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Cardinal Charles Bo, archbishop of Yangon, Myanmar, and president of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences, center, presides at Mass in St. Peter's Basilica as part of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican Oct. 23, 2023. (CNS photo/Stefano Carofei, pool) NAIROBI, Kenya — As the synod discussing the future of the Catholic Church wraps up in Rome, bishops in Africa reiterated their opposition to homosexual acts and their support for church teaching on homosexuality, a topic that appeared in synodal conversations several times.

In response to a question about same-sex unions among several other questions that five cardinals submitted to Pope Francis, known as "dubia," the pontiff said when the assembly was about to open that "we cannot be judges who only deny, reject and exclude," which prompted media reports saying the Catholic Church may in fact open the path to blessing same-sex couples. The five cardinals had challenged Francis to affirm the church's position on homosexuality, ahead of the Oct. 4-29 world Synod of Bishops on synodality.

Such reports on the pope's response are receiving a cold reception among the bishops in Africa, where homosexual activity is rejected as standing in contradiction with Christian values, God's natural order and African culture.

"The stand of the church is very clear about it. I don't even need to say it myself … the issue is also being handled at the synod," Archbishop Baptist John Odama of Gulu, Uganda, told OSV News in a telephone conversation. "Those acts are not OK," he said.

The church teaches that "men and women with homosexual tendencies 'must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided,'" according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It also teaches that sexual love is reserved for marriage between a man and woman.

In Kenya, the bishops have remained consistent in their opposition to homosexual activity, even months ahead of the synod.

"LGBT is illegal in Kenya and should be prohibited. ... We are talking about human values and how God has created his nature. If we do this (allow homosexuality), we are fighting against nature," Archbishop Philip Anyolo of Nairobi, Kenya, told journalists in March. "And honestly, nature cannot forgive. It is very cruel when it's affected or attacked in one way or another," he said. Requests from OSV News for comment since then have remained unanswered.

Some African prelates also said the continent has more pressing issues, including droughts, climate change and the rising cost of living.

In Africa, most countries have laws that criminalize homosexuality. Of the 66 countries that criminalize homosexuality worldwide, over 30 are in Africa. The law criminalizing the acts are seen as colonial relics that are vague in their wording, according to analysts, pointing to such terms as "carnal knowledge against the order of nature" that appear in the legislation.

Early this year, Pope Francis said in an AP interview that homosexuality was not a crime, but it was a sin. Later, in a letter to U.S. Jesuit Father James Martin, editor-at-large for America magazine and founder of a ministry for Catholics who identify as LGBTQ+, the pope clarified that he meant "homosexual acts," not homosexuality itself, are a sin, "as is any sexual act outside of marriage." He added that he "would tell whoever wants to criminalize homosexuality that they are wrong," a remark seen as a veiled reference to countries, mainly in Africa, which have laws banning the practice.

In May, the Ugandan president signed one of the world toughest laws against homosexuality, amid global condemnation.

The law imposes a death penalty for some forms of so-called aggravated homosexual acts (same-sex sexual relations involving a minor and other categories of vulnerable people) and proposes life imprisonment of people engaging in the homosexual acts. It also punishes those who advocate for the rights of LGBTQ+ people or provide services to them.

As the law enraged the international community and human rights groups and frightened gay organizations, it also received backing from the Anglican Church and others, including evangelical and Pentecostal groups.

"We are grateful the current Act affirms the merits of existing provisions of the current penal code. We are grateful the Act builds on existing laws by offering better protection of children," Anglican Archbishop Stephen Kaziimba Mugalu said in a statement May 29.

Archbishop Mugalu, however, said the church affirmed life and did not support the death penalty for grave acts of "defilement" and homosexuality. Instead, the Anglican Church in Africa backed life imprisonment.

The Catholic Church in Uganda has not issued an official statement on the law, but Archbishop Odama said the law was in place to "protect children" who were being "preyed on" by homosexuals.

"You see, for us we saw it from the point of view of the children. Children are being distorted by the practice of homosexuality. They are diverted from growing up in the most normal way. They are supposed to take the life of homosexuals, which is totally against their rights," the archbishop said, terming his remarks as his personal view. "Secondly, they are being abused. That is the most painful thing," he said in reference to some acts of abuse committed by homosexuals.

At the same time, while some churches in the West, like in Germany, are ready to bless same-sex unions, African clerics say the experiences of the church and LGBTQ+ issues on the continent are different from that of Europe or North America.

According to Father Joachim Omolo Ouko, an Apostle of Jesus priest of the Diocese of Kisumu, in Europe and the U.S, many same-sex couples or partners often go to church and kneel before a priest for blessings.

"But I witnessed that the priests were (sometimes) refusing (to offer the blessing) saying, 'No, you are publicly known as a homosexual or gay and I cannot bless you.' (I think) that is what the pope was referring to -- that you can bless anyone who has asked," said Father Ouko.

He explained that blessing a person -- even when you know he is a homosexual, gay or lesbian -- is not a big issue since this is their faith.

"But you cannot administer the sacraments on him or her. That is not allowed," said Father Ouko, who was hoping that the synod would make "the distinction and that is not going to happen."

The priest pointed out that LGBTQ+ issues are not in the open in Africa, unlike the West, where people say they are openly gay and "proud of it." He however cautioned that despite Africa rejecting homosexuality, it was not right to abuse their human dignity or human rights.

"We cannot make (anti-homosexuality) laws that will … put them in prison for long or even kill them," said Father Ouko. "We are talking about mercy and forgiveness. … Maybe these people might convert and change. We give them room for forgiveness and change."

— Fredrick Nzwili

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Cardinal Charles Bo, archbishop of Yangon, Myanmar, and president of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences, center, presides at Mass in St. Peter's Basilica as part of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican Oct. 23, 2023. (CNS photo/Stefano Carofei, pool) NAIROBI, Kenya — As the synod discussing the future of the Catholic Church wraps up in Rome, bishops in Africa reiterated their opposition to homosexual acts and their support for church teaching on homosexuality, a topic that appeared in synodal conversations several times.

