Excerpt from Becoming a Church for Mission 2030: Fr. Frank Brennan, SJ - 17 May 2017

Closing keynote address at the Catholic Mission conference Mission: one heart many voices 2017

Sydney, 17 May 2017. Listen on Soundcloud

And as we know, we are all sinners, including the bishops and priests who walk with us, and the bishops and priests who judge us and abandon us.

We Catholics need to understand that over time the changes we make to how we teach and the changes we observe as the outcomes of teachings can even result in changes to what we actually teach. Those changes cannot come from individual bishops but they can be authorised by the pope, either with or without a council of bishops. I call to mind the pioneering work of the American jurist John T. Noonan who died last month. He wrote a book called The Church That Can and Cannot Change. In that book, he researched the fundamental change in church teaching over the years on matters such as usury, slavery and marriage. In his obituary of Noonan, the great moral theologian Charles Curran wrote:

Fr. Frank Brennan, sj

Noonan, in looking back on these changes and developments, notes that the process of change requires a complex constellation of forces. There is no readily available grid for determining how change occurs. Noonan agrees with Vatican II that change comes from the contemplation of believers, the experience of spiritual realities, and the preaching of the church. He wants to avoid the extremes of maintaining that no change can and should occur in what the church has consistently taught in the past on moral issues and the modernist approach that doctrine is only the projection of human needs. The great commandment of love of God and of neighbour, the great principles of justice and charity, continue to govern all development.

As the Church of 2030, we need to be more attentive to the contemplation of believers and our experience of spiritual realities, as well as the preaching of the church. At the royal commission, Bishop Vincent Long, himself a migrant, refugee and victim of sexual abuse in the Church told the commission: 'It's no secret that we have been operating, at least under the two previous pontificates, from what I'd describe as a perfect society model where there is a neat, almost divinely inspired, pecking order, and that pecking order is heavily tilted towards the ordained ... I think we really need to examine seriously that kind of model of Church where it promotes the superiority of the ordained and it facilitates that power imbalance between the ordained and the non-ordained, which in turn facilitates that attitude of clericalism.' We have been blessed to have Bishop Vincent address us at this conference.

A generation ago, it was fashionable in Catholic circles to parody some of us as cafeteria Catholics — those choosing only those teachings or practices which resonated with their desires or preferences. Those proffering the adverse judgments were usually satisfied of their orthodoxy and orthopraxis because they followed the liturgical rubrics attentively and affirmed papal teaching on the 'neuralgic issues': contraception, homosexuality, abortion, euthanasia, stem cell research, and the indissolubility of marriage. They also affirmed the papal decrees stating that ordination must forever be reserved to men, even claiming that such utterances were infallible. Francis has made it clear that most, if not all, of us can now be parodied as cafeteria Catholics, and that's because we are all sinners in need of God's mercy. Individually, we get only part of the picture; together we can complete the picture of God's grace in the world.

We in the west are all citizens of wealthy nation states which consume more than our fair share and maintain secure borders aimed at excluding those in need from obtaining the necessities of life. We are members of a Church which in our lifetime has failed to protect its most vulnerable members, children. We are the beneficiaries of an international economic order which cheats billions of the opportunities to achieve their human flourishing in community. We are all in need of forgiveness. There is none of us who can be excluded from God’s mercy. Francis says, 'There are two ways of thinking which recur throughout the Church's history: casting off and reinstating.' He is not one to cast off anyone too readily, and he is prepared to go to great lengths in trying to reinstate any individual who has fallen short of the ideal but who is seeking God's grace and mercy. He is adamant: 'No one can be condemned for ever, because that is not the logic of the Gospel!’

He says that a person can be living in God's grace while 'in an objective situation of sin', and that the sacraments, including the Eucharist might help, because the Eucharist 'is not a prize for the perfect, but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak'. It's the sick and supplicant who need the doctor, not the well and the righteous. Speaking to the Bishops of the United States some of whom have been great warriors in the culture wars fearlessly declaring Catholic doctrine in the public square, Francis told them that 'we are promoters of the culture of encounter' and 'living sacraments of the embrace between God's riches and our poverty'. He heralded an altogether different approach: 'Harsh and divisive language does not befit the tongue of a pastor, it has no place in his heart. Although it may momentarily seem to win the day, only the enduring allure of goodness and love remains truly convincing'.

