A new way of Church governance

Transparency, accountability, consultation and participation of lay people are qualities that characterise an emerging way of governance within parts of the Catholic Church in Australia.

Ministerial Public Juridic Persons (MPJP) are the vehicle for this emerging way of Church governance.

Eva Skira, Chair of the Council of the Association of MPJPs (AMPJP) said:

“We are conscious that many within the Church are not aware of the existence of MPJPs – let alone aware of the positive features of our governance. We are taking the opportunity of the Plenary Council 2020 to share this good news of which the whole Church can feel proud.”

Towards the end of the last century, many Religious Institutes (e.g., Orders, societies, congregations) conducting ministries in health, education and community services began to look at new models for the structuring of their ministries. Some reasons for this were: a response to the call of Vatican II for the laity to more fully contribute to the mission of the Church, declining number of Religious, a desire by Religious to move into other prophetic ministries, the increasing regulatory complexity, and a continuing commitment to service of the poor and the betterment of society.

The 1983 revision of Canon Law allowed for the establishment of new Church bodies that would be the responsible stewards of Church resources and charism. Catholic health ministries in the USA were the first to undertake the responsibility of what are now known as MPJPs.

The first MPJP in Australia was Catholic Healthcare in 1994. There are now eleven MPJP’s in Australia governing ministries that were previously under the stewardship of a number of Religious Institutes, parishes and dioceses.

The structure of a MPJP is carefully designed with checks and balances between the canonical stewards (usually known as Trustees) and the Boards of Directors overseeing their ministries. These canonical stewards are almost always lay people and with an equitable representation of women.

The uniqueness of MPJP governance is partially defined as coming from:

• the context of ministries, including health, education, aged care and social services;
• subsidiarity in respecting the different roles of MPJP canonical stewards, their boards and ministries’ executive;
• co-responsibility of MPJPs internally with their boards and externally with Church Authorities;
• collegiality which requires that all decisions be made collectively by MPJP canonical stewards; and
• collaboration and an openness to work with others to foster the Kin-dom of God.

The links below are to the AMPJP submissions to the Discernment and Writing groups on the themes of:

• Inclusive, participatory and synodal: Submission from AMPJP to 2 Inclusive
• Open to conversion, renewal and reform: Submission from AMPJP to 6 Renewal