In response to a question about same-sex unions among several other questions that five cardinals submitted to Pope Francis, known as "dubia," the pontiff said when the assembly was about to open that "we cannot be judges who only deny, reject and exclude," which prompted media reports saying the Catholic Church may in fact open the path to blessing same-sex couples. The five cardinals had challenged Francis to affirm the church's position on homosexuality, ahead of the Oct. 4-29 world Synod of Bishops on synodality.

Such reports on the pope's response are receiving a cold reception among the bishops in Africa, where homosexual activity is rejected as standing in contradiction with Christian values, God's natural order and African culture.

"The stand of the church is very clear about it. I don't even need to say it myself … the issue is also being handled at the synod," Archbishop Baptist John Odama of Gulu, Uganda, told OSV News in a telephone conversation. "Those acts are not OK," he said.

The church teaches that "men and women with homosexual tendencies 'must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided,'" according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It also teaches that sexual love is reserved for marriage between a man and woman.

In Kenya, the bishops have remained consistent in their opposition to homosexual activity, even months ahead of the synod.

"LGBT is illegal in Kenya and should be prohibited. ... We are talking about human values and how God has created his nature. If we do this (allow homosexuality), we are fighting against nature," Archbishop Philip Anyolo of Nairobi, Kenya, told journalists in March. "And honestly, nature cannot forgive. It is very cruel when it's affected or attacked in one way or another," he said. Requests from OSV News for comment since then have remained unanswered.

Some African prelates also said the continent has more pressing issues, including droughts, climate change and the rising cost of living.

In Africa, most countries have laws that criminalize homosexuality. Of the 66 countries that criminalize homosexuality worldwide, over 30 are in Africa. The law criminalizing the acts are seen as colonial relics that are vague in their wording, according to analysts, pointing to such terms as "carnal knowledge against the order of nature" that appear in the legislation.

Early this year, Pope Francis said in an AP interview that homosexuality was not a crime, but it was a sin. Later, in a letter to U.S. Jesuit Father James Martin, editor-at-large for America magazine and founder of a ministry for Catholics who identify as LGBTQ+, the pope clarified that he meant "homosexual acts," not homosexuality itself, are a sin, "as is any sexual act outside of marriage." He added that he "would tell whoever wants to criminalize homosexuality that they are wrong," a remark seen as a veiled reference to countries, mainly in Africa, which have laws banning the practice.

In May, the Ugandan president signed one of the world toughest laws against homosexuality, amid global condemnation.

The law imposes a death penalty for some forms of so-called aggravated homosexual acts (same-sex sexual relations involving a minor and other categories of vulnerable people) and proposes life imprisonment of people engaging in the homosexual acts. It also punishes those who advocate for the rights of LGBTQ+ people or provide services to them.

As the law enraged the international community and human rights groups and frightened gay organizations, it also received backing from the Anglican Church and others, including evangelical and Pentecostal groups.

"We are grateful the current Act affirms the merits of existing provisions of the current penal code. We are grateful the Act builds on existing laws by offering better protection of children," Anglican Archbishop Stephen Kaziimba Mugalu said in a statement May 29.

Archbishop Mugalu, however, said the church affirmed life and did not support the death penalty for grave acts of "defilement" and homosexuality. Instead, the Anglican Church in Africa backed life imprisonment.

The Catholic Church in Uganda has not issued an official statement on the law, but Archbishop Odama said the law was in place to "protect children" who were being "preyed on" by homosexuals.

"You see, for us we saw it from the point of view of the children. Children are being distorted by the practice of homosexuality. They are diverted from growing up in the most normal way. They are supposed to take the life of homosexuals, which is totally against their rights," the archbishop said, terming his remarks as his personal view. "Secondly, they are being abused. That is the most painful thing," he said in reference to some acts of abuse committed by homosexuals.

At the same time, while some churches in the West, like in Germany, are ready to bless same-sex unions, African clerics say the experiences of the church and LGBTQ+ issues on the continent are different from that of Europe or North America.

According to Father Joachim Omolo Ouko, an Apostle of Jesus priest of the Diocese of Kisumu, in Europe and the U.S, many same-sex couples or partners often go to church and kneel before a priest for blessings.

"But I witnessed that the priests were (sometimes) refusing (to offer the blessing) saying, 'No, you are publicly known as a homosexual or gay and I cannot bless you.' (I think) that is what the pope was referring to -- that you can bless anyone who has asked," said Father Ouko.

He explained that blessing a person -- even when you know he is a homosexual, gay or lesbian -- is not a big issue since this is their faith.

"But you cannot administer the sacraments on him or her. That is not allowed," said Father Ouko, who was hoping that the synod would make "the distinction and that is not going to happen."

The priest pointed out that LGBTQ+ issues are not in the open in Africa, unlike the West, where people say they are openly gay and "proud of it." He however cautioned that despite Africa rejecting homosexuality, it was not right to abuse their human dignity or human rights.

"We cannot make (anti-homosexuality) laws that will … put them in prison for long or even kill them," said Father Ouko. "We are talking about mercy and forgiveness. … Maybe these people might convert and change. We give them room for forgiveness and change."

— Fredrick Nzwili

Synodality benefits from and increases ecumenical ties

Synodality benefits from and increases ecumenical ties, participants say

VATICAN CITY  — As the Catholic Church's synod on synodality continues, it is drawing on lessons learned from decades of ecumenical friendships and dialogues and is sharing its experience with ecumenical partners with one goal in mind: helping all Christians take responsibility for the mission of sharing the Gospel, said several synod participants.

"This is an important example of what we call receptive ecumenism, learning from one another's best practices, each church recognizing the need for renewal and growth, so that we might all better live the Gospel," said Catherine Clifford, a synod member and professor of theology in Canada, who has been involved in international ecumenical dialogues.

Clifford was one of the synod participants who spoke at a Vatican briefing on the synod Oct. 26, a briefing focused mainly on the ecumenical dimension of the synod process.

Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan Iosif of Western and Southern Europe, a fraternal delegate, noted that the international Catholic-Orthodox theological dialogue has been focused on the theme of synodality and primacy, looking at ways leadership has been and is exercised and shared in the Christian community throughout history.

