Synod: A chance to let the Holy Spirit lead
Bishop Michael Martin calls on all people to embrace the Synod on Synodality, the Church’s worldwide effort to prayerfully listen to the Holy Spirit and to one another. Read it here.
Participants in the assembly of the Synod of Bishops gather in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican to pray before the opening session Oct. 2, 2024. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
Synod on Amazon opened the way for synod on synodality, cardinal says
VATICAN CITY — The Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region, which met in Rome in 2019, paved the way for the current synod on synodality, said the region's top cardinal.
Before the synodal process began in 2021, "We were a church on a mission, now we are a synodal church on a mission," Cardinal Leonardo Steiner of Manaus, Brazil, said at a Vatican briefing Oct. 15. "The synod on the Amazon helped open up this experience (of synodalty) and the participation of everyone."
The synod on synodality is more focused on how the entire church community can learn to listen, discern and respond to God's will and carry out the mission of the church than at specific issues. But part of that is looking at ways to expand the role and responsibility of all the baptized in the life and mission of the church.
In contrast, with only 172 priests to serve about 1,000 communities in the region, the synod on the Amazon did discuss specifics such as the possibility of ordaining married men and opening the diaconate to women as part of expanding the role of the laity.
"For more than 100 years, the communities in our region have lived without the presence of priests," Cardinal Steiner said, and yet, "the communities remained alive, organized, praying, celebrating and having their own ways of prayer" thanks to the commitment and faith of laypeople, and especially women.
"Women are the ones who have led the communities forward, and today they are also leading our communities. Several women in our archdiocese receive ministries," including official recognition as ministers of the Eucharist, ministers of the Word of God and community leaders, he said.
Bishops in the Amazon region are now proposing to some very remote communities "to receive and be able to celebrate some sacraments, such as baptism, without the presence of a priest," he said. When it comes to day-to-day ministry, "many of our women are true deaconesses, without having received the imposition of the hands."
Cardinal Steiner said they would like to call these women "deaconesses," but they do not want to "confuse them with the ordained ministry," and so, for now, they have not found a title that is "suitable."
"But it is admirable," he said, "how much women are responsible for our church."
"Our church would not be the church it is without the presence of women," the cardinal said.
Cardinal Steiner said he believes that if the female diaconate existed in the church in the past, "why not restore" it as was done after the Second Vatican Council "in restoring the permanent diaconate for men."
"We mustn't stop reflecting on these issues" as part of a continued exploration of "the fundamental mission of women in the church," he said. It's not a "gender issue, it is simply a matter of vocation," the vocation of women in the church and "in our communities."
Speaking about the issue of admitting married men to the priesthood, Cardinal Steiner said, for some places, "this would not be a difficulty."
Pope Francis "did not close the question," he added. However, the pope is very aware this is problematic elsewhere and is sensitive about "the communion of the church," therefore, "he didn't want to take that step."
The cardinal said dialogue should continue in a way that shows the importance of the local community rather than just "looking at the church as a whole."
"The church only exists because there is the community, and that small community forms the parish, and the parishes form a diocese and then there is the universal church. Maybe we need to go a little deeper into this question of ministeriality and community," he said.
— Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service
Synod begins looking at institutional changes to promote synodality
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Synod begins looking at institutional changes to promote synodality
VATICAN CITY — If members of the Synod of Bishops are serious about sharing their experience of "synodality" with all members of the Catholic Church, then they must identify concrete ways to do so, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich told members.
"If we keep this treasure only for ourselves, we transform it into a privilege" rather than a service to the whole church, Cardinal Hollerich, the synod relator general, told members Oct. 15 as they began discussing the third and final part of the synod's working document.
Titled "places," the section focused on promoting synodality -- listening to each other more attentively and cooperating more readily -- "from the perspective of the places that are the tangible contexts for our embodied relationships, marked by their variety, plurality and interconnection, and rooted in the foundation of the profession of faith, resisting human temptations to abstract universalism."
Cardinal Hollerich said the challenge is to make sure members of the church who are not present in the synod hall can experience synodality "not only through our recounting it, but through the renewal of our churches."
"The aim of our work in the coming days," he said, "is to propose instruments that make that easier."
The 368 synod members were to discuss the "places" section of the working document through the morning of Oct. 18. The final week of the synod would be devoted to discussing, amending and approving a final document from the gathering. Voting on the final document was scheduled for the evening of Oct. 26 and the closing synod Mass was to be celebrated Oct. 27.
Before Cardinal Hollerich's introduction, Benedictine Mother Maria Ignazia Angelini, a theologian and spiritual adviser to the synod, encouraged synod members to recognize how faith always is lived in a concrete place with specific cultural influences, but also how Jesus broke through rigged walls of place, class and culture.
"If the 'place' of the church is always a concrete space-time of gathering, the journey of the Gospel in the world goes from threshold to threshold: it shuns being static, but also any 'holy alliance' with the cultural contexts of the age," she said. "It inhabits them and is led by its life principle -- the Spirit of the Lord -- to transcend them."
