Plenary Council: Who Gets A Vote?

Who Is or Isn't Entitled To Vote In Australia's Upcoming Church Council...

Laudetur Iesus Christus.

Serious concern about the Plenary Council process has been raised by many Catholics throughout Australia, with numerous concerns around wording, terminology, and ideas already being phrased.

The Council of Adelaide will be held later this year. Many lay delegates have already publicly called for women and married priests, greater lay control of the Church, and more transparency, causing grave concern amongst the faithful for the outcomes.

The First Council of Nicaea in 325.

According to Article 4 of the Governing Document of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia, the following people are called to the Plenary Council:

With a right to a deliberative vote (Can. 443 §1 - §2),

All diocesan bishops in Australia; All coadjutor and auxiliary bishops in Australia;

The Ordinary of the Military Ordinariate; The Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross; The Ordinary of the Personal Prelature of Opus Dei; and Not more than four emeritus bishops of Australian dioceses, elected by the Bishops Conference.

With a right to a consultative vote (Can. 443 §3 - §4), All vicars general in Australia; All episcopal vicars in Australia; Not more than 45 (forty-five) major superiors of religious institutes and societies of apostolic life, elected respectively by all the major superiors of the institutes and societies which have a seat in Australia; Not more than 10 (ten) rectors of ecclesiastical and Catholic universities and deans of faculties of theology and of canon law, being all such rectors and deans in Australia; Not more than 9 (nine) rectors of major seminaries, being all the rectors in Australia; and Not more than 88 (eighty-eight) presbyters and other members of the Christian faithful, among whom shall be included all bishops-elect, apostolic administrators and diocesan administrators at the time of the Plenary Council.

With a right to a consultative vote (dispensation from Can. 443 §4 granted by the Holy Father, Congregation for Bishops, 27 March 2020, Prot. No. 849/2017), Not more than 44 (forty-four) additional presbyters and other members of the Christian faithful.

As guests, without any right to a vote (Can. 443 §6), Observers from other episcopal conferences; observers from other ecclesial communities; observers from Catholic organisations; and theological advisors and consultants.