the Bishops’ Synod in 2023 on synodality. [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]

Pope Francis has announced that in October 2022 (now postponed to 2023), the theme for the Synod of Bishops will be: For a synodal Church: communion, participation and mission.

In October 2015, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Synod of Bishops by Paul VI, Pope Francis had said, From the beginning of my ministry as Bishop of Rome, I sought to enhance the Synod, which is one of the most precious legacies of the Second Vatican Council it is precisely this path of synodality which God expects of the Church in the third millennium. Basically, synodality is walking together on the same road discovering what the Lord expects of us. It is made possible by ‘the action of the Spirit in the communion of the Body of Christ and in the missionary journey of the People of God.’ Thus, synodality is what we can call a ‘discerning democracy’ on the one hand seeking to understand and commit to God’s will; and on the other, to function in solidarity and subsidiarity with our fellow humans. In this essay we look at the institutional forms in which synodality is practiced and set these within the perspective of the call to constant conversion.

Institutional forms of synodality

First, there are the Churches of Eastern Sector of the Roman Empire: In these, there was a ‘synodal structure’ of government. It continues to function today. The Synod is the chief governing body of the Eastern Church. Ordinarily, the Synod meets two to three times each year. The day-to-day administrative responsibility of the church and its ministry is mostly delegated to the Synod Working Committee which is appointed by the Synod. (Cf. 1990 Code of the Oriental Churches #110).

Secondly, the Churches of the Roman tradition (Western Sector of the Roman Empire) follow a more centralized hierarchical model of governance. One person (Bishop of Rome) exercises three distinct functions: first, bishop of a diocese (Rome); secondly, metropolitan of the western patriarchate and thirdly a claim as primate of the universal communion of churches. At first, it was a case of primus inter pares (Cf. Clement of Rome); this eventually developed into a claim to universal jurisdiction over all churches. There is no straightforward development of the unfolding of the powers of the popes to the point that it has reached today. Within this structure, Paul VI constituted the Synod of Bishops by the Apostolic Letter (Sep 1965) Apostolica SolIicitudo. These provisions are incorporated in the 1983 Code of Canon Law 342-348. The synod of bishops, thus constituted, is a group of bishops who have been chosen from different regions of the world and meet together at fixed times to foster closer unity between the Roman Pontiff and bishops, to assist the Roman Pontiff with their counsel in the preservation and growth of faith and morals and in the observance and strengthening of ecclesiastical discipline, and to consider questions pertaining to the activity of the Church in the world.

Pope Francis effected a change of style. He released the report of the bishops, as is, after the Synod on the Amazon and wrote his Apostolic Exhortation (2020), Querida Amazonia offering his opinion, contributing as primus inter pares to the collective wisdom of his fellow bishops.

His Apostolic Constitution, Episcopalis Communio (15 Sep 2018), places Synods within the perspective of LG 48 – the pilgrim Church in need of constant reform.

Thirdly, Synods have always been part of the life of the Anglican Communion on all levels – local, national and international. The expression according to which she is synodically governed, but episcopally led is not meant simply to indicate a division between the legislative power (which belongs to Synods, in which all sectors of the People of God take part) and the executive power (specific to Bishops), but rather the synergy between the charism and personal authority of the Bishop, on the one hand, and, on the other, the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out on the whole community.

It is the search to harmonize the institutional/ structural authority of bishop and the Holy Spirit manifesting itself in various ways among the People of God. (International Commission of Theologians, Report (2017) #36).

Fourthly, there is the German Synod – During the next two years, the 230 members, including 69 bishops and 69 lay persons (progressive) of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) will focus on four themes, according to the statutes: ‘Power, participation, and separation of powers’; ‘Priestly way of life’; ‘Women in Church ministries and offices’; ‘Sexual morality’.

The group will meet without following structures of canon law. It seems to be following of parliamentary procedure. In a Letter to the German people (2019) Pope Francis highlights several concerns: (a) There is needed both a movement from the top down and the bottom up. (b) The temptation to think that structural reform and bureaucratic renewal will solve present and future problems becomes a form of pelagianism. (c) Good organization without the ‘newness of the gospel’ is fizz (d) Most importantly, To recover the primacy of evangelization to safeguard the future with faith and hope, because it is evangelizing.

The church begins to evangelize itself… a state of vigilance and of conversion maintains such a reality alive and operative.