"We all need to feel a sense of belonging," Cardinal Hollerich said, "but this need is met through relationships" that are less tied to a specific place -- for instance, a parish -- than they were in the past, especially if one considers relationships formed and maintained primarily online.
"What does this mean for the fulfillment of our mission of proclaiming the Gospel?" the cardinal asked synod members. "In what ways must we rethink our institutions 'in the logic of missionary service,' which takes place in a different context than in the past? What institutional and organizational forms need to be changed and how?"
— Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service
Listening is key to changing church structures, synod members say
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Listening is key to changing church structures, synod members say
VATICAN CITY — Since the 2018 Synod of Bishops on young people, listening has emerged as a central element in overcoming the structural and cultural barriers to unity and participation in the Catholic Church, synod members said.
Recent synods convened at the Vatican as well as the worldwide synod on synodality have "shown us the value of listening as a common thread in any process of humanization," said Sister Liliana Franco Echeverri, a member of the Company of Mary and president of the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious.
Sister Franco highlighted the 2019 synod on the Amazon as an example of how "listening leads to conversion." The creation of the Amazonian Ecclesial Conference was proposed at that synod, and it was formally erected by Pope Francis in 2021. Members of the conference include bishops, consecrated religious, priests and deacons, Indigenous people and lay Catholic leaders, each nominated by their bishops' conferences.
"Truly the power to create transformation, to modify attitudes or structures, lies in listening to God and to the grassroots, to reality," Sister Franco said, noting that the various synods convened so far have acted as "laboratories" that experiment with the church's capacity to listen.
"Listening is positioning itself as the way of understanding what the narrative is that God wants to tell us human beings," she said. "Listening gives us the possibility of drawing close to one another and to God's love more serenely, sincerely and reverently. Listening truly transforms us and converts us, and I believe we are still in the process of learning that."
The challenge for the church, she said, is to understand that listening is "the path to our conversion and even the path to credibility in moments that we experience as a church and as a society."
Rwandan Bishop Edouard Sinayobye of Cyangugu said that the listening at the root of synodality has assisted the church in Rwanda advance in its mission of reconciliation 30 years after the genocide that killed some 800,000 people in his country.
While the killing ended in July 1994, Bishop Sinayobye said its legacy is still felt "as if it happened yesterday," and that the church continues working to heal people. Catholics are the largest religious group in Rwanda, making up 40% of the population, according to a 2022 U.S. State Department report.
"It is not easy to talk about reconciliation in a country torn apart by genocide, because one must accompany both the persecutor and the victim, and we do this in every parish," he said. "This synod has helped us considerably, it is a space in which we have deepened our approach to respond to this challenge of reconciliation" by working to "unify Rwandans and to help them live in a spirit of fraternity, in a communal and synodal way."
The synod "is reinforcing our pastoral mission and our way of living in Rwanda after the tragedy of genocide," he said.
Latvian Archbishop Zbignevs Stankevics of Riga said that ultimately the task of the synod is to "unlock the gifts and charisms of every baptized person," promoting co-responsibility and the "decentralization" of the church "but not in a secular or democratic way, in a way of ecclesial and spiritual communion."
Sister Franco said that to ensure the full participation of each person in the church, the church's relational structures must be more closely studied to prevent abusive dynamics from arising.
The whole synodal process has highlighted a need to revise relationships, she said, and is calling the church to opt for placing "a culture of care at the heart of the church, for a way of relating to each other that is more similar to the way of Jesus."
— Justin McLellan, Catholic News Service
Mission is common goal of synod and ecumenism, pope says
VATICAN CITY — Halfway through the Synod of Bishops, Pope Francis and synod participants prayed that God would "remove the divisions between Christians" so that they could proclaim the Gospel together.
The pope presided over a candlelight vigil Oct. 11, the anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council in 1962, and texts from council documents introduced the prayers of praise and the prayers of petition.
The synod participants at the prayer service included the 16 "fraternal delegates" representing Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant churches, as well as the Rome-based representatives of the Anglican, Methodist and Reformed churches to the Holy See and other Christian ministers and faithful in the city.
Pope Francis did not read the meditation he prepared for the service, although it was distributed and published on the Vatican website.
Halfway through the Synod of Bishops, Pope Francis wrote, participants wanted to "express our shame at the scandal of division among Christians, the scandal of our failure to bear common witness to the Lord Jesus."
"This synod is an opportunity to do better, to overcome the walls that still exist between us," the pope wrote.
The vigil took place in the Square of the Roman Protomartyrs, just south of St. Peter's Basilica, which is the site where St. Peter and other Christians were martyred in the first century under the Emperor Nero.
The setting, the pope wrote, should "remind us that today, too, in many parts of the world, Christians of different traditions are laying down their lives together for their faith in Jesus Christ, embodying an ecumenism of blood."
"Their witness speaks more powerfully than any words, because unity is born of the cross of the Lord," Pope Francis said.
Noting the anniversary of Vatican II, he said the council "marked the official entry of the Catholic Church into the ecumenical movement," which was begun by mainline Protestant churches out of a conviction that the lack of unity among Christians was harming their ability to preach the Gospel.
