Great News! WeeeeeHaaaaa! Alleluia!
The Australian Bishops Report to their People

Dear Friends,

I have to say that I have been blown away by the briefing the Australian Catholic Bishops have released after their recent plenary and which has been publicised on CathNews this morning. I literally mean that. There are just so many really, really encouraging developments in it not the least of which is a suggestion that I think I was the first to suggest anywhere in the world that the Catholic Church needs to undertake an audit of what is being broadcast in its name. Collectively the Australian Bishops would seem to be the first major organisation in the Church anywhere in the world to take this up. To be effective it also needs to examine the non-official channels — even initiatives like Catholica Australia and the many more conservative and ultra-conservative sites set up by individuals and groups within the Church which seek to influence how the Church is perceived in the world and which, whether the bishops or the pope like it or not, do contribute to the perception in the mind of the non-expert, general public of what Catholicism is and what the Catholic Church stands for. In the long run the Bishops and Rome do not have much control over those "non-official sites" — for example, they have no or little power to, say, "shut them down" — but through their own "official" initiatives they do have enormous power to counter their influence, if it needs to be countered, or encourage their influence if it needs to be encouraged. To date there has been enormous encouragement of some kinds of sites but I would argue it has largely taken place without being subject to any "audit" or study of what was actually being encouraged. This is a major work the bishops have taken on and what the Australian Bishops are able to achieve will be of limited value given the enormity of the challenge and the ubiquitous nature of the internet (it is not restricted by geographical boundaries unlike most other media) but the fact that they have shown leadership in undertaking this study may lead to the idea being taken up by other National and Regional Bishops' Conferences and perhaps at the Vatican level itself.

Quite apart from the foregoing, which is almost just one of the side-issues in this most welcome report from the Australian Catholic Bishops, I have to genuinely say I am more than a bit excited by the depth and comprehensiveness of this communication the Australian bishops have made to their people. This report would seem to have an entirely new timbre of openness and accountability compared to reports that have been issued in the past. I can remember back to the time when I had to prepare reports for the general public on the goings on in various Church agencies and I have to frankly confess that, in the eyes of my superiors whom I was preparing the reports for, the exercise was more one of trying to deny the general public information rather than one of trying to demonstrate openness and accountability. I believe this present report is far more how like all agencies of the institutional Church ought be reporting to the people whom they are meant to be serving.

WeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeHaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Alleluia! <Click HERE to read the report on CathNews> <Click HERE to read the full report on the ACBC website>

DELAY TO OUR NORMAL MONDAY LEAD COMMENTARY: This news this morning has delayed the preparation of today's next instalment of Professor Len Swidler's series looking at Democracy in the Governance of the Church. I suspect though Professor Swidler might be himself impressed by this new exhibition of accountability for a national conference of Bishops. Astute readers might be aware that the American Bishops also seem to have opened up their gatherings to more press scrutiny and the NCR journalist, John Allen, has recently been able to report more openly on their deliberations. I'll publish the next intalment of Professor Swidler's commentary later today. In it he looks at a proposed Constitution for a Parish.

Best wishes for a great day wherever you happen to be ... in life or in our world!

Brian Coyne
Editor and Publisher