Like the Asian bishops last May, a majority of the 82 bishops from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific used their synod in Rome, Nov. 22 through Dec. 12, to speak boldly about church reforms the Pope would like to forget. Several bishops urged wider church roles for women, and more sensitivity about women's ordination. Others endorsed gender-inclusive language in all liturgies, a constant bone of contention between the Vatican and the bishops' conferences of the English-speaking world. Many called for more openness to homosexuals. Many also joined New Zealand's senior Cardinal, Thomas Williams, in support of communion for divorced-remarried Catholics. Some echoed the Asian bishops' calls for more local autonomy, less Vatican centralization. Even priestly celibacy came under fire: four of the six working groups of bishops showed some openness to a married priesthood. Cardinal Edward Clancy of Sydney told The London Tablet "all the synod fathers" saw some merit in the argument for ordaining married men.

Vatican fires back
One measure of the Synod's forthrightness is the speed with which the Vatican moved to neutralize it. Two days after the Synod closed, a 21-page document was released by the heads of six Vatican offices and six Australian bishops, including Clancy, denouncing all the reformist ideas, rejecting all "loyal opposition," and urging bishops to crack down on dissent from the magisterium on issues such as women's ordination. The paper purported to be from the Synod but actually had been concocted in a pre-synodal meeting. Privately, many Australian bishops were angry at the Vatican maneuver. Sr. Roberta Hackendorf, convener of the CTA-minded Australians Networking for Reform, called the statement "appalling." Sacred Heart Fr. Paul Collins, an Australian historian and a frequent CTA speaker, told the NCR, "It's as if the synod never happened."

w Chris McGillion, religion writer for the Sydney Morning Herald, had covered the Synod with enthusiasm as "a kind of Second Vatican Council for the region." Then the rebuttal statement from Rome pitted the pre-Vatican II fortress Church against the Synod's more inclusive vision. So was the Synod useless? Collins said that at least the frank speeches by the bishops "got some important things on the record."