Women in church issue has ‘glacial pace’

AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

Getting women into senior positions in the Catholic Church may move at a glacial pace, but it is movement, Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart says.

Critics say the abuse crisis faced by the Catholic Church would never have been allowed to happen had it involved women in its management, the child abuse royal commission has heard.

Commission chair Justice Peter McClellan said people from both within and outside the church note the decision-making process is driven by men in the archdiocese.

Archbishop Hart said one or two dioceses in Australia had women as chancellor, who would go to a conservative group with the bishop.

“The advice of women is being made to come into play in the work of the church, and I would expect that that would go on,” Archbishop Hart told the commission’s Melbourne inquiry on Monday.

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