Tasmania's Catholic Archbishop Julian Porteous has agreed to change a reading to be included in a graduation mass next week after backlash on social media and concerns it would be inappropriate.
St Mary's College, an all-girls' school in Hobart, had been told the first reading would be from Ephesians 5: 21-33, which includes:
"Wives should regard their husbands as they regard the Lord, since as Christ is head of the Church and saves the whole body, so is a husband the head of his wife; and as the Church submits to Christ, so should wives submit to their husbands, in everything."
After the planned use of the reading was posted on social media by Hobart woman Sarah Ferguson, it attracted hundreds of comments and re-tweets.
The ABC understands there was a feeling amongst at least some of the students and staff that the reading was inappropriate, and could cause offence to students and their families.
St Mary's College principal Damian Messer declined to comment.
In the Catholic Church, a set of readings is stipulated for each day, and the Ephesians verses is part of the set readings for October 25, the day the graduation mass will be held.
However, there is scope to change readings depending on the occasion and pastoral need.
An Archdiocese of Hobart spokesman said: "It has been the practice of the archbishop to encourage schools and colleges to in as much as possible observe the readings of the day for their liturgies, mindful of the universality of worship in the Catholic Church across the world.
"On return from the term break, St Mary's College sought advice and guidance with regard to the readings of the day for the forthcoming graduation mass.
"The archbishop offered readings from the Feast of St John Paul II [the immediately preceding Saturday], which the college accepted."
'Provocative, extreme choice'
ABC Religion and Ethics unit specialist producer Noel Debien, who is also a former head of religious education at a Catholic school, said the Ephesians reading would have been an "extreme" and "provocative" choice.
"Anybody with any knowledge of scripture would go, 'why would you choose that reading for the graduation of girls'," Mr Debien said.
"If I'd been still a religious education coordinator and that had been the reading for the day that I saw coming, I would have immediately said, 'well, that won't work'.
"'It's a graduation mass for girls and it will look like we're trying to make a point' … there are just so many different readings you could use which were not what you call a submission reading."
Mr Debien said while there might be some Catholics who believed in male headship, "it's not what the church pushes as the primary doctrine of marriage".
"The Catholic Church teaches equality and it teaches that men and women are equal in God's eyes, except when it comes to the ordination of women — that is, in fact, a problem for Catholics.
New Testament scholar Sister Margaret Beirne, who was principal of a Catholic girls school in Sydney for 10 years, said she did not understand why the school or the Archdiocese would feel obligated to use the reading of the day for a special occasion like a graduation mass.
"When I was principal at a school, the religious education team would normally have worked with the Year 12 girls themselves," Sr Margaret said.
"It just seems extraordinary that they [the students] wouldn't have been included in the first place."
Ms Ferguson said she was surprised by how far her tweet reached.
"I'm just glad that people have stepped up and shown support for those girls," Ms Ferguson said.
"I'm a little bit disappointed that it's taken media interest for the archbishop to respond to them [the students' concerns]."
Ms Ferguson said when she heard of the plan to use the Ephesians reading it "lit a fire in my belly".
"It just seems so disrespectful."
This is not the first time graduation masses in Tasmania have been controversial.
In 2015, there were reports of Guilford Young College students chalking a rainbow outside the school in response to comments the archbishop made against same-sex marriage.
This is the full text of the reading that was originally planned for the graduation mass:
Ephesians 5: 21-33
Give way to one another in obedience to Christ. Wives should regard their husbands as they regard the Lord, since as Christ is head of the Church and saves the whole body, so is a husband the head of his wife; and as the Church submits to Christ, so should wives to their husbands, in everything.
Husbands should love their wives just as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed himself for her to make her holy. He made her clean by washing her in water with a form of words, so that when he took her to himself she would be glorious, with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless. In the same way, husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies; for a man to love his wife is for him to love himself. A man never hates his own body, but he feeds it and looks after it; and that is the way Christ treats the Church, because it is the body — and we are its living parts.
For this reason, a man just leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one body. This mystery has many implications; but I am saying it applies to Christ and the Church. To sum up; you too, each one of you, must love his wife as he loves himself; and let every wife respect her husband.
