A leading Australian bishop says the Church in his country is facing the biggest crisis in its history after taking part in talks with the Vatican over how to address the problem.
The Archbishop of Brisbane, Mark Coleridge, who is Vice President of the Australian Bishops’ Conference, told The Tablet that he and fellow bishops were in Rome to discuss the fallout of the clerical sexual abuse crisis, and how the Church will adopt a new approach. This, he says, will look at how to include women in positions of “governance.”
High on the agenda at the Vatican summit was Australia’s Royal Commission inquiry into how institutions handled child sexual abuse. This has seen the Catholic Church facing unrelenting criticism for its response to the scandal. The problem has been magnified after the Australian police’s decision to charge Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican treasurer and former Archbishop of Sydney, with historic sexual offences.
The Royal Commission has already had a huge impact on the Church in Australia, and the Final Report will make the impact still greater. The Church has been shaken to the core, or as one well-informed voice has said, “It has broken the heart of the Church in this land.” Yet there’s a searing grace in this, summoning the whole Church to a greater authenticity. In this, the call of the Royal Commission and the call of Pope Francis converge in what looks to be one of the strange disruptions of the Holy Spirit. Abp. Mark Coleridge said. The big question is how we become a more inclusive Church without abandoning truths of the faith we have received rather than concocted.