Opoku Onyinah, a televangelist from Ghana and former chairman of the Church of Pentecost there, told reporters he was impressed at how the assembly insisted that each participant have an equal time to speak and to share and how prayer was woven throughout each session.

"The decision which will finally be taken will be the decision of the Holy Spirit and the people -- not only the bishops, or the pope, but the synod," he said. "I consider it an excellent attempt to break barriers of division and bring Christians together in that Christ-like journey we are all taking."

"The Catholic Church has set a pace for Christian unity," he said. "I've learned from it, and it will be appropriate for other churches and other Christians to follow suit."

Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, noted that fraternal delegates have been invited to the synods from the beginning but their participation in the synod on synodality -- focused on the responsibility of all the baptized -- has special significance since they, too, are baptized in Christ.

"The Holy Father is convinced that the journey of this synodal process must be ecumenical, and the ecumenical journey must be synodal," the cardinal said. "There is a mutual relationship between ecumenism and synodality, because all Christians, all the baptized, are invited and obliged to profess the faith, to testify to the truth and love of the Christian faith."

And, just as synodality and mission go together, so do ecumenism and mission, he said, noting that the modern ecumenical movement began with a meeting in Scotland in 1910 where various Christian communities recognized how their divisions were hindering their ability to convince people of the truth of the one Christian faith.

"When we are not united, our mission of (sharing) the love of Jesus Christ for humankind and for this world is not credible," the cardinal said.

Clifford told reporters, "The whole ecumenical movement is a movement of renewal and reform of the churches. The Second Vatican Council and its reforms also had the goal of evangelization. Why change and renew the structure of the church? So that it can proclaim the Gospel more effectively, more credibly."

The Catholic Church's push for synodality, she said, is asking how the church can be "more faithful to the God-given dignity and gifts of all the baptized, and we're looking at all the structures and practices to see what needs to be renewed and we're doing this together with other Christians who are asking similar questions."

— Cindy Wooden

USCCB president talks about his synod experience

USCCB president talks about his synod experience

VATICAN CITY  — Welcoming people into the church and helping them enter a relationship with Jesus always involves a call to conversion, said Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The archbishop, who heads the Archdiocese for the Military Services, is one of the U.S. delegates to the assembly of the Synod of Bishops on synodality and was asked about synod discussions on welcoming LGBTQ+ Catholics and those in difficult marriage situations.

The invitation is important, he told Catholic News Service Oct. 25, but "in almost every circumstance in the sacred Scriptures, when Christ meets someone, in whatever situation he or she finds himself, the invitation is always to conversion, it's always to change."

"No one who meets Christ can walk away the same person," the archbishop said, "so I think that has to be taken into consideration as well."

"So, we welcome, but we try to bring people to a situation of conversion" and new life in Christ, he said, adding that "of course, we also recognize -- at least I certainly recognize -- that conversion is a lifelong process" for everyone.

The synod assembly was set to end with a Mass Oct. 29 and pause for 11 months before the second synod assembly in 2024.

Much of the assembly's four weeks of work took place in small groups focused on "conversations in the Spirit," with participants sharing, listening and praying together before discussing aspects of the synod's main themes: synodality, communion, participation and mission.

Archbishop Broglio said he was struck by the opportunity to discuss the life and future of the church with people from all over the world.

"One of the highlights of these past three and a half weeks" has been listening to and exchanging information and viewpoints with Catholics from around the world, he told reporters later at the synod briefing. "If we do more listening, we might have a world that's a little more open to the other, a little more respectful of the dignity of the human person."

"So often, so much of our world is filled with shouting and with the inability to listen to the other," whereas through listening, "even if we disagree," he said, one learns "to recognize that that person represents someone created in the image and likeness of Almighty God."

While it would be difficult to replicate that experience in his archdiocese, which has members of the military and their families scattered all over the globe, the assembly and its preparation showed the importance of reaching out to all Catholics and inviting them to speak, he told CNS.

Archbishop Broglio said he is leaving the synod with a greater focus on getting the archdiocesan pastoral council up and running -- a real challenge given the global reach of the archdiocese. Perhaps members would meet in person once a year and then online at other times. "But I think the notion of having a personal encounter, a face-to-face encounter, would be very important."

Members of the synod assembly are expected back at the Vatican in October 2024 to continue their discussions and discernment.

While members have not finalized plans for what is to happen over the next 11 months, Archbishop Broglio said he hoped many more people would get involved. The parish, diocesan, national and continental listening sessions that took place in the two years before the assembly may have been the largest consultation of its kind ever, but they involved only about 1% of the world's Catholics, he said.

Given the average age of members of the U.S. military, the more members of his archdiocese participate, the more young Catholics will be involved.

In a society where individualism seems to reign, Archbishop Broglio said, young Catholics want to be invited to participate and they want someone who can accompany them in their spiritual life.

The most successful things happening in the archdiocese, he said, usually involve members of the military taking the initiative of inviting friends to come to Mass or go to a Bible study.

The archdiocese has a project called Team St. Paul, which involves training young adult lay missionaries and assigning them to military bases to assist the chaplains, facilitate gatherings and reach out to their peers in uniform.

"One thing I've learned dealing with young people is there's not a disinterest in religion," he said, "but the invitation -- and especially an invitation by your peer -- is essential."

 — Cindy Wooden

Synodal journey is about healing, reconciling the world, cardinal says

Synodal journey is about healing, reconciling the world, cardinal says

VATICAN CITY  — God has a plan for everyone and for the church whose journeys and plans must align with his will, Cardinal Charles Bo told participants in the assembly of the Synod of Bishops.

"Our synodal journey is not a pre-programmed space odyssey with fixed mathematical equations. Rather, when God calls us, he becomes our guide, our roadmap and our companion," Cardinal Bo, archbishop of Yangon, Myanmar, said in his homily during a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica with synod participants Oct. 23.

"Faith shines a light on the path through life's darkest and most tumultuous moments, allowing us to see God's grace penetrating the shadows," he said, in the homily, which he titled, "The Long March Toward the Synodality of Hope, Peace and Justice." Japanese Archbishop Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi of Tokyo and Indian Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai concelebrated, and an all-female choir led the singing.