The goal of the work for Christian unity is the same as the goal for the synod on synodality, Pope Francis wrote. Both are focused on the mission Jesus gave to all his disciples to share the good news of salvation with everyone.
And, he said, in both ecumenical dialogue and the synodal process, "it is not so much a matter of creating something as it is of welcoming and making fruitful the gift we have already received" and sharing God-given gifts with each other for the benefit of all.
"Just as we do not know beforehand what the outcome of the synod will be, neither do we know exactly what the unity to which we are called will be like," he said. However, Christians know that unity will be a gift of the Holy Spirit, and it will not destroy all differences between them, but allow diversity to enrich everyone.
Like the effort to make the Catholic Church more synodal -- marked by respectful listening to the Spirit and each other and by a shared commitment to mission -- the search for Christian unity, the pope said, "is a journey: it grows gradually as it progresses. It grows through mutual service, through the dialogue of life, through the cooperation of all Christians that 'sets in clearer relief the features of Christ the Servant.'"
"We need to pursue the path of unity by virtue of our love for Christ and for all the people we are called to serve," Pope Francis wrote. "As we travel along this path, let us never allow difficulties to stop us! Let us trust the Holy Spirit, who draws us to unity in the harmony of a multifaceted diversity."
— Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service
Synod seeks to expand consultations on women's ministry, diaconate
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Synod seeks to expand consultations on women's ministry, diaconate
VATICAN CITY —The Vatican group studying the question of women's ministry, including the ordination of women to the diaconate, will expand its consultative phase to include women who do not serve as consultors to the dicastery in charge of the study group, synod officials announced.
Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith which is in charge of the study group, announced in a message to synod members Oct. 9 that in addition to receiving input from the dicastery's appointed consultors, the dicastery will consult other women as well as receive input from participants in the Synod of Bishops. It was not specified who the outside women consultors are.
Among the 27 consultors to the dicastery listed in the Vatican yearbook, four are women, and among the 28 new consultors appointed by Pope Francis Sept. 23, six are women.
In his message to synod members, read to journalists at a news conference Oct. 9, Cardinal Fernández said the dicastery would also receive input from all members and theologians of the Synod of Bishops in the coming months. Among synod participants, 82 non-member experts are participating in the synod as theologians, facilitators and communicators.
Additionally, synod members voted to have a dialogue with leaders of the 10 study groups assigned to study complicated topics Oct. 18, and Cardinal Fernández said two people from his dicastery will receive written and oral input from synod members on the topic of women's ministry in the church.
In a written report delivered to synod members Oct. 2, Cardinal Fernández had said that at this point, his dicastery "judges that there is still no room for a positive decision by the magisterium regarding the access of women to the diaconate, understood as a degree of the sacrament of holy orders."
At the Vatican news conference Oct. 9, Belgian Deacon Geert De Cubber, the only synod member who is a permanent deacon, said that incorporating more input from deacons would benefit the synod proceedings and members' understanding of how the role of deacons can fit into service of the church.
Referencing a criticism of last year's synod assembly that not enough attention was given to the reality of parish priests, and the Vatican's response of inviting more than 200 parish priests to Rome to offer their input for the drafting of the working document for the synod assembly, Deacon De Cubber said, "It could be a good idea to bring together some deacons."
"Inevitably, you have to consult deacons on the diaconate," he said, but also, "you have to involve their wives, you have to involve their kids."
Deacon De Cubber said the church needs to have a larger discussion about vocations in the church, one which includes analysis of the role of priests and bishops, since, for him, the diaconate is "not at all a preparation for becoming a priest."
He added that the topic of women deacons did come up during synod discussions despite the topic being assigned to a study group.
Archbishop Luis Fernando Ramos Pérez of Puerto Montt, Chile, noted that there are more permanent deacons in his archdiocese than diocesan priests, and he said that deacons offer an "extraordinary service" to the church and should not be confused with "junior priests."
— Justin McLellan, Catholic News Service
Synod members vote to dialogue with study groups set up by pope
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Synod members vote to dialogue with study groups set up by pope
VATICAN CITY — Members of the Synod of Bishops have voted to give up one of their few free afternoons to "dialogue" with the leaders of the study groups Pope Francis set up to reflect on important questions raised by the synod in 2023.
Paolo Ruffini, president of the synod's communications committee, said synod leaders received Pope Francis' approval for putting the idea to a vote Oct. 5. It was approved overwhelmingly, and the dialogue is scheduled for Oct. 18.
The study groups are investigating questions such as how bishops are chosen in the Latin-rite church, how to improve seminary education, how to improve relations between bishops and the religious communities that minister in their dioceses, ministry to LGBTQ Catholics and possible ministry roles for women in the Catholic Church.
Short videos about the work of each of the 10 groups and a brief report on what had been accomplished thus far were shared with synod members Oct. 2. Synod officials also said that synod members and any other Catholic could share their perspective or concerns with any group by writing to the synod office -- This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. -- before June, when the groups are due to report to Pope Francis.
