Shock waves

Sydney needs to look in the telescope.

by John Crothers

It would appear that the Catholic Education Office (CEO) is the latest victim of Cardinal Pell’s autocratic style of leadership.  Recently after some restructuring within the CEO there was a need to fill a new CEO Director position.  The normal procedure of short-listing and interviewing of applicants was by-passed, and the Cardinal simply appointed a new Director of his own choice.  The position was not even advertised.

This action sent shockwaves through the CEO and through the Catholic education system generally.  A precedent has now been set which allows any or all of the Directors of Catholic Education in Sydney to be chosen according to the whim of the Archbishop rather than through the conventional employment procedures that have been operating for many years in the Archdiocese

CEO personnel have been devastated by Cardinal Pell’s action.  Not only does it reflect negatively on their professionalism but also on the Sydney Catholic Education system in general.  Without doubt the Catholic school system is something that the Sydney Church can be proud of.  The success of the system has a lot to do with the professionalism and competency of the CEO directors and with the open and transparent procedures and practices on which the system is based.

Understandably those working in Catholic education are hesitant to speak out.  They are in a very vulnerable position.  The Cardinal’s autocratic approach to the selection of the new CEO Director only serves to illustrate how careful those working in Catholic education have to be.

The worrying thing is that Cardinal Pell’s methods seem to be constantly causing tension and division in the Archdiocese.  Indeed some of the decisions made by the Cardinal are so inflammatory that you wonder how they could have even been contemplated.  The appointment of the Neocatechumenate priests to the parish of Redfern is a case in point.  If there was one parish in Sydney where you would not send a highly conservative group like the Neocatechumenate, it was to Redfern.  Predictably the move has caused an enormous amount of conflict and hurt on all sides and there seems to be little hope of resolution, at least in the foreseeable future.

Trying to get the message across to the Cardinal is not easy.  I realise that no one is happy to be criticised, particularly by one’s colleagues, but those in leadership positions need to be prepared to listen to criticism.  At a recent clergy meeting the point was raised that there was a perception among many Sydney priests that the concerns of the parishes are irrelevant to the agenda being implemented in the Archdiocese.  Even after lengthy debate on the subject the Cardinal still refused to accept that this was the actual perception of the priests, even though it was the priests themselves who were saying it.

It reminds me of the story about Galileo when he was trying to convince the Church authorities that not all the heavenly bodies revolved around the earth.  He pleaded with them just to look into his telescope.  There they would actually see that some of the planets have their own moons and hence it was logically impossible for the earth to be at the centre of the universe.  In response to Galileo’s plea the Church authorities replied that they had no need to look into the telescope.  They already knew he was wrong.

It does not have to be this way.  There is so much goodwill in the Sydney Archdiocese.  There is no reason why the Cardinal cannot work with the people and organisations in the Archdiocese in a more open and trusting way.  One does not have to be always confrontational.

It is becoming more and more evident that the real work of the Church in Sydney is suffering because of all the time and energy that is being spent in internal conflict.  The low morale of the Sydney clergy is one result of this internal conflict.  The hurt and insecurity experienced by those in Catholic education is another.  Neither situation is helping the Church in its work of preaching the Gospel.

It seems to many of us that Cardinal Pell has never really succeeded in understanding or accepting the Sydney Church.  Since his arrival five years ago he has been constantly trying to change the local Sydney Church to suit his own particular conservative model.  This has obviously caused enormous tension in the Archdiocese and the development of two quite distinct models of Church, the Sydney model, which has traditionally been moderate and flexible, and the Cardinal’s own model, which is far more rigid and right-wing. 

Last year I was speaking to the Director of one of our Catholic agencies in Sydney and we were talking about the divisions that were developing in the Archdiocese.  I suggested that we had two very different models of Church in the Archdiocese and we had to be careful that we didn’t end up with two different churches.  The Director replied: “We already have two churches in the Archdiocese”.  It is time to act before the situation becomes any worse. 

Of course there will always be different viewpoints and different ways of looking at Church.  This has always been the situation in Sydney, as elsewhere.  But in the past there was a sense that, despite our diversity, we were all working together with a common goal.  We need to start doing that again.

John Crothers has been a priest of the Archdiocese of Sydney for 21 years.  He is Parish Priest of the Penshurst and Peakhurst parishes.