"The church is called to be righteous, to embody a synodal journey of faith with the conviction that God never fails," even though doubt and anxiety might accompany the faithful on "this long march" in life, he said. "While we may not reach our intended destination, participating in the journey is a blessing in itself."

"God has a plan for each one of us and for our church, and our journeys and plans must align with his will," he said.

Human greed and self-centeredness create much suffering in the world, and they have "inflicted deep wounds upon our planet and stripped millions of their dignity," Cardinal Bo said.

The world needs reconciliation with God, nature and one another, he said, and "our synodal journey is about healing and reconciling the world in justice and peace."

Cardinal Bo, who is president of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences, said the world needed to focus attention on the significant environmental damage in the region due to climate-driven crises, "to the destruction of huge swathes of forests" and to the increased violence against Indigenous peoples, who have been "the protectors of nature, but they have also suffered from modern ideologies, colonization and resource exploitation."

"The Christian faith journey" is especially challenged in Myanmar, he said. Catholics "are on an exodus. Homes have vanished, and churches have borne the brunt of cruelty, and the Way of the Cross is a painful reality in many parts of Asia."

But despite the many challenges and difficulties, the church in Asia "remains vibrant and young," he said. "This synodal gathering has energized us to return to the great days of evangelization by the apostles."

Like the women who followed Jesus along the Way of the Cross, he said, "the church in Myanmar and Asia invest in the hope of reconciliation. We continue our tear-filled synodal journey, believing that, like those women, we will see all wounds healed, and a new dawn of hope, peace, and justice will shine upon every long-suffering nation."

"We pray that the Catholic Church, under the leadership of Pope Francis, will bring the entire human family into the long march of healing our world and our planet, ultimately leading us to a new heaven and a new earth," he said.

Among the prayers of the faithful was one for the church in Asia: "That these emerging churches coming from rich and diverse cultures may journey together in unity; may the church in mainland China increasingly preserve and celebrate the communion of love and light with the universal church."

 — Carol Glatz

As synod winds down, members urged to sow patience

As synod winds down, members urged to sow patience

VATICAN CITY  — As members of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops return home, share the results of their work and prepare for the final synod assembly in 2024, they must be on guard against people who will want to make them take sides as if the synod were a political debate, said Dominican Father Timothy Radcliffe.

"The global culture of our time is often polarized, aggressive and dismissive of other people's views," Father Radcliffe, spiritual adviser to the synod, told members Oct. 23. "When we go home, people will ask, 'Did you fight for our side? Did you oppose those unenlightened other people?'"

"We shall need to be profoundly prayerful to resist the temptation to succumb to this party-political way of thinking," he said. "That would be to fall back into the sterile, barren language of much of our society. It is not the synodal way," which is "organic and ecological rather than competitive."

Having discussed synodality, communion, mission and participation over the previous three weeks, members of the synodal assembly began the final segment of their work with talks from Father Radcliffe, Benedictine Mother Maria Ignazia Angelini, the other spiritual guide for the synod, and by Father Ormond Rush, a theologian from Australia.

They were to work on a "Letter to the People of God" at the synod's morning session Oct. 23.

After a day off to give time to the committee writing the synthesis of the assembly's discussions, participants were to meet again Oct. 25 to examine, discuss and amend the synthesis and to propose "methods and steps" for continuing the synodal process in preparation for its next assembly in October 2024.

"We have listened to hundreds of thousands of words during the last three weeks," Father Radcliffe said. "Most of these have been positive words, words of hope and aspiration. These are the seeds that are sown in the soil of the church. They will be at work in our lives, in our imagination and our subconscious, during these months. When the moment is right, they will bear fruit."

Father Rush told participants that as he listened to discussions over the previous three weeks, "I have had the impression that some of you are struggling with the notion of tradition, in the light of your love of truth."

During the Second Vatican Council, when different approaches to the question of tradition were hotly debated, then-Father Joseph Ratzinger -- later Pope Benedict XVI -- explained the two approaches as being "a 'static' understanding of tradition and a 'dynamic' understanding," Father Rush said.

The static version is "is legalistic, propositional and ahistorical -- relevant for all times and places," he said, while "the latter is personalist, sacramental and rooted in history, and therefore to be interpreted with an historical consciousness."

Father Ratzinger wrote that "not everything that exists in the Church must for that reason be also a legitimate tradition," but that a practice must be judged by whether it is "a true celebration and keeping present of the mystery of Christ," Father Rush said.

The Second Vatican Council "urged the church to be ever attentive to the movements of the revealing and saving God present and active in the flow of history, by attending to 'the signs of the times' in the light of the living Gospel," he said.

As synod members continue their discernment, he said, they are urged "to determine what God is urging us to see -- with the eyes of Jesus -- in new times," while also being "attentive to the traps -- where we could be being drawn into ways of thinking that are not 'of God.'"

"These traps," Father Rush said, "could lie in being anchored exclusively in the past, or exclusively in the present, or not being open to the future fullness of divine truth to which the Spirit of Truth is leading the church."

To open the assembly's final section of work, Father Radcliffe and Mother Angelini chose the parable of the sower and the parable of the mustard seed from the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Mark.

And Mother Angelini encouraged synod members to "narrate the parable" rather than "issue proclamations" as they continue working over the next year.

"Today -- in a culture of striving for supremacy, profit and followers, or evasion -- the patient sowing of this synod is, in itself, like a profoundly subversive and revolutionary act. In the logic of the smallest of seeds sinking into the ground," she said. "Thus, the synod seems to me to find itself called to dare a synthesis-as-sowing, to open up a path toward reform -- new form -- which life requires."

The synodal process, Father Radcliffe told members, "is more like planting a tree than winning a battle."

And the only way to ensure they continue the sowing rather than join the fighting is to "keep our minds and hearts open to the people whom we have met here" and treasure the hopes and fears they shared.

