Who will carry the Australian church’s mission into the future? And how will the next generation of lay Catholics be accompanied to lead the church’s vital education, health, social and spiritual ministries, especially in regional and rural communities?

‘Lay people are running on empty when it comes to the critical decision making they’re being called into in 2025,’ says Virginia Ryan. She's inaugural CEO of the Catholic Leadership Foundation, recently launched by the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in response to the call of Australia’s Plenary Council and the global synod for lay Catholics to be formed for mission in a church which has prioritised the formation of ordained and consecrated members.

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As Australians prepare to vote, how can our Catholic tradition help us to reflect on what matters? And how might the concept of synodality in the church influence broader relationships and decision making in the contemporary society?

Join Geraldine and two seasoned observers of the Australian church and society, John Warhurst and Eva Skira, for a thoughtful discussion on faith and politics today.

Amid polarisation and a changing world order, is synodality, as John says, ‘something that we as a church have to offer at the moment’?

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First up in this new series of Plenary Matters, Geraldine speaks with Fr Hans Zollner, a world expert in the safeguarding and protection of children and adults at risk. He’s been speaking in Australia and New Zealand on the progress made in the Catholic Church, including the leading role of women, as well as the new global and pastoral frontlines of safeguarding.

Change in the church ‘doesn't come like a miracle,’ says Zollner. ‘We need to work constantly in dissemination and in education of people who are committed to safeguarding.’

Don't miss this conversation with a true change agent in the church.

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Two of Australia’s most seasoned representatives at the Synod in Rome, Susan Pascoe AM and Bishop Shane Mackinlay, join Geraldine to discuss what’s in the final document and what happens next. While the pace of change may vary in different parts of the church, they both have witnessed moments of conversion – and grace – throughout the 3-year process.

For Susan Pascoe, a facilitator and member of the methodology commission that produced the initial guide for the global synod on synodality, and part of the writing team for the continental stage, the authenticity of the process now needs to be reflected in the implementation phase. And Shane Mackinlay sees parallels with Australia’s Plenary Council in how synod delegates responded to the process around the issue of women in the church.

With thanks to the Polish Sisters of the Resurrection in Rome for hosting our recording of this Plenary Matters episode!

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As the Synod on Synodality enters its final week, Timothy Radcliffe urged delegates to speak with freedom as they consider and vote on the final document. Delegates were also addressed by head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith Cardinal Fernandez, whose absence from a meeting on women's ministries provoked indignation among delegates.

Synod expert and papal biographer Austen Ivereigh attended the Friday meeting of study group 5 and says it was an important moment for seeing synodality in action.

He tells Geraldine this synod is 'a holy process' with the Spirit 'pouring out gifts and charisms on us all, which need to be better recognised by the Church.’ It's a call to both rights and responsibilities for the transformation of the Church.

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Baptised Catholics are 'the principal presence of the Church in the world', says Professor Catherine Clifford. She's one of the Canadian delegates to the Synod on Synodality, an expert on Vatican II, and is overseeing the drafting of the final text that will be voted on by all the delegates in the last week.

When Pope Francis asked bishops to consult people about their experiences in and hopes for the Church, it awakened expectations among Catholics everywhere that they are central to the Church's mission. And they're asking be formed – to pray, to discern, to read the Scriptures – so how will the Synod respond to this global search? And what resources can be redirected to accompany people on the margins not just in a material sense, but also socially and spiritually?

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Who might help or scuttle all these bold ambitious plans for synodality? Tales of the Roman Curia – the Vatican civil service – are replete with villainy, but its constant reform under successive popes may surprise.

Monsignor Anthony Ekpo has worked in the Roman Curia for eight years, first in the Secretariat of State and last year Pope Francis appointed him Undersecretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. He's seen intelligent women and men – lay, religious and clergy – work quietly out of sight in service of Pope Francis, who might drop by unannounced to greet staff.

But will this powerful machinery accept the synodal reform in a global Catholic church that is decentralising while facing year on year deficits?

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What does synodal leadership mean for a bishop? Archbishop Ryan Jimenez is wrestling precisely with that question after being appointed as the new archbishop of Agaña, Guam, amid a crisis of sexual abuse in his diocese.

He's new to the synod – his appointment came after the first assembly last year – but he's using this month in Rome for deep reflection on his role in what he believes is the 'era of the laity.'

As president of the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific (CEPAC) he also brings lived experience of Pope Francis' peripheries – in the region and in his own migrant story – to the synod table.

This episode was recorded in the Centro Velehrad after the forum at the Augustinianum on 'The Role and Authority of the Bishop in a Synodal Church.'

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One of the most influential lay women at the synod in Rome is Professor Anna Rowlands, who believes a relational revolution is underway inside the synod hall.

Working in the synod office for the past two years on secondment from Durham University, she sees the building of a relational fabric – including relations between women and men – as the basis of being a global synodal church.

Catch up on Timothy Radcliffe's pre-synod meditations, and also his latest reflection on part two of the synod working document.

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God nudging us along, is how synod expert Eamonn Conway describes the process happening inside the Paul VI hall. He attended a previous synod, in 2012, but this synod he believes is fundamentally reshaping the mission of the global church, which 'can only succeed if the gifts and charism being given by the Holy Spirit to every single baptised faithful is enabled to flourish.' The choice, as he says, is whether we choose change or have change overtake us.

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