Vigilance and conversion are gifts which only the Lord can give… I wish to walk by your side.

Fifthly, Australia, which has embarked on a synodal process in the form of a Plenary Council, will hold its first assembly in October 2021. Reform of Church governance is on the agenda. Last year, the Australian bishops received a ground-breaking report, The Light from the Southern Cross, which made 86 recommendations. Rome is expecting the German and Australian synodal processes to lead to significant changes. Meanwhile, Church sources say that Ireland is likely to announce that it will soon hold a national synod.

In England and Wales, so far only the Archdiocese of Liverpool has embarked on a synod. Will 2021 see others take up the gauntlet? Cardinal Mario Grech, who leads the synod of bishops’ office in Rome, has written to bishops’ conferences across the world offering his office’s support in helping them to develop a ‘synodal style’.

The issues in process

In discussing synodality, several doctrinal issues form a backdrop.

The entire Church is in communion, mirroring the unity of the Trinity, based on the Word of God. All are to hear, ponder and obey the Word. All share in the one Spirit. The basic structure of governance in the Churches is hierarchical.

The structures of governance draw from the form of this world (cf. LG 48), which by its very reality belongs to this passing world and cannot claim invariability and perfection. That will emerge in the eschatological age, when there will be no need of structures. This process (establishing structures) is called ‘routinization’ by sociologists like Weber. These are necessary for the permanence and endurance of the institution (in this case, the original inspiration and legacy left by Christ and witnessed to by the apostles).

In the Eastern Churches, there is a synodal structure of governance, while the Latin Church governance gradually came to be centralized in the Pope. Beginning with Vatican II, there has been the introduction of the Synod of Bishops as a forum for the widest possible consultation of the church.

The initiative of Pope Francis

In April 2021, Pope Francis inaugurated a new synodal programme for the Synod of Bishops, now scheduled to be held in October 2023.

There are to be three phases of preparation, at three distinct levels.

First, the diocesan phase (October 2021- April 2022) when the people of God will be consulted – listening to all the baptized who have the sensus fidei infallibilis in credendo (the sense of faith, infallible in believing). This will be followed by the continental phase (September 2022-
March 2023), which will be a dialogue at continental level and deepen discernment within the specific cultural context of continent. Finally, there will be the Synod of Bishops (October 2023). What is interesting is what can be called the institutionalization of the process of dialogue and discernment.

How far have synodal structures achieved the ideal of synodality?

The fact that there is both a structure and an encouragement for conversation and discussion between all the faithful who enjoy the ‘instinct of faith’ and pastors under the leadership of the Pope is a positive situation. Deliberative democracy functions and this is preferable to autocratic procedures and dictatorship.

But, we need to understand that all of us gather in synod, as sinful people. Paul said: I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do (Rom 7:15). The seven capital vices were formulated about 4th century. Its imagery finds a place in literature (such as Dante Alghieri’s Divine Comedy).

In more recent times (around 2011), research attempts to situate the spatial presence of the capital vices (e.g. in Mid-West USA). Scholastic theology has expressed the human situation as ‘deprived of the supernatural and wounded in the natural.’ Basically, capital vices obscure our vision. This is the drama we live out.

Even though we are a sinful people, we live in hope. As LG 48 states: Already the final age of the world has come upon us.

… However, until there shall be new heavens and a new earth in which justice dwells, the pilgrim Church in her sacraments and institutions, which pertain to this present time, has the appearance of this world which is passing. The call is to constant reformation.

In the functioning of synodal structures, the majority voice prevails. But, majority consensus does not automatically mean submission to, and unity in the truth. Even a single dissentient voice needs to be heeded.

Reuben, who prevented the killing of Joseph (Gen 37) or Daniel who saved Susanna (Dan 13) are individuals who dissented; they unveiled the truth of the situation. Chapter 3 of the Rule of Benedict suggests: Now the reason why we have said that all should be called to council, is that God often reveals what is better to the younger. In this spirit, the interaction in a synod needs to heed every voice.

Capital vices can function in various ways

The Synods on the family (2014, 2015) were hijacked by the issue of communion for divorced and remarried and the Synod for the Amazon (2019) by the question of ordaining married viri probati. In both cases, these were not the pivotal issues. The remarks of Pope Francis in Let us Dream are interesting. In the Synod on Amazon, there was discussion and marshaling of arguments, but a point of discernment and walking together was not reached. However, in the synods for the family, there was a point of discernment arrived at by a re-discovery of the basic teaching of Thomas Aquinas (which Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn helped articulate).