"Humanity's first vocation in paradise was to be gardeners," he said. "Adam tended creation, sharing in speaking God's creative words, naming the animals. In these 11 months, will we speak fertile, hope-filled words, or words that are destructive and cynical? Will our words nurture the crop or be poisonous? Shall we be gardeners of the future or trapped in old sterile conflicts? We each choose."

 — Cindy Wooden

Church hierarchy has 'nothing to fear' from synodality

Church hierarchy has 'nothing to fear' from synodality, cardinal says

Jesuit Father Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, dean of the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University in California, speaks during a briefing about the assembly of the Synod of Bishops as Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero of Rabat, Morocco, listen at the Vatican Oct. 17, 2023. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)VATICAN CITY  — The Catholic Church's synodal process, intended to actively solicit input from all its members, is not a threat to the hierarchy, a cardinal said.

"The hierarchical structures of the church have nothing to fear from a process that begins with listening," said Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

During a synod briefing at the Vatican Oct. 19, the cardinal said that "it's impossible that that should damage the hierarchical nature of the church," adding that it is an act of faith and hope to believe that "radical listening" will improve the functions of the church's structures.

Synod members spoke to reporters the day after they began discussions on participation in the church's life and mission, responding to the question, "What processes, structures and institutions in a missionary synodal Church?"

"The exercise of any structure or ministry or authority of the church must be based on a fundamental conversion of heart," Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas, said during the briefing. Rather than begin by reorganizing church structures, "I'm more worried about how it is that we will inaugurate a deep thirst to become a people, baptized and ordained, who are focused on serving one another in the heart of Christ."

Archbishop Dabula Anthony Mpako of Pretoria, South Africa, said that "synodality coexists with the hierarchical structure of the church."

"I think we have all accepted that in the Catholic Church, synodality has unique character. It is a synodality, at the center of which there is the chair of Peter, the pope," he said. "At the end of the day, hierarchy goes together with synodality."

Discussing the novelty that members of the synod who are not bishops or even priests have the right to vote at this assembly, Cardinal Czerny noted that the "identification between orders and offices is something that is being overcome."

"We're understanding orders not to be necessary for every office which until now has been headed by a cleric" and in some cases only bishops, archbishops or cardinals, he said. "There's no danger to the nature of the church because there are responsibilities which are already being and which perhaps increasingly will be entrusted to non-cardinals, non-bishops, non-priests."

Asked about the belief held by some members of the church that the outcome of the Synod of Bishops is predetermined to advance progressive positions, Bishop Flores said, "I do not see a conspiracy."

"I have simply heard honest, sincere, faithful, charitable conversations 'sub tutela Petri' -- under the care of Peter," he said, adding that such discussions are "not a threat to the faith."

Archbishop Mpako said that viewing the synod as a threat to the church "doesn't connect with the reality as I know it."

"I think the desire for a more synodal church that encourages the participation by all is something that many of us have been calling for," he said.

— Justin McLellan

Synod looks at ways to increase participation of all in mission

 Synod looks at ways to increase participation of all in mission

VATICAN CITY  — A "synodal church" where all the baptized participate and take responsibility for mission will need structures and processes to help church members listen to the Holy Spirit and to one another, members of the synod on synodality were told.

While "the big media" is looking for changes in Catholic practices on just a few issues, "even the people closest to us, our collaborators, members of pastoral councils, people who are involved in parishes are wondering what will change for them, how they will be able to concretely experience in their lives that missionary discipleship and co-responsibility on which we have reflected in our work," Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the synod relator general, told the assembly Oct. 18.

Those collaborators, he said, "are wondering how this is possible in a church that is still not very synodal, where they feel that their opinion does not count and a few or just one person decides everything."

Members of the synod assembly moved Oct. 18 on to the theme of "participation" and prepared to spend four days discussing the exercise of authority and responsibility in the church as well as the processes and structures needed to promote greater participation in the life and mission of the church.

The section was to include discussion about ways to encourage the development of "discernment practices and decision-making processes" that involve all Catholics in seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit and a look at how to harmonize "the synodal and hierarchical dimensions" of the church.

The synod working document also asked assembly members to consider how to "foster the participation of women, young people, minorities and marginalized voices in discernment and decision-making processes."

The working document noted, "The call to reform structures, institutions and functioning mechanisms with a view to transparency is particularly strong in those contexts most marked by the abuse crisis -- sexual, economic, spiritual, psychological, institutional, conscience, power, jurisdiction."

In looking at participation, power and authority in the church -- "delicate issues," Cardinal Hollerich said -- the assembly is not being asked to come up with solutions, but suggestions, which will be studied, discussed and prayed about over the course of the next year before being presented to the synod assembly scheduled for 2024.

"These are questions that need to be addressed with precision of language and categories," the cardinal said. "They are delicate because they touch the concrete life of the church and also the growth dynamism of the tradition: a wrong discernment could sever it or freeze it. In both cases it would kill it."

Father Dario Vitali, a professor of theology at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University and coordinator of the theologians assisting the synod, told members he was struck by how often participants in the hall echoed the Second Vatican Council's description of the church as a "sacrament," a "sign and instrument" of unity with God and with humanity, but how seldom anyone used Vatican II's description of the church as "the people of God."

In discussing "participation, responsibility and authority," he said, synod members would do well to recognize Vatican II's insistence that "before functions is the dignity of the baptized; before differences, which establish hierarchies, is the equality of the children of God."

Gifts, charisms and offices in the church -- including ordained priestly ministry, the office of bishop and that of pope -- are meant to serve the mission of the entire body, he said.

The Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution on the Church referred to the "'common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial or hierarchical priesthood' as distinct forms of participation in the priesthood of Christ," Father Vitali said. "This passage was ground-breaking because of the choice to overturn the two themes in play; placing the common priesthood before the ministerial priesthood means breaking an asymmetrical relationship of authority-obedience that structured the pyramidal church."

Dominican Father Timothy Radcliffe, the former superior of his order who is serving as a spiritual guide for the synod, told members that many people have said to him, "This synod will not change anything."

Some of them said it with hope, while others said it with fear, he said. But to him, "that is a lack of faith in the name of the Lord," who has promised to be with the church and renew it, "though maybe in ways that are not immediately obvious. This is not optimism but our apostolic faith."

