The Church’s global synod process has reached a decisive moment. Australian Catholics have been blazing a trail and might show where things are heading

Since last year, Catholics across the world have been taking part in local synod processes and similar themes are emerging from every continent. These include calls to tackle clericalism, to give a more visible role to women, and to become a more inclusive Church.

Australia could demonstrate the direction of travel. On Monday, a week-long national assembly is to begin in Sydney which, it is hoped, will agree a blueprint for the future of the Church in Australia. It will also act as something of a laboratory in which the experiment of synodality will be put to the test. While the Church in Germany has sometimes been accused of “going it alone” in its synodal process, Australia decided instead to prepare for a “plenary council”, the highest form of gathering for a local church. It is a more formal process, with the final decisions signed off by the Pope, and it is expressly focused on discernment and action. The council leads to legislation and decrees that will be binding on the local church.