At a synod briefing for reporters Oct. 7, none of the participants would confirm a rumor that the synod vote to dialogue with the group leaders was provoked specifically by concern over the report from the group looking at women's roles in the church.
Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and chair of that group, had told members of the synod Oct. 2 that the question of ordaining women deacons was not yet "mature."
"The opportunity for a deepening remains open, but in the mind of the Holy Father, there are other issues still to be deepened and resolved before rushing to speak of a possible diaconate for some women," he said.
Sister Mary T. Barron, president of the International Union of Superiors General and leader of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Apostles, told reporters at the briefing Oct. 7 that synod members felt the reports were "very short and we wanted to know about what is actually happening."
And, she said, with some groups -- for example, the one looking at relations between bishops and religious -- "we'd like to know more about who's involved and be perhaps more directly involved going forward."
Sister Barron also said that in the synod "I find that there are as many men convinced of the need to change the position in the church with regards to the participation of women" as there are women.
Indian Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai said the issues were not "taken off the table" when the pope set up the study groups in March, but Pope Francis was concerned that synod members would focus so much on those issues that they would not "focus sufficiently on synodality itself."
The cardinal said he was asked repeatedly -- sometimes with "alarm" -- over the past several months about the study groups and specifically about the group on women's ministry and whether the pope set up the groups because he wanted to avoid having the synod discuss the question.
"I said, 'No, we don't want to avoid that; we've entrusted it into a particular group, but we do not want to focus on that'" to the exclusion of other issues, he told reporters.
— Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service
Hot-button issues raised by Vatican synod called 'a mechanism' to understand synodal method
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Hot-button issues raised by Vatican synod called 'a mechanism' to understand synodal method
VATICAN CITY— The goal of the second and final meeting of the Synod on Synodality underway at the Vatican is understanding and exercising synodality in the church, rather than immediately resolving specific issues, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' synodality expert said.
Julia McStravog, the USCCB's senior adviser for the synod, said that while some people may be disappointed that the synod will not resolve or otherwise move the conversation related to several controversial issues, she thinks that the work of the synod is, in part, "to help us prepare to answer these questions" and others like them.
At last year's meeting, much of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops' external attention centered on controversial questions such as changes to seminary formation, the possibility of women's ordination and ministry expectations for LGBTQ-identifying Catholics, topics that surfaced in worldwide consultations during the synod's two-year preparation process.
While synod preparatory documents noted such topics, earlier this year Pope Francis entrusted their discussion to 10 study groups, effectively taking them off the table for the synod assembly's second-year discussion. Leaders of those study groups reported on their progress on the synod's opening day Oct. 2. Those presentations accompanied brief videos about each study group and published written reports. The study groups' work is expected to conclude in June.
"From my perspective, it was never about those hot-button issues anyway, and so the U.S. synod team never approached it with this assumption or understanding that any of those topics would be resolved through the synod or by the synod," she told OSV News Sept. 27.
"I -- and the team -- really understood them to be mechanisms in which to help us figure out what synodality looks like," she said. "They're incredibly important questions, all of which could have their own synods, have their own three-year consultation process just on the one question out of the many."
On the topic of whether women could be ordained deacons, for example, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and head of a study group exploring the topic, told the synod assembly that Pope Francis "does not consider the question mature."
"The opportunity for a deepening remains open, but in the mind of the Holy Father, there are other issues still to be deepened and resolved before rushing to speak of a possible diaconate for some women," he said. "Otherwise, the diaconate becomes a kind of consolation for some women, and the most decisive question of the participation of women in the church remains unanswered."
McStravog sees synodality as a tool to help Catholics constructively engage complicated and potentially divisive issues.
"We're not ready to answer these questions in a synodal way," she said. "We're still figuring out what exactly synodality looks like in the church, and that's really what I think they're going to be doing in the second part (of the synod), is like, what are the building blocks to set this foundation to have these conversations, to really begin that. It really is a culture shift, and culture shifts are not fun, they're not headline grabbing … they're gradual."
Richard Coll, executive director for Justice, Peace and Human Development at the USCCB and one of several lay synod delegates representing the U.S., said that his experience at the first synod meeting and the interim has laid the foundation to "really focus on what the 'instrumentum laboris' (the synod's working document) is calling us to do, which is to really refine our understanding of the process of synodality, and see how we can implement at each level of our church life some of the benefits and some of the fruits of the synodal process."
And while the synod is expected to conclude Oct. 27, "the synod might be over, but synodality is not over," McStravog said.
That implementation "is dependent upon their pastors and upon their bishops," McStravog said. "How are we really going to get the pastors and bishops to embrace synodality in a way so that it does move the people in the pews?"
"So much depends on the openness to the synodal process at each level," Coll added, noting that he is aware of U.S. parishes that have "a great deal of interest" in synodality and plans to hold meetings on the topic after the synod's conclusion, and others "where the word 'synodality' never pops up."
"That's the kind of challenge that we will experience going forward to try to make it possible for those who really do want to live in the synodal experience to have the support of communities in the parish and diocese that will make it possible," he said.
