SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
Sydney Morning Herald
March 6, 2019
By Jim Barber
On Sundays at 8am, you can find me at Mass about halfway along the third pew from the front.
I sit with the same small number of people every week. I don’t pretend to speak for these people, but I do speak as one of them. There are no lawyers among us, no bishops, theologians or clergy. Could I respectfully suggest that we heard quite enough from them during the five years of the royal commission? We have also heard the horrifying tales of those who endured abuse at the hands of the church.
Yes, just about everyone touched by this abuse scandal has now been heard, except for those of us who sit in the pews week in and week out. The fact is that no one has asked us what we think or how we feel about the royal commission, despite the fact we are the church, or so we are constantly told by our priests and bishops.
I’m told that rank-and-file Catholics like us can have our say at the forthcoming Australian Plenary Council in August 2020, but I find myself wondering why it’s happening so long after the royal commission, how representative the plenary will be, and how much influence it will have if it really does represent the rank and file.
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