Father Radcliffe also asked the assembly to consider, "How can we be a sign of peace if we are divided among ourselves?"

As synod members seek to discern ways to strengthen the church's synodality, he urged them to look at what God already is doing.

"Today our God is already bringing into existence a church which is no longer primarily Western: a church which is Eastern Catholic, and Asian and African and Latin American," he said. "It is a church in which already women are assuming responsibility and are renewing our theology and spirituality. Already young people all over the world, as we saw at Lisbon, are taking us in new directions, into the digital continent."

So, while "what shall we do?" is a legitimate question, he said, "an even more fundamental question is: What is God doing?"

As for fear, he said, "the new is always an unexpected renewal of the old. This is why any opposition between tradition and progress is utterly alien to Catholicism."

 — Cindy Wooden

Synod members urge patience as process continues

Synod members urge patience as process continues

VATICAN CITY — As the Catholic Church learns to be more "synodal," to listen to all its members, value their gifts and seek together the Holy Spirit's guidance, Catholics will need to be patient in awaiting responses to their questions and concerns, said several synod members.

After close to two weeks of discussion -- including on issues such as synodality itself, the role of women in the church, welcome for LGBTQ Catholics, better education and formation of Catholics and more collaborative relationships between priests and laypeople -- "there is a sense that things are tightening up, emerging, but through that process of hopeful patience," said Renee Kohler-Ryan, a synod member from Australia.

"It is going to take time, but it has to in order to give all of those issues the seriousness that they deserve," she said Oct. 17 at the press briefing for the assembly of the Synod of Bishops.

"Are these issues being discussed in the synodal hall seriously and passionately? I testify, yes," said Jesuit Father Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, dean of the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University in California.

"It is important to remember that the synod is a consultative body; it doesn't make decisions," he said. But "the process is important," and if synod members and the church at large do not focus on "niche issues" at this point, but on forming a synodal church, "it becomes possible for us to address these issues in a way that is constructive and not confrontational."

Especially as a theologian, he said, he sees this as a "privileged moment" in the life of the church, "an experience of a process of the church making and remaking itself in a way that is a once-in-a-lifetime experience."

"I remain convinced that the process is probably going to be more important than the outcome," the Jesuit said.

The synodal process can help the church experience "a new way of being where people, no matter who they are, no matter their status, station or situation in the church, are able to be part of a process where they are not only heard, but they also are able to contribute to the process of discernment."

Kohler-Ryan insisted that the synod discussions, including about women, are much broader than the media would have people believe. With members from around the globe, including lay women and men -- some of whom are mothers and fathers -- participating as members for the first time, the discussion about women is not focused on the possibility of women deacons, but on a myriad of issues related to their lives in the church and the world, including supporting their families and educating their children in the faith.

Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Dicastery for Communication and head of the synod's information committee, told reporters some of the topics discussed in the synod hall late Oct. 16 included "overcoming clerical models" that prevent cooperation and shared responsibility, the importance of inclusive language, the example of Jesus including women among his followers, the relationship between leadership and service, and the possibility of allowing women to preach at Mass given that women were the first to proclaim Jesus' resurrection to the apostles.

Sheila Leocádia Pires, secretary of the commission, said much of the focus Oct. 17 was on the ministry and role of bishops, their role in promoting ecumenical and interreligious relations, a suggestion that more people be consulted in the appointment of bishops, the importance of bishops listening to victims of clerical sexual abuse and the need for Catholics to pray for their bishops.

Bishop Anthony Randazzo of Broken Bay, Australia, told reporters, "One of the geniuses of the Holy Father, Pope Francis, is that this (synodality) is not something that is born in a vacuum."

"He has reflected very deeply and sincerely upon the human reality of the community of people around the world, and how we experience life together on this planet, but also how we as Catholic Christians live our faith and how we proclaim the Gospel in every single moment of our day, regularly by what we say but always by who we are as a community of Christ's faithful and disciples of the Lord.

Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero of Rabat, Morocco, told reporters, "I'm enthusiastic for synodality" and for learning to live that way on a local level as well as on the level of the universal church. "Even if the synod were interrupted tomorrow, it would be worth it," he said.

Synodality, he said, must become the "concrete modus operandi" of the church, but it is important to remember that the current synodal process, which began in October 2021, is set to go through October 2024 when the second assembly gathers in Rome.

In the meantime, he said, people must have "patience and hope."

 — Cindy Wooden

Synod discussions include addressing pain church has caused people

Redemptorist Father Vimal Tirimanna, a synod member and moral theologian from Sri Lanka, speaks during a briefing about the assembly of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican Oct. 16, 2023. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)VATICAN CITY — The synodal way is not an invention of Pope Francis, but it is based on Jesus' way of inclusivity and listening, and on divine revelation itself, said Redemptorist Father Vimal Tirimanna, a leading moral theologian from Sri Lanka.

As participants in the assembly of the synod on synodality begin their third week Oct. 16, continuing with their small group discussions, "the round tables themselves are a symbol of the ecclesiology of 'Lumen Gentium,'" he said, referring to the Second Vatican Council document on the nature of the church and the role of its members.

"This synodal process is not a private agenda of Pope Francis. It is a continuation of Vatican II," said Father Tirimanna, who teaches theology at a number of pontifical universities in Rome and is a voting member of the synod. He and others spoke to reporters Oct. 16 about their synod experience.

Father Tirimanna spoke about sitting at different round tables, made up of 10 to 12 cardinals, bishops, religious and lay people, and how lay people are "rubbing their shoulders with the hierarchy in a concentric church, not a pyramidal church."

"Not that the pyramidal church is bad, we need that, but the ecclesiology of 'Lumen Gentium' is lived. The synodal way, the culture of synodality is lived here. The challenge is to take it outside the synodal hall," he said.

A reporter asked the panel of synod participants whether discussions had included recognizing the hurt or pain the church may have caused people in the LGBTQ+ community and others as well.

Loreto Sister Patricia Murray, executive secretary of the International Union of Superiors General, responded saying, "there is a deep awareness of the pain and suffering that has been caused," and "the question of hurt and the woundedness of people both individually and collectively" has been brought up "and listened to."