In his opening comments to the synod assembly Oct. 2, Cardinal Mario Grech, Secretary General of General Secretary of the Synod, described the synod as "essentially a school of discernment."
"It is the church gathered together with Peter to discern together," he said. "A synodal church is a proposal to today's society: discernment is the fruit of a mature exercise of synodality as a style and method," defining "ecclesial discernment" as "the listening to one another to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church."
Clergy and laypeople share a responsibility for synodality, McStravog said, "so things not being done in a synodal way is kind of denying folks the exercise of their responsibility towards the church, or exercise of co-responsibility, and people want to be co-responsible."
— Maria Wiering, OSV News
In second week, synod to discuss authority in the church
VATICAN CITY— Members of the Synod of Bishops have begun looking for ways to make relationships within the Catholic Church "more transparent and more harmonious, so that our witness may become more credible."
Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg, relator general of the synod, told members that that was their task as the second week of the monthlong assembly began Oct. 7.
Opening discussions about the second module of the synod's working document, the cardinal said it would be easy for the assembly to "remain on a general level and simply reiterate the importance of relationships for the development of people and communities."
But, he said, "the people of God are waiting for guidance and suggestions from us on how to make that vision concretely livable."
The question, the cardinal said, is: "What is the Holy Spirit inviting us to do to move from a pyramidal way of exercising authority to a synodal way?"
During the first week of synod proceedings, members discussed their understandings of the foundations of synodality in the church.
Cardinal Hollerich said that during the second week, members will "seek ways to make operative today the ecclesiological perspective outlined" by the Second Vatican Council.
The challenge, he said, will be to avoid the risk of falling "into an excess of abstraction on the one hand, and in an excess of pragmatism in the other."
The cardinal asked members not to be afraid "to draw an outline of concrete proposals that individual churches will then be called upon to adapt to different circumstances."
Offering a reflection on the morning's Gospel reading in which Jesus recounts the parable of the good Samaritan, Benedictine Mother Maria Ignazia Angelini, a spiritual adviser to the synod, said that the story "reveals that the commandment of God is understood through an instinctive 'seeing'" of the other and a call "to surrender to the relationship."
Today, when "fratricidal wars divert one's gaze from seeing, in a never-ending spiral which leaves humanity half-dead," the Gospel calls for a "relational transformation," she said.
"The Samaritan is the living symbol of relational transformation," she said, because he forms a sense of relationship that testifies "to God, not himself."
"We are called by the synodal way to see the other in weaving, complementary relationships, stemming from that moment in which we are both the Samaritan and the half-dead man," she said, "saved, pitied and called to be merciful."
— Justin McLellan, Catholic News Service
Synod stresses global approach to role of women, doctrinal development
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Synod stresses global approach to role of women, doctrinal development
VATICAN CITY — Controversy over women's ordination, even at the synod, detracts attention from the plight of women in the Catholic Church and society, said an Australian bishop, who is a member of the Synod of Bishops.
When Catholics in the global North are "obsessed" with the issue of women's ordination, "women who in many parts of the church and world are treated as second-class citizens are totally ignored," Bishop Anthony Randazzo of Broken Bay, Australia, said during a press briefing Oct. 4, the third day of the synod on synodality.
In a written report delivered to synod members Oct. 2, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote that his dicastery, assigned to study the question of women's roles in the church, "judges that there is still no room for a positive decision by the magisterium regarding the access of women to the diaconate, understood as a degree of the sacrament of holy orders."
While Bishop Randazzo said he sees no problem with the topic of women's ordination being discussed and studied at the synod, he said such attention should "absolutely not" come at the cost of the dignity of women in the church and in the world.
"Can we stop talking about women and listen to, and speak with, women?" he asked. "This is how the church is called to act."
According to a 2024 Pew Research Center poll, a majority of Catholics surveyed in several Latin American countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Colombia, believe the Catholic Church should allow women to become priests. In the United States, 64% of Catholics surveyed agreed and a majority of Catholics in Italy, France and Spain support women's ordination. Data is not readily available on the sentiment of Catholics in Asia, Africa and Oceania.
Sister Xiskya Lucia Valladares, a member of the Religious of the Purity of Mary, said that although synod members received the report from Cardinal Fernández, the topic of women's ordination continues to be raised in both in small groups and assembly-wide discussions since there is an environment of "complete freedom of expression" encouraged by the synod organizers.
Sheila Leocádia Pires, secretary of the synod's information committee, said that the role of women and the relationship between individual charisms and ordained ministries were themes throughout the day's conversations among synod members.
Asked about reconciling differing views within the church, particularly in regard to the reception of "Fiducia Supplicans" ("Supplicating Trust"), Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero of Rabat, Morocco, said that it would have been preferable if such a document had gone through a synodal process.
The Vatican declaration stated it is permissible to give an informal blessing to a gay or other unmarried couple, though the union itself cannot be blessed, and drew criticism from several bishops in Africa.
