IN Budget week, where one side of town was taking itself very seriously telling us to “have a go” and the other indulging in the fun and frivolity of a four-day fashion fest, a serious and unresolved aspect of the Roman Catholic Church and its failure on women’s ordination and equality was being discussed.

It was a fundraiser at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, Barton, to send two women from developing countries to the Gender, Gospel & Global Justice conference in Philadelphia in September.

The panel was of three articulate and intelligent women, Kristina Keneally, Hilary Charlesworth and Marilyn Hatton with Paul Collins as the moderator and the free-flowing sharing of ideas, frustrations and failures in so many areas of gender equality, human rights and what to do.

Well, it would seem Pope Francis could, with the stroke of a pen (or a quill perhaps), change the status quo and breathe life into the misogynist, sexist and patriarchal church, bringing it kicking and screaming into this century.

Will it happen? Unlikely but good people will continue to work for change. Now, that’s really having a go.