There has also been discussion about "how to symbolically, in a sense, represent that hurt. Some people have said, 'sorry' is not enough," she said.

The question becomes "how does the church, in her own pastoral and liturgical way, give sign and symbol of seeking forgiveness for hurts that have been caused," she said. "And this is something under reflection."

Father Tirimanna responded, "I can assure you that everybody is included. The effort is to include everybody," and not just the LGBTQ+ community. "There are so many other groups" that are marginalized and wounded and need pastoral attention, such as the extreme poor.

"The synodal process is an effort not to exclude anyone, because Jesus's vision was inclusion," he added.

Auxiliary Bishop Zdenek Wasserbauer of Prague also responded, saying the damage caused by colonialism has been raised "a lot" by participants representing Asia and Africa. "We are trying as members of the synod to have an open heart to all the pain of all groups and individuals of the world today."

When asked how big of a role divine revelation and apostolic tradition were playing in the synod process, given the many different issues being raised, such as blessing same-sex couples or the ordination of women deacons, Father Tirimanna said, "divine revelation is playing a leading role."

"The discussions are fully enwrapped if not fully covered by both the elements of apostolic tradition" and revelation, he said, as "the Word of God, apostolic tradition, the magisterium, these are all part of revelation."

"This is not something that suddenly fell down from heaven, or something that Pope Francis has invented. These are all based on divine revelation, the synodal way itself," he said.

And while it is true "different people have their particular issues" they would like addressed, he said, "let's not forget, we are here a communion of believers" and "once the firm foundation of the synodal way of life is laid, those things can be built up on that."

"The most important thing is not to address whether a woman can be ordained, whether LGBTQ should be accepted, whether gay marriage should be blessed. Not that they are not important, but if we are serious about the church, a universal church, a church that is worldwide, we have to lay a firm foundation that includes everybody's interest," he said.

"So first we lay the foundation, the foundation of the synodal way, a synodal culture, a listening culture, a culture that includes (all people) automatically, (then) these issues are bound to come sooner if not later," the priest said.

Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago told Catholic News Service Oct. 16, "There is really a serenity in the group, where people especially appreciate the fact that they're free to speak their mind."

"There really is absolutely no attention to people's positions or titles in the church," but everyone can talk about issues and raise concerns, he said. "This freedom, the internal freedom of people, is really going to allow us to raise the critical issues of the day, the issues that people are talking about."

The heart of the synod, Cardinal Cupich said, is the question, "How is the mission going to be the priority as we carry on the work today?"

The synod members began work Oct. 13 on the third section, or module, of the working document, "Co-responsibility in mission," which included questions about the place and role of women in the church.

 — Carol Glatz

Synod members from around the globe unite in praying for peace

Iraqi Sister Caroline Saheed Jarjis, a member of the Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, speaks to reporters Oct. 12, 2023, during a briefing about the assembly of the Synod of Bishops in the Vatican press office. Margaret Karram, the Israel-born Palestinian president of the Focolare movement, listens as she speaks. (CNS photo/Robert Duncan)VATICAN CITY — Synod participants who have known war and conflict firsthand led the assembly of the Synod of Bishops Oct. 12 by praying for peace between Israel and Palestine, throughout the Middle East and across the globe.

Iraqi Sister Caroline Saheed Jarjis, a member of the Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, read in Arabic the day's Gospel passage from Luke, which included the line: "Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."

Margaret Karram, a Palestinian born in Israel, who is president of the Focolare movement, read prayers of petition for "the Holy Land; for the people of Israel and Palestine, who are in the grip of unprecedented violence; for the victims, especially the children; for the injured; for those being held hostage; for the missing and their families."

"In these hours of anguish," she said, members of the synod unite with Pope Francis in praying for peace in every nation of the Middle East and in every country at war.

Cardinal Louis Sako, the Iraq-based patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, presided over the prayer service and asked God to act so that "all humanity, which has in you alone its origin, would form one family without violence, without absurd war."

After the morning session, Karram and Sister Jarjis met with reporters at the synod's daily briefing. They were joined by Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Bamenda, president of the bishops' conference of Cameroon, a nation experiencing violence since 2016 between government forces and militants demanding the independence of the country's English-speaking regions.

Karram, a special guest at the synod, told reporters, "My heart has been torn apart with a deep pain" since the Hamas attack on Israel Oct. 7 and Israel's massive response against the people of Gaza.

"I believe that we can take many steps for peace, but I also believe in the power of prayer," she said, and the experience of the synod is not extraneous to her hopes and prayers for peace.

"The experience of these days is teaching me what it means to walk together," Karram said. "It is not easy to listen to the other and understand, to dialogue, to let oneself be challenged by others," but that is what the synod is teaching participants.

The hope, she said, is that "we are able to make this a lifestyle, not only a methodology, a lifestyle of the church," and one that could be offered to different communities of people wanting to resolve even social or political differences with respect for each other and an acceptance of diversity.

Archbishop Fuanya told reporters, "This synod is a very big consolation to Africa because with the problems we have in Africa, sometimes we feel isolated and abandoned. But coming to the synod, we join with the rest of the universal church to sit down and pray together for the problems that are going on in Africa, and especially for the countries that are affected by war."

"We have learned from what is happening on the other continents, the wars that are just going on in Ukraine, Palestine and Israel, and other places, that we all have to be pro-peace," he said. "War can never be the solution. We all have to be pro-peace and join together as one church, God's children united, praying for peace."

 — Cindy Wooden

Synod elects members to oversee synthesis report

VATICAN CITY — With 364 members and dozens of special guests having the right to speak at the assembly of the Synod of Bishops, accurately synthesizing the discussion will be a major undertaking.

Synod members Oct. 9 elected seven of their peers to the assembly's Commission for the Synthesis Report, and Pope Francis appointed three others.

Theologians and other experts working for the synod are assisting the commission by pulling together initial drafts based on speeches in the assembly's general congregations, the reports of the assembly's 35 small working groups and written submissions synod members have the option of making.

