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FIRST ASSEMBLY PROPOSALS
FROM SMALL GROUPS AND
INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS
DECEMBER 2021
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Table of Contents
A Message from the President 1
The Journey So Far | Concluding Statement from the First General Assembly 3
Introduction 6
Question One: How might we better accompany one another on the journey of personal and
communal conversion which mission in Australia requires? 8
SMALL GROUP FINAL REPORT 8
Themes and Observations 8
AREAS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION NOMINATED BY SMALL GROUPS 9
PROPOSALS FOR CONSIDERATION SUBMITTED BY INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS 10
Proposal 1: Affirm the Church's teachings on human sexuality 10
Proposal 2: Support for the Domestic Church 10
Proposal 3: Evangelisation to Lay Men in Australia 11
Proposal 4: World Meeting of Families 11
Proposal 5: Marriage Catechumenate 12
Proposal 6: New Ecclesial Communities and Movements 12
Proposal 7: Call for National Action for 10th World Meeting of Families June 2022 13
Proposal 8: Men’s Ministry 13
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Question Two: How might we heal the wounds of abuse, coming to see through the eyes of
those who have been abused? 14
SMALL GROUP FINAL REPORT 14
AREAS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION NOMINATED BY SMALL GROUPS 14
PROPOSALS FOR CONSIDERATION SUBMITTED BY INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS 14
Proposal 9: Bringing healing to the crisis of sexual abuse 14
Proposal 10: Statement in relation to the abused and marginalised 15
Proposal 11: Healing the wounds of abuse 15
Proposal 12: Affirmation of priests in face of sexual abuse crisis 16
Proposal 13: Friday Penance in reparation for the sins committed in sexual abuse 16
PROPOSALS IN INTERVENTIONS BY INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS 17
Question Three: How might the Church in Australia open in new ways to Indigenous ways of
being Christian in spirituality, theology, liturgy, and missionary discipleship? How might we
learn from the First Nations peoples? 21
SMALL GROUP FINAL REPORT 21
Themes and Observations 21
Small Group Proposals 22
AREAS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION NOMINATED BY SMALL GROUPS 24
Question Four: How might the Church in Australia meet the needs of the most vulnerable, go to
the peripheries, be missionary in places that may be overlooked or left behind in contemporary
Australia? How might we partner with others (Christians, people of other faiths, neighbourhood
community groups, government) to do this? 26
SMALL GROUP FINAL REPORT 26
PROPOSALS FOR CONSIDERATION SUBMITTED BY INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS 26
Proposal 14: Resisting the March of Euthanasia 26
Proposal 15: Anti-Slavery 26
Proposal 16: Responding to the Rise of those with “No Religion” 27
Proposal 17: Supporting Families under Stress 27
Proposal 18: Caring for those on the margins 27
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PROPOSALS IN INTERVENTIONS BY INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS 28
Question Five: How might the Church in Australia respond to the call to ‘ecological
conversion’? How can we express and promote a commitment to an ‘integral ecology of life’ in
all its dimensions, with particular attention to the more vulnerable people and environments in
our country and region? 32
SMALL GROUP FINAL REPORT 32
AREAS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION NOMINATED BY SMALL GROUPS 34
Question Six: How might we become a more contemplative people, committing more deeply
to prayer as a way of life, and celebrating the Liturgy of the Church as an encounter with Christ
who sends us out to “Make disciples of all the nations”? 35
THEMES AND OBSERVATIONS 35
AREAS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION NOMINATED BY SMALL GROUPS 37
PROPOSALS FOR CONSIDERATION SUBMITTED BY INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS 38
Proposal 19: Establishment of a Ministry of Preaching in the Life of the Church in Australia 38
Proposal 20: Establishment of a Ministry of Preaching in the Life of the Church in Australia 40
Proposal 21: Commitment to beauty 41
Proposal 22: Prayer Resources: Enabling Missionary Discipleship 42
Proposal 23: The use of Latin in the Liturgy 42
Proposal 24: Sacred Music 42
Proposal 25: Eucharistic Renewal 43
Proposal 26: International Eucharistic Congress 43
Proposal 27: Eucharistic Congress 43
Proposal 28: Proposal for a National Eucharistic Congress 43
Proposal 29: Promotion of Prayer for Families 44
Proposal 30: Celebrations of Catholic Identity 44
Proposal 31: Renewing the First and Second Form of the Rite of Reconciliation 45
Proposal 32: Octave Celebration of Pentecost 46
Proposal 33: A Marian Church 47
Proposal 34: The Liturgy 47
Proposal 35: Open Our Churches 48