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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