Prophetic Pastoral Leadership

This book examines the collaborative leadership of the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Adelaide, South Australia, between 1986 and 2001. During this time the archdiocese was governed by a Diocesan Pastoral Team consisting of Archbishop, Vicar General, Religious Sister, and lay woman. By way of a dual process of historical research and theological evaluation, Paul Hawkes gives an understanding of the reasons for the authentic style of shared leadership chosen by Archbishop Leonard Faulkner and its relevance to the wider Church of today. This account examines the development and operation of the Diocesan Pastoral Team, in its historical context, as an engagement with the theology arising from the Second Vatican Council. The Diocesan Pastoral Team is placed at the centre of a continuing and evolving process of renewal which characterised the Church in Adelaide as it sought to engender a "community for the world," and points to a more considered understanding of the place of the laity in the modern Church. Paul Hawkes chronicles the movement from unilateral to participatory leadership of the Catholic Church in Adelaide and concludes that the Diocesan Pastoral Team concept was, and remains, a unique initiative which involved the laity in the shared and deliberative governance of a Catholic archdiocese.