On the Death of George Pell: He Led A Church That Alienated Its Women: I Pray for Reform by Marilyn Hatton 13 January 2023

On the Death of George Pell: He Led A Church That Alienated Its Women: I Pray for Reform by Marilyn Hatton
The Sydney Morning Herald | 13 January 2023

Speaking as a woman and member of the Catholic faithful, I believe many will have mixed feelings about Cardinal George Pell’s death. Back in 2011, Pell presided over a model of church that was the antithesis of what many Catholics of faith, living in a modern democracy, found acceptable.

Child abuse within the church had broken trust. I was among progressive Catholics working desperately to reform a church that was clearly ignorant of the terrible harm its clerical culture had caused. Even when it amounted to criminal behaviour, the church was resistant to criticism of its lack of transparency and accountability and the failures of its leadership – all devastatingly exposed by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Pell, as we know, was imprisoned on charges of child abuse, but this conviction was quashed by Australia’s High Court. Many will mourn his death this week. He was a significant figure in Australian and international Catholicism. He was instrumental in rectifying financial corruption within the Vatican.

“Pell led a church in Australia that subordinated and alienated its women – and continues to do so. ”

But Pell also led a church in Australia that subordinated and alienated its women – and continues to do so.

Women are the solid core of the Catholic Church and the Catholic faith. Our church, like others, is shedding followers. If the equality of Catholic women is denied, the church will continue to bleed.

It will have diminishing relevance to future generations. The world is rapidly becoming aware of how a patriarchal culture works destructively. When people of goodwill are confronted with it, they find it intolerable.

Rolling the camera forward to 2023, some 20 renewal groups under the umbrella of the Australasian Catholic Coalition for Church Reform – including bodies such as the Concerned Catholics Canberra/Goulburn (CCCG) and Women’s Wisdom in the Church (WWITCH) – are working for change. They ensured well-researched recommendations and decrees for change emerged from last year’s National Plenary Council.

A plenary council is the highest formal meeting of bishops and other representatives from all dioceses in the Catholic Church in Australia. It is prescribed under Canon law. Its purpose is to discern (listen and discuss) what God is asking of us at this time in Australia. Such a council was last held in Australia in 1939.

In all consultations, most mentioned was the issue of women’s equality and participation across all levels of ministry. This is not surprising. In all other walks of life in our democracy, women have risen to hold the highest positions of responsibility.

Not so in the monarchical Catholic Church, where women are excommunicated for presiding over Eucharist and must be ordained in secret. This is the model of church that Pell presided over, the model that Australian bishops – appointed by Pell – adhere to today.

And this is the model that Pope Francis is working to change. This pope is reluctant to ordain women. He has a traditional view of women’s role. Nevertheless, he is the most progressive, compassionate Pope I have seen in my lifetime.

Our church desperately needs to break the gender imbalance that nurtures its destructive clerical culture. In a world that benefits from people of faith, our church needs women in ministry.

Australia’s Plenary Council has consulted the laity. That said, it can be hard going. The laity and renewal groups submit proposals as requested, often at short notice, to the bishops’ consultative bodies. They can go back and forth with the result that what is finally submitted to Rome is sometimes hardly recognisable.

The latest Plenary Council ran for four years until last September, amid delays created by the pandemic, but it did make progress. It involved non-ordained members of the church, priests and bishops. Its agenda included Item 4.5, relating to the dignity and equality of women and men. It contained a simple clause suggesting the bishops support ordaining women to the deaconate, a first step to the ministry.

The deaconate is an order of ministry that lay women and men were ordained to in the early Catholic Church, following Christ’s time, in the 400s. This has attracted much scholarship and discussion, including in two Vatican commissions. So it wouldn’t really be a change, more a restoring of women to an existing order.

This simple item, at first vote, was passed by delegates who had advisory votes only. But it was not passed by a two-thirds majority of bishops, who carried the deliberative votes. That is, theirs were the only votes that counted.

“the majority of bishops do want reform, but they need leadership to take that step. I fear they still do not comprehend what a destructive force gender imbalance remains in our church.”

Some 60 people, including lay delegates, priests and two bishops, stood aside and asked the chair not to continue with the agenda until the motion was reworded. One of the bishops then led a process to this effect, and the reworded clause – taking into account the concerns of some bishops, but not changing the original intention – passed with the required two-thirds support of bishops.

This tells us the majority of bishops do want reform, but they need leadership to take that step. I fear they still do not comprehend what a destructive force gender imbalance remains in our church.

Pope Francis’s vision of a future Catholic Church must address women’s equality. In recent years, under his leadership, reform groups have been looking to a synodal model of church that is inclusive, transparent and accountable, one that brings Christ’s message of love and justice to the world.

The pope has called the 2023-24 Vatican Synod on Synodality, for October this year, a major event for the universal Catholic Church that will gather cardinals and bishops from around the world to focus on change. Reformers hope to influence it.

“Our church desperately needs to break the gender imbalance that nurtures its destructive clerical culture. In a world that benefits from people of faith, our church needs women in ministry.”

I respect what Pope Francis has achieved. Most recently, he appointed Sister Nathalie Becquart as one of the two undersecretaries of the Synod of Bishops. This makes Becquart, a significant church theologian, the most powerful woman in the Vatican. She will visit Australia and give public lectures in the Parramatta diocese on February 3.

Becquart says she has taken her inspiration from many Catholic women before her. I do, too. As a mother and grandmother, I look forward to a Catholic Church of humility, inclusion and compassion.

Marilyn Hatton is a lay woman and advocate for women’s equality in the Catholic Church. She has worked with several renewal groups over the past 20 years, both nationally and internationally.

Marilyn Hatton is lay woman and advocate for women’s equality in the Catholic Church. She has worked nationally and internationally with several renewal groups over the past 20 years. She generously served on WOW’s International Steering Committee and Leadership Circle as Delegate from Australia.