Members of the Plenary Council are being invited to spend additional time to discern after two motions did not achieve a qualified majority in voting that has taken place over the past 24 hours.

The outcomes of the consultative and deliberative votes for motions of parts 3 and 4 of the Motions and Amendments document published last week have been announced. They can be found on the Plenary Council’s Motions and Voting page on the Council’s website.

All four motions in part 3 of the document – entitled “Called by Christ – Sent Forth as Missionary Disciples” – achieved qualified majorities on both rounds of voting. Two-thirds of voters present must support a motion to achieve a qualified majority.

In part 4 of the document, entitled “Witnessing to the Equal Dignity of Women and Men”, one motion received a qualified majority among the consultative voters but fell just short of a qualified majority among deliberative voters. It therefore did not pass.

The other motion did not receive a qualified majority on either the consultative or the deliberative vote.

For the deliberative vote on both motions, a majority of votes were placet, which means assent. However, a significant number of votes were placet juxta modum – which means assent with modification – and so a qualified majority was not achieved.

Plenary Council vice-president Bishop Shane Mackinlay addressed the assembly after the outcome of the votes was announced. He proposed that the members spend additional time discerning what reservations and concerns are being expressed in the placet juxta modum votes.

The assembly is undertaking this reflection before deciding how to proceed.

Follow the second assembly at: https://plenarycouncil.catholic.org.au/