I must confess that Pope Francis is not the embodiment of everything I think the Church needs to be by 2030 if we are to return to being the people of God envisaged by Jesus and enlivened by the Spirit. When asked about women's ordination in June 2013, Pope Francis replied, 'The Church has spoken and says no ... That door is closed.' The one consolation is that he used the image of a door and not a wall. At least a door can be opened if you have the key or if you are able to prise it with force over time.

Francis wrote in Evangelii Gaudium, 'The reservation of the priesthood to males, as a sign of Christ the Spouse who gives himself in the Eucharist, is not a question open to discussion, but it can prove especially divisive if sacramental power is too closely identified with power in general.' It is even more divisive if those who reserve to themselves sacramental power determine that they alone can determine who has access to that power and legislate that the matter is not open for discussion. Given that the power to determine both the teaching of the magisterium and the provisions of canon law is not a sacramental power, is there not a need to include women in the decision that the question is not open to discussion and in the contemporary quest for an answer to the question? Francis's position on this may be politic for the moment within the Vatican which has had a long-time preoccupation with shutting down the discussion, but the position is incoherent.

No one doubts the pastoral sensitivity of Pope Francis. But the Church will continue to suffer for as long as it does not engage in open, ongoing discussion and education about this issue. The official position is no longer comprehensible to most people of good will, and not even those at the very top of the hierarchy have a willingness or capacity to explain it.

The claim that the matter ‘is not a question open to discussion’ cannot be maintained unless sacramental power also includes the power to determine theology and the power to determine canon law. Ultimately the pope’s claim must be that only those possessed of sacramental power can determine the magisterium and canon law. Conceding for the moment the historical exclusion of women from the sacramental power of presidency at the Eucharist, we need to determine if ‘the possible role of women in decision making in different areas of the Church’s life could contribute the power to contribute to theological discussion and the shaping of the magisterium and to canonical discussion about sanctions for participating in theological discussion on set topics such as the ordination of women. As Francis says, ‘Demands that the legitimate rights of women be respected, based on the firm conviction that men and women are equal in dignity, present the Church with profound and challenging questions which cannot be lightly evaded.’

When I was a schoolboy, it was unimaginable that a woman be prime minister, governor-general or chief justice of Australia. These offices are now not only open to women. They have been occupied by women. As Church in 2030, we will have to provide a place at the table for all the baptised. We will have to extend our care and attention to all those in need, particularly the poor and our Mother Earth. We will have to be open to change — the change the comes by including the marginalised at the centre. Let's recall (Acts 6:1-7) that 'as the number of disciples continued to grow, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said, "It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table. Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men, filled with the Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task, whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word." The proposal was acceptable to the whole community, so they chose' seven men all with Greek names. The disciples then laid hands on them. One of the them was Stephen who a short time later was stoned to death, and not for the way he was distributing the food. The early Christian community was more than able to adapt their structures, their ministries, and their roles to give everyone a place at the table, including the marginalised Hellenists who had been left out by the dominating Hebrews. The Church of 2030 will need to be equally adaptable providing a place at the table for the indigenous, for the refugee, for the victim of abuse, for the woman who sees the face of Christ in the hospitality of women and who feels the hands of Christ in the ministrations of women. Tradition, authority, and routine ritual need to be enfleshed and animated by the power of the Spirit which filled our hearts as we stood as one and applauded Bishop Long yesterday morning, as we sat spell-bound while Ginn Fourie opened our hearts to mercy and forgiveness, and as we witnessed Evelyn Parkin weep for Poor Fellow Our Country. Let's go forth on our mission of justice and mercy being the church for mission 2030. Thank you.

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The complete text of Fr. Brennan’s address is available at https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/becoming-a-church-for-mission-2030