Pope Francis said in his letter to the German people (2019): In substance we speak of a synodus [a joint way] under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, that is to walk together and with the whole Church under his light, his guidance and his ‘irruption’, to learn to hear and to discern the ever new horizons, which he wishes to provide. Synodality presupposes the ‘irruption’ of the Holy Spirit.

Followers of Christ in the early church, were known as people of ‘The Way’ (Acts 9:2; 22:4; 19:23; 24:14 etc.). Today in the spirit of Vatican II, they are said to be in Syn + ‘odos’ = The entire Church walking together in synergy with and under Peter (and his College) under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. For this, structures are needed. They may vary as presently in the Latin and Eastern usages and ad experimentum the German synodal path (with the cautionary notes of the Roman Curia). Structures will not function in the spirit of synodality without commitment to constant conversion in discernment. Discernment requires careful observations, looking for sometimes subtle shifts of our interior dispositions.

Pope Francis says that the Synod process begins by listening to the people of God, which ‘shares also in Christ’s prophetic office’ according to a principle dear to the Church of the first millennium: Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari debet (what touches all needs to be dealt with
by all). The Synod process continues by listening to the pastors. Through the Synod Fathers, the bishops act as authentic guardians, interpreters and witnesses of the faith of the whole Church, which they need to discern carefully from the changing currents of public opinion. The church keeps moving forward in her pilgrim journey, looking forward to the blessed hope and the coming of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. [/s2If]

Contemplation and Dadirri 

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Partick Mullins SJ, Emerton NSW, shares some thoughts as a response and appreciation for the work of Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr Baumann on the topic of Dadirri, reproduced in the 2021 winter edition of The Swag. [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]

Many may be enriched and blessed by Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr Baumann’s work but my response may still be of use, based as it is on many years of experience in different Indigenous communities in most states and the Northern Territory, in rural and urban communities. I shall quote two people whose spontaneous responses help focus on issues that give rise to Dadirri.

The first is from a 13 year old Kukutja boy (FM), now deceased, who confronted me with a question. He spoke in English and said: Do you believe in the Dreamtime? I believe in God but we believe in the Dreamtime. (Balgo, Wirrimanu, 1973)

The Dreamtime (or Dreaming) is translated from the Arrernte word ‘altyeringa’. There is some discussion about the suitability of the translation but it is the popular word in English to render words in different languages such as ‘tjukurpa’ in Western Desert languages. At Uluru, for example, the creation accounts are tjurkupa (Dreamtime). In Alice Springs there is the Ntjarlke Dreaming which means caterpillar Dreaming. This is the Arrernte account of creation where the tops of the MacDonald ranges look like a caterpillar.

Would we be able to say that both the creation accounts of Genesis and the Dreamtime are the results of contemplative accounts of creation? And are they both myths or mere stories or primitive science? The task is to unravel the meaning of such terms as contemplation and myth in particular.

The second point to consider is a conversation with a Tiwi woman (OT) who is also now deceased. She was explaining to me an account of two Dreamtime figures Purrukapali and Bimi. She spoke in English and I responded by saying that it was a story. She replied with quite some urgency: That is not a story! It is true. (Darwin, 1990)

Myth and story

We need to attend to the notion of myth (and story) which arise in the context we are considering. Myth has overtones of racism, colonialism and primitivism. Is there any truth in myths? The Oxford English Dictionary defines myth as having ‘no basis in fact’. And you don’t have to look far to sample academic attitudes such as even in the 1960s an Oxbridge tutor could advise a student, ‘if you want to shrink your brain with that sort of nonsense, go and look at other …shrunken heads’. And in the mid-1930s one respected Encyclopedia of Mythology referred to African Aboriginal myth as ‘fairy- tales for Blacks, of no interest to the advanced European mind.’ (Robert Graves, The Greek Myths, London, 1996, Introduction p17).

We must discard the notion of myth at least for now. Myth is so loaded as to be offensive to many people. Our consideration of contemplation will be far more productive.

What can we say about the Dreamtime accounts? As noted above, OT was absolutely certain of the truth of Tiwi Dreamtime. Even anthropological scholars such as Malinowski admit that informants who give accounts from their culture will, like OT, attest the truthfulness of their information.