Cardinal López, president of the North African regional bishops' conference, said bishops were not consulted about its publication, "so it should not surprise us that there were reactions against some of its points, not all of them."
After the document's publication, Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo of Kinshasa, president of Symposium of the Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, released a letter saying most bishops' conferences in Africa would not offer blessings to same-sex couples, though each bishop remained free to do so in his diocese.
Yet Cardinal López said his region was not consulted in Africa's response to the document, despite being part of the continent.
"Learning synodality is not a simple thing," he said. "We are going to have to overcome many setbacks and many moments in which we will have to ask for forgiveness, just as the president of the African bishops asked forgiveness for making a statement without waiting for us make to one."
— Justin McLellan, Catholic News Service
Synodality, an antidote to polarization, helps mission, cardinal says
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Synodality, an antidote to polarization, helps mission, cardinal says
VATICAN CITY— At the end of a multiyear process of listening, praying, discussing and discerning, Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, said he hopes the Synod of Bishops can give Catholics four practical suggestions for being a more "synodal" church.
"What four things? I can't tell you right now, but I sure wish we could give four pieces of guidance to the people of God across the world," the cardinal told Catholic News Service Oct. 4.
In a message to the people of his archdiocese, Cardinal Tobin said synodality -- which involves listening to one another and the Holy Spirit and helping every baptized person take responsibility for their role in the church -- "is not an end in itself; we're not pursuing synodality as the ultimate goal."
Instead, he said, synodality "is a way of carrying out the mission that has been entrusted to us, and is, without a doubt, the responsibility of every baptized person."
Asked why it is so important to the church now, Cardinal Tobin said that in the "marvelous mosaic of the North American church, I think synodality is absolutely necessary as an antidote to polarization and division."
For instance, he said, "it struck me a year or two ago that we as bishops in the United States, in our assemblies, have never been able to speak about any of the exhortations of Pope Francis" -- from "Evangelii Gaudium," or the "Joy of the Gospel," to "Fratelli Tutti" -- when discussing the plans and priorities of the church in the United States.
"It dawned on me that perhaps we lack that sense of synodality that unlocks those documents and shows us the way forward," he said. It is important "to listen to others, so that when we propose priorities, we're actually speaking because we've listened to the people."
Pope Francis set up study groups to delve into several of the topics thousands of people raised in the preparatory process for the synod -- topics like women's role in the church, the procedure for choosing bishops, designing seminary programs to help priests learn to collaborate, ministry to LGBTQ Catholics and relations between bishops and members of religious orders.
While members of the synod heard reports on the study groups' progress Oct. 2, those topics were not treated in-depth in the working document that will guide synod discussions through Oct. 27.
Cardinal Tobin said he did not think the topics were "off the table," but that the study groups were a way "to keep those themes alive" without letting any one of them "capture the whole imagination of the synod, because we are still trying to figure out what a synodal missionary church looks like."
— Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service
Synod stresses global approach to role of women, doctrinal development
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Synod stresses global approach to role of women, doctrinal development
VATICAN CITY — Controversy over women's ordination, even at the synod, detracts attention from the plight of women in the Catholic Church and society, said an Australian bishop, who is a member of the Synod of Bishops.
When Catholics in the global North are "obsessed" with the issue of women's ordination, "women who in many parts of the church and world are treated as second-class citizens are totally ignored," Bishop Anthony Randazzo of Broken Bay, Australia, said during a press briefing Oct. 4, the third day of the synod on synodality.
In a written report delivered to synod members Oct. 2, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote that his dicastery, assigned to study the question of women's roles in the church, "judges that there is still no room for a positive decision by the magisterium regarding the access of women to the diaconate, understood as a degree of the sacrament of holy orders."
While Bishop Randazzo said he sees no problem with the topic of women's ordination being discussed and studied at the synod, he said such attention should "absolutely not" come at the cost of the dignity of women in the church and in the world.
"Can we stop talking about women and listen to, and speak with, women?" he asked. "This is how the church is called to act."
According to a 2024 Pew Research Center poll, a majority of Catholics surveyed in several Latin American countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Colombia, believe the Catholic Church should allow women to become priests. In the United States, 64% of Catholics surveyed agreed and a majority of Catholics in Italy, France and Spain support women's ordination. Data on is not readily available on the sentiment of Catholics in Asia, Africa and Oceania.
Sister Xiskya Lucia Valladares, a member of the Religious of the Purity of Mary, said that although synod members received the report from Cardinal Fernández, the topic of women's ordination continues to be raised in both in small groups and assembly-wide discussions since there is an environment of "complete freedom of expression" encouraged by the synod organizers.
Sheila Leocádia Pires, secretary of the synod's information committee, said that the role of women and the relationship between individual charisms and ordained ministries were themes throughout the day's conversations among synod members.
Asked about reconciling differing views within the church, particularly in regard to the reception of "Fiducia Supplicans" ("Supplicating Trust"), Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero of Rabat, Morocco, said that it would have been preferable if such a document had gone through a synodal process.
The Vatican declaration stated it is permissible to give an informal blessing to a gay or other unmarried couple, though the union itself cannot be blessed, and drew criticism from several bishops in Africa.
