2012  articles/posts by Peter Johnstone of Melbourne

    

  March 9: Comment in Eureka Street article "Flattening the Church" (comment no. 9)

A very thoughtful and considered address, but it should be obvious. The problem is that we Catholics have been brought up to accept the unacceptable: a Church established to live by Christ’s teachings whose very structure and practices are unChrist-like. The Church’s decision making is not properly informed by the life skills and experience of those who are not ordained, as if life in the non-secular world, one might say the real world, is of little relevance to the work of God. Robert Fitzgerald could have extended his argument by observing that not only are the non-ordained excluded from Church governance, but half the population is excluded from even the possibility of ordination. I am constantly amazed at the tolerance of Catholic women of this blatant gender discrimination. The inclusion of women in the leadership of organisations throughout the world, an issue of both justice and good governance, has improved decision making and demonstrated the shallowness of the arguments that women are intrinsically different. The Church's many problems are aggravated by an exclusive club of men wielding autocratic power inadequately informed by God’s world. We need gender balance in the leadership of the Church as a first step to informed decision making in accordance with Christ's teachings.

        March 9: Comment in CathNews report re 2nd miracle attributed to John Paul II  (comment no. 1)
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