Contemplation

The activity of contemplation has existed since time immemorial in as many languages and cultures as we know. Many have written about the concept of contemplation. We can recall many Catholic saints and scholars who have enlightened our lives. John Cassian, the Desert Fathers, Dionysius, Eckhart, The Cloud of Unknowing, John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Ignatius, John Main, William Johnstone, to name just a few. Here are some others., especially in the context of relationship to truth.

Miriam – Rose: The contemplative way of Dadirri…It (Dadirri) is something like what you call contemplation.

Panikkar, Ramon: contemplative experience gives rise to truth. (Invisible Harmony:
Essays on Contemplation and Responsibility. Fortress Press, 1991, p71.)

St Thomas Aquinas: Contemplation is ‘a simple intuition of the truth’ (simplex intuitus veritatis) “Contemplatio, intellectus et simplex intuitus in Aquinas. (American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, 2017, 91(2) pp. 199-225).

Malinovski, Bronislaw: Simple empirical truth… (Argonauts of the Western Pacific, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 2001, pp326-328).

And exquisitly, Thomas Merton: Contemplation is the highest expression of man’s intellectual and spiritual life. It is that life itself, fully awake, fully aware that it is alive. It is spiritual wonder. It is spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life, of being. It is gratitude for life, for awareness and for being. It is a vivid realisation of the fact that life and being in us proceed from an invisible, transcendent and infinitely abundant Source. Contemplation is, above all, awareness of the reality of that Source. It knows the source, obscurely, inexplicably, but with a certitude that goes both beyond reason and beyond simple faith … For in contemplation, we know by ‘unknowing.’ Or, better, we know beyond all knowing or ‘unknowing.’ (Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation, London: Burns & Oates, 1962.)

It would be very difficult to improve on Merton’s account of contemplation. We accept with gratitude his legacy. He has said it for us.

Why can’t we get it?

Can non-Indigenous people receive the gift of Dadirri? Miriam says it is easy for anybody. Indigenous people have an advantage because contemplation is second nature. As Miriam points out: we pass on to the younger ones all they must know … The contemplative way of Dadirri spreads over our whole life. The languages convey it too. Key concepts like Dadirri and aneme (Arrernte) and nyineme (Western Desert) are very similar and rich in meaning, basically to contemplate, quiet, still, silence, waiting, sitting, awareness etc. with no word for ‘is’.

These words reveal something of the very essence, self-hood and self-awareness of what it means to be.

There is a kind of competing tradition which we might call ‘the world,’ materialism, ego-centrism, too busy, thinking and conceptualising, the unruliness of our minds, like ‘the tree filled with the chattering of monkeys,’ as Buddhism puts it. It is more than just a competing tradition. It is an addiction which can almost overwhelm us. It demands our attention and deprives us of contemplation.

There is a longstanding discussion whether the grace of contemplation comes naturally or must be waited upon until it is ‘infused’ by God; sometimes called ‘intuitive’, ‘passive’ or ‘extraordinary.’ So, the gift of Dadirri – do we have to wait until it is infused? I am not sure about that but I am sure that we need to be disposed to receive it. Like monkeys chattering in the tree,
we shall never receive the gift.

Another blessing from Dadirri is like the capacity to explore religious differences. We can say that I believe in God and
I believe in the Dreamtime too because the experience is the same contemplative truth that we know.

So, is there no difference at all? Is contemplation in Budhism, Hinduism, Indigenous religion, Protestant religion and Catholic religion all just the same? Is one better than another? Can they be compared? And even with Cyprian (Letter LXXII, AD258) and others, for example: ‘Extra ecclesiam nulla salus,’ – No salvation outside the Church?

There certainly are differences in contemplation and that is the beauty and even salvation. The richness is open to us all because of cultural differences. However, there can be differences and history records countless errors that have led to evil influences.

We can be deluded about any experience we may claim to be of God. We can be mistaken, mentally ill etc. Discernment is always necessary. By their fruits we shall know them.

This is a work of inter religious dialogue and Miriam is uniquely equipped to pursue it. It is a gift to all of us especially the non-Indigenous people. Indigenous people generally receive the gift naturally. However, we can pursue the Dadirri experience because it rings with our own experience of contemplation. [/s2If]