Cardinal López, president of the North African regional bishops' conference, said bishops were not consulted about its publication, "so it should not surprise us that there were reactions against some of its points, not all of them."
After the document's publication, Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo of Kinshasa, president of Symposium of the Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, released a letter saying most bishops' conferences in Africa would not offer blessings to same-sex couples, though each bishop remained free to do so in his diocese.
Yet Cardinal López said his region was not consulted in Africa's response to the document, despite being part of the continent.
"Learning synodality is not a simple thing," he said. "We are going to have to overcome many setbacks and many moments in which we will have to ask for forgiveness, just as the president of the African bishops asked forgiveness for making a statement without waiting for us make to one."
— Justin McLellan, Catholic News Service
Diversity of perspectives can strengthen the church, synod members say
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Diversity of perspectives can strengthen the church, synod members say
VATICAN CITY — Catholics cannot have a clear view of the biggest issues impacting the church if they do not listen to the perspectives of Catholics who come from different countries or cultures or have different life experiences than they do, said Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas.
"Perspective is not the enemy of the truth. It's the normal way of the church. That's why we have four Gospels," said Bishop Flores, one of nine people Pope Francis chose to serve as president delegates of the Synod of Bishops in 2023 and again this year.
At a news conference Oct. 3, Bishop Flores told reporters covering the synod on synodality that the global listening process that preceded last year's meeting in Rome and the first synod assembly itself were exercises in helping synod members learn to listen to different perspectives.
"The central reality is to be aware that the perspective approaches the same mystery, but from its own context," he said, and "it's important for the rest of the body to hear it, not because we have to kind of pay due to that, but because we don't see as clearly if we don't hear what the local perspective is."
"My diocese is very poor," he told reporters. "It's on the border between Texas and Mexico. It's largely bilingual. But there is a voice there of the people that has something to say about how the Lord Jesus shows himself."
Listening is a discipline, Bishop Flores said. "If it were easy for everyone to listen, we would all do it, but obviously we don't. And so, the synodal reality into the future is a disciplined, patient listening, a perspective that we all need to hear, if we are to get the full picture. But what is the picture? The picture is the face of Christ."
The work of the synod, he said, is to take all the perspectives that have been offered from listening sessions on a local, diocesan, national and continental level and combine them with what was heard from the synod members at the first assembly and try "to find a cohesive voice," one which is not that of any particular person or country, but the voice of the church.
"We are searching for the 'we,'" he said, and "it's a work in progress."
Jesuit Father Giacomo Costa, special secretary of the synod, said the goal of last year's assembly "was to allow all experiences to be heard and to be recognized as a rich blessing of diversity. I remember at the end, after a month, how many people were amazed by the experiences of the church that they would never have imagined."
The task now, he said, is to "identify convergences, divergences and possibilities."
As for the issue of recognizing and strengthening the role of women in the church, an issue that was mentioned repeatedly at every stage of the synod consultation and sessions at the Vatican, St. Joseph Sister Maria de los Dolores Palencia Gómez, another synod president delegate, said that "a path is being carved and is already bearing fruit," although the pace varies by culture and context.
"The gifts of women and their contributions to a synodal church are being recognized more and more," she said. "We are taking steps, but we have to take even bigger, faster steps, with greater intensity while also taking into account the contexts, respecting the cultures, dialoguing with those cultures and listening to the women themselves."
— Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service
No one has 'exclusive right' to God's voice, pope says at synod opening
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No one has 'exclusive right' to God's voice, pope says at synod opening
VATICAN CITY — Members of the Synod of Bishops must engage in genuine dialogue with those holding differing views, avoid pushing personal agendas and remain open to changing their minds about what is best for the church, Pope Francis said.
"We must free ourselves from everything that prevents the charity of the Spirit from creating harmony in diversity in us and among us," he said in his homily at the synod's opening Mass. "Those who arrogantly claim to have the exclusive right to hear the voice of the Lord cannot hear it."
The pope was joined by the 368 members of the Synod of Bishops for the Mass in St. Peter's Square Oct. 2. The synod's 16 fraternal delegates -- representatives from other Christian communities, who are participating in the assembly without voting privileges -- were the first to process into the square, followed by laypeople and religious who make up the 96 non-bishop voting members of the synod, or just over a quarter of the assembly. The Vatican reported that 77 cardinals attended the Mass.
Pope Francis urged synod participants to be careful "not to see our contributions as points to defend at all costs or agendas to be imposed," but rather to see their personal contribution to the synod proceedings "as a gift to be shared, ready even to sacrifice our own point of view in order to give life to something new, all according to God's plan."
Otherwise, he warned, "we will end up locking ourselves into dialogues among the deaf, where participants seek to advance their own causes or agendas without listening to others and, above all, without listening to the voice of the Lord."
The 87-year-old pope presided over the Mass but remained seated throughout the liturgy. Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, relator general of the synod, was the main celebrant at the altar, joined by Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the synod, and Bishop Luis Marín de San Martín, undersecretary of the synod.
