The Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher, the man who replaced George Pell as leader of the conservatives in the Australian Catholic Church, began his homily during last Sunday’s Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral with a very pointed story from the gospels.
It related to “bickering” between Christ’s disciples, not over “crucial questions of Christian doctrine, identity and mission” but over power. It was fuelled, the archbishop said, by “jealousy, ambition, the desire always to get one’s own way”.
Fisher was talking days after Cardinal Pell left Sydney to return to Rome. The former Vatican treasurer had been in the country for several months, ahead of key reforms being discussed by the local church.
In his homily, Fisher quoted Mark’s gospel on how Jesus taught his disciples the error of their ways: “If you really want to be first, put yourself last … Among the Gentiles the rulers lord it over them … but it must not be so among you. Whoever wishes to be great among you must be the servant …”
The lesson, said Fisher, was this: “No more squabbling over power … For Christians, authority is about service not control.”
There was no mistaking the point of the parable. It was a warning shot directed towards would-be Catholic reformers who will push for greater accountability, inclusion and transparency, and less “clericalism” from the church hierarchy, at the Plenary Council that begins on Sunday, October 3.