The first section of his letter, ‘If one member suffers …' displays a genuine empathy for those abused together with a sense of the depravity of what had been done; an disgust at how widespread and profound the enduring harm done to most vulnerable people has been.

In the second there is a sense of shame, ‘… all suffer together with it' in its frank acknowledgement of the complicity of so many parts of the Church's leadership in the systematic and hypocritical suborning and concealment of crimes.

But, it's the ‘What must we do …' section; proposals for real change in the face of this newly expressed awareness that are conspicuous again by their absence.

Sure, there's mention of "begging forgiveness" and "penance and prayer", looking to Mary as a model, "conversion", "interior anointing" and "resolve", but these ring as hollow as "thoughts and prayers" in the face of mass shootings in the U.S.!

This past weekend Pope Francis visited Ireland, the mother church of many of the English-speaking churches where abuse has flourished.

A brave man he rodes into a microcosm of the crisis that confronts world Catholicism, the deauthorization and decline of his Church in the wake of these revelations of widespread abuse and systemic cover-ups by those charged with the protection and nurturance of the faith it claims as its core.

Is there anything he can say or do while there to address the scale and depth of the problem?

Vatican III

I think so: he should announce the convocation of Vatican Council III.

Twice in the last 150 or so years, in the face of perceived crises, popes have done just this: first to confront the threats of the Enlightenment (which ironically the Church itself had spawned); and then nearly a century later when this had proved unsuccessful, to relocate the Church in the modern world, amidst "the joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the people of this age".

This, too, failed at least in part in my view because of the restorationist polices pursued by Francis' two predecessors.

In the face of the current existential crisis, what should a third Vatican Council's agenda be?

I see three pivotal areas of theory and praxis that need to be addressed urgently:

1. The Catholic Church's misguided and inflexible attachment to outdated notions of human nature, and especially to prescriptive, binary understandings of sex, gender, and sexuality that are as unsustainable in the light of modern scientific knowledge as is creationism or a flat earth theory.The consequent distortions in understandings of human relationships and sexual behavior, marriage and child raising, celibacy and virginity preclude honest discussion, allow sexism and homophobia to thrive and forestall necessary change.
2. These distortions are reinforced by the Church's dangerous misunderstanding of the nature and purpose of ministry and authority which has allowed the retention of quasi-feudal, patriarchal system of governance that is incompatible with reasonable expectations for equity and participation in a global, interconnected community.This is the foundation stone of the clericalism the pope himself denounces.I take some solace from Pope Francis' own commitment to what he calls synodality in thinking a move beyond this dysfunctional misunderstanding might have begun in some parts of the Church.
3. Clericalism is also engendered and sustained by choosing only single men and training them for ministry in seminaries, monastic regimes the quintessence of which is apart-ness from all bar peers in spirituality, socialisation and in learning.It should come as a surprise to no-one that the seeds sown there spawn an exclusive, entitled caste.The Church's understanding of who ministers, how they minister and how it trains and supports a much broader range of people to minister needs a total revamp.

Vatican III, but like no other

For a Vatican III to have any chance of succeeding, it could not be a Council like its predecessors, thousands of clerics trained just like this, magisterially defining what a compliant laity should do.

First, Catholic people will no longer do it; the trust they have in their leadership is gone.

And secondly, they should not do it, for this would merely reinforce the very sources of the current crises.

Vatican III would need to draw from the full richness of the lived experience of the Church and the expertise that is in its midst: bishops in dialogue with women, young people, non-ordained leaders in development, health, education, sciences, law and economics.

Will it work?

I don't know!

The old English saying that 'too much water has flowed under the bridge' may be true in this case.

But a Vatican III is the only way I see back from the precipice to which previous strategies have taken things.

• Terry Laidler is a Melbourne, Australia psychologist working in private practice, mainly in forensic areas such as family law, child protection and criminal jurisdictions.
• First published in la-Croix International.
• Image: ICMI

He made this request in an article published in Brazilian daily, Jornal do Brasil, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of John XXIII's death: "The categories set out in the Second Vatican Council no longer adequately represent today's reality."

According to Boff, there needs to be a new Council that represents all Christianity and it should "identify the ways in which we can work together to create new awareness regarding respect, worship and care for all ecosystems."

Interestingly, people have been pondering on a Vatican III for 36 whole years.

The idea sprang up for the first time in the summer of 1977, at a meeting of theologians from Concilium magazine held at the University of Notre Dame in the U.S. Swiss theologian Hans Kueng, the Dutchman Edward Schillebeeckx and Italian theologians Giuseppe Alberigo and Rosino Gibellini were among those present.

The meeting between theologians and Liberation theologians set the goals for the future Council:

• that a Pope would resign at the age of 75;
• that the Synod of Bishops would no longer act as an advisory but a deliberative body;
• that priestly celibacy would be abolished and
• that women would enjoy equality in Church life, including the right to be ordained priests.

But it would be wrong to assume that the proposal is only made now and again by liberals who are intent on speeding up reforms.

Surprisingly, in the early 90s, some conservative circles faithful to Wojtyla threw the idea on the table.

The English historian Paul Johnson suggested a new Council should be held, in an article published by American monthly, Catholic World Report. Italian philosopher, Rocco Buttiglione, a friend and collaborator of John Paul II echoed this idea in an interview in which he mentioned the preparation of "material for another great Council."

Another figure who was keen on the idea was ultra-conservative Austrian bishop, Kurt Krenn.

In terms of the aims of a potential Third Vatican Council, the dream nurtured by Wojtyla's most orthodox supporters was the complete opposite to that described by Kueng in 1977. Continue reading

Image: Blogspot

The group is led by Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, who retired as auxiliary bishop of Sydney in 2004, aged 66, partly because of lack of recognition of the sexual abuse problem in the Church.

He is supported by Bishop Pat Power, retired bishop of Canberra and Goulburn, and Bishop Bill Morris, who was removed from his office as bishop of Toowoomba by Pope Benedict XVI in 2011.

Bishop Robinson, who launched the Towards Healing protocol in Australia and headed the Australian bishops' professional standards committee, has just launched a new book entitled For Christ's Sake: End Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church … for Good.

He says he wants a "Catholic spring" revolution, a people-power movement to force the Vatican to tackle the abuse crisis at its source.

"There has been so much abuse that it's impossible to blame just the individuals — we blame them too, of course — but it's impossible to limit ourselves to that," he said.

"We have to look at any systemic causes of the abuse. We have to take a really hard look at the Church itself and see what we can find there in the way of causes, factors which have in any way contributed to abuse."

Bishop Robinson, who was abused as a child, said millions of good Catholics have been "deeply disillusioned, both by the revelations of widespread abuse and even more by what they have perceived as the defensive, uncaring and unchristian response on the part of many who have authority in the Church and claim to speak in God's name.

"Catholic people all over the world are sick of the scandal and this is a chance for them to speak up and join a collective voice that will be heard in Rome."

Sources:

The Australian

ABC News

Sydney Morning Herald

Image: Daily Telegraph