The day after Israeli troops crossed the border into Lebanon and Iran fired ballistic missiles at Israel -- seen as significant escalations of the conflict in the Middle East -- Pope Francis in his homily called on all people to observe a day of prayer and fasting for peace Oct. 7, marking one year since Hamas' attack on Israel that sparked the ongoing conflict.
The pope also announced he will lead the recitation of the rosary for peace at Rome's Basilica of St. Mary Major Oct. 6, and he invited synod members to join him.
"Brothers and sisters, we again take up this synodal journey with a gaze fixed on the world, because the Christian community is always at the service of humanity to announce to all the joy of the Gospel," he said. "It is needed above all in this dramatic hour of history when the winds of war and flames of violence continue to destroy entire peoples and nations."
Bishops process toward the altar in St. Peter's Square during Mass with Pope Francis for the opening of the Synod of Bishops on synodality at the Vatican Oct. 2, 2024. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)In his homily, Pope Francis said that the synod is not a "parliamentary assembly," but an effort to understand the history, dreams and hopes of "our brothers and sisters scattered around the world inspired by our same faith, moved by the same desire for holiness."He called on synod members to receive the contributions of the people of God collected throughout the synodal process, which began in October 2021, "with respect and attention, in prayer and in the light of the Word of God" in order to "reach the destination the Lord desires for us."
"The more we realize that we are surrounded by friends who love, respect and appreciate us, friends who want to listen to what we have to say, the more we will feel free to express ourselves spontaneously and openly," the pope said.
Developing such an attitude, he said, is not just a "technique" for facilitating dialogue and group communication dynamics, but is central to the church's vocation as "a welcoming place of gathering."
Though he acknowledged the need to be "great" in spirit, heart and outlook "because the issues that we must deal with are great and delicate, and the situations are broad and universal," the pope also said that "the only way to be worthy of the task entrusted to us is to make ourselves small and to receive one another humbly."
"Let us walk together, let us listen to the Lord, let us be led by the blowing of the Spirit," he said.
— Justin McLellan, Catholic News Service
More: Seven things to know about the second and final session of the Synod on Synodality
Pope defends decision to give women, laymen voting rights at synod
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Pope defends decision to give women, laymen voting rights at synod
Pope Francis gives his blessing during the opening of the first working session of the Synod of Bishops in the Vatican's Paul VI Audience Hall Oct. 2, 2024. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis opened the second session of the Synod of Bishops defending his decision to give women and laymen votes at the assembly, saying it reflects the Second Vatican Council's teaching that a bishop exercises his ministry with and within the people of God."It is certainly not a matter of replacing one with the other, rallying to the cry: 'Now it is our turn!'" the pope said as the 368 synod members -- including what the Vatican described as 96 "non-bishops" -- began their work Oct. 2 in the Paul VI Audience Hall.
"We are being asked to work together symphonically, in a composition that unites all of us in the service of God's mercy, in accordance with the different ministries and charisms that the bishop is charged to acknowledge and promote," the pope told the members, seated at round tables with a mix of cardinals, bishops, priests, religious and lay men and women.
Pope Francis said he wanted to respond to a "storm of chattering" that had developed around his expansion of synod membership.
German Cardinal Gerhard Müller, former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and a synod member appointed by the pope, has said, "the canonical status of this assembly is not clear" since so many of the members are not, in fact, bishops.
For decades, however, the men's Union of Superiors General has been asked to elect 10 of their members -- almost always priests, but occasionally a religious brother -- to be full members of the synod. The real novelty Pope Francis introduced last year was to appoint women among the members, including by asking the women's International Union of Superiors General to elect full members like their male counterparts had been doing. A total of 57 women were named members of the synod's 2024 session.
Pope Francis insisted the composition of the assembly "expresses a way of exercising the episcopal ministry consistent with the living tradition of the church and with the teaching of the Second Vatican Council. Never can a bishop, or any other Christian, think of himself 'without others.'"
"The presence in the assembly of the Synod of Bishops of members who are not bishops does not diminish the 'episcopal' dimension of the assembly," he said. "Still less does it place any limitation on, or derogate from, the authority proper to individual bishops and the College of Bishops."
Instead, the pope said, it highlights that bishops are to exercise their authority in a church that recognizes that it lives and grows from relationships between and among its members.
Quoting the ancient hymn "Veni Sancte Spiritus," Pope Francis prayed that the assembly would be "guided by the Holy Spirit, who 'bends the stubborn heart and will, melts the frozen, warms the chill and guides the steps that go astray'" as it strives "to help bring about a truly synodal church, a church in mission, capable of setting out, making herself present in today's geographical and existential peripheries, and seeking to enter into a relationship with everyone in Jesus Christ, our brother and Lord."
Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the synod, told members that if lay people were involved only at the beginning of the process it would "give the illusion of taking part in a decision-making process that however remains concentrated in the hands of a few."
If that were true, he said, "those who claim that the synodal process, once it has passed to the stage of the discernment of the bishops, has extinguished every prophetic instance of the People of God would be right!"
— Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service