Members of the commission oversee the work, "supervising, amending and approving the preparation of the draft of the synthesis report with a view to its presentation to the assembly," according to a press release from the synod. Synod
Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, apostolic prefect of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, a member of the Commission for the Synthesis Report of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops, presents a gift to Pope Francis Oct. 10, 2023, in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)members will discuss, propose amendments to and vote on the report near the end of the Oct. 4-29 assembly.

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, relator general of the assembly, and Cardinal Mario Grech, synod secretary-general, along with Father Riccardo Battocchio, synod special secretary, are ex officio members of the commission.

The members elected to serve are: Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo of Kinshasa, Congo; Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille, France; Cardinal Gérald Lacroix of Québec; Archbishop José Azuaje Ayala of Maracaibo, Venezuela; Bishop Shane Mackinlay of Sandhurst, Australia; Maronite Bishop Mounir Khairallah of Batrun, Lebanon; and Father Clarence Devadass, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Pope Francis' appointees to the commission are: Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, apostolic prefect of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; Loreto Sister Patricia Murray, executive secretary of the International Union of Superiors General; and Father Giuseppe Bonfrate, director of the Alberto Hurtado Centre for Faith and Culture at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University.

 — Cindy Wooden

Synod guest shares how process reduces anger, builds community

Servers lead a procession into the Vatican's Paul VI Audience Hall at the start of prayer during the first working session of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops Oct. 4, 2023. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)VATICAN CITY — Luca Casarini, a longtime and well-known Italian activist, is a special guest at the assembly of the Synod of Bishops; he's encouraged to speak, but has no vote. And he said he is learning a lot.

Joining the synod briefing for journalists Oct. 11, Casarini was asked about his past -- his arrest for involvement in the violent protests during the G8 Summit in Genoa, Italy, in 2001 and the Italian government's current investigation of him for promoting illegal immigration by rescuing migrants at sea.

"I can respond by saying that in the Gospels, Jesus welcomes publicans and prostitutes. He goes in search of sinners," Casarini said. He was found not guilty of the 2001 charges, he added, and does not believe it is a crime to rescue people at risk of drowning.

Migration figured prominently in the preparation for the synod, and it was a key issue in the assembly’s speeches and group discussions Oct. 10-11, officials said. Other topics included the tension between welcoming LGBTQ people and affirming church teaching, promoting Christian unity, valuing the Eastern Catholic churches, responding to the clerical sexual abuse crisis, ensuring women are not treated like "second-class" citizens in the church and a host of other issues connected to promoting communion in the church and unity in the world.

Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, told reporters he felt no "polarization" in the synod discussions, although clearly members had different opinions on many of the topics covered.

Casarini is a controversial figure in Italy, and his participation in the synod was surprising to some. One journalist asked him how he handled being in the synod with people from countries that claim they are Christian, but oppose opening more routes for legal immigration. He also was asked if he was comfortable with all the praying and protocol and moments of silence at the synod.

"Well, first of all, I really consider all those who are present at the synod my brothers and sisters," he responded. "I am learning to transform my anger, my resentment, into pity or something else because it is something I want to do for myself. The time of resentment and hatred is over."

"The secret that I am slowly trying to learn is how to put myself in another's shoes," Casarini said.

The attempt, he said, is having "crazy" results, "like the fact that I'm at the synod. It's crazy."

As for being in such a formal, religious environment, Casarini said he is especially enjoying the moments of silence, "but I always feel out of place and inadequate in every situation."

Ruffini told reporters that a small group of poor people joined Pope Francis for lunch Oct. 10 at his residence, forming a new synod "small group." When asked what they wanted from the synod, he said, they replied, "Love, only love."

On the question of how the church can be more welcoming to those who feel excluded, including LGBTQ Catholics and the divorced and civilly remarried, Ruffini said synod members had obvious differences when it came to their points of emphasis.

He said one point made repeatedly, though, was that "love and truth always go together." It follows that pastoral outreach to people who feel excluded cannot ignore church teaching on marriage and sexuality, but Christianity never teaches "truth without love," he said.

At least one synod member, he said, asked for further discernment by the church on the topic of sexual identity while "others said that was not necessary."

"Everyone, almost, who intervened said every form of homophobia must be refuted," Ruffini added.

Canadian Cardinal Gérald C. Lacroix of Québec told reporters that the synod was not called to change the church's doctrine, but to find better ways "to walk together, to listen together, to discern together" so the church can respond to the "big questions" that Catholics are facing in their real lives.

The synod cannot function, he said, if each member simply presents what he or she thinks about a certain topic and is not willing to listen to the others.

"But if I am able to express what I think, and listen to the other, and another, and another, and after listening, maybe I will change a little what I think, or maybe the others will change what they think," then some movement happens, Cardinal Lacroix said.

"It's about having this humility not to think I alone have the truth and the right point of view," he said. "We seek together. In the light of the Spirit and the Word of God," slowly "we find convergences, we end up finding a path that helps us move forward," he said.

 — Cindy Wooden

Synod focus on welcoming is what Jesus would do

Synod focus on welcoming is what Jesus would do, synod member says

VATICAN CITY — Finding better ways to live "like Jesus did" -- reaching out, welcoming, healing and including others -- was the focus of Sister Liliana Franco Echeverri's small group discussions Oct. 9-10 at the assembly of the Synod of Bishops, she said.

Sister Franco, a member of the Company of Mary and president of the Confederation of Latin American and Caribbean Religious, or CLAR, and Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, briefed reporters Oct. 10 about the synod's work on various aspects of the theme "communion."

Sister Franco's group discussed how "the service of charity and commitment to justice and care for our common home nourish communion," while Cardinal Tobin's group focused on welcoming and accompanying people who feel excluded from the church. Under the theme of communion with God and with one another, in the church and in the world, other groups looked at ecumenism, at valuing the cultural, linguistic and racial diversity of the church and at interreligious dialogue.

"There truly is a desire to be able to live like Jesus did, a Jesus who humanizes, who gives dignity, who includes, a Jesus who opens the doors for 'the other,'" Sister Franco said. Living like Jesus calls the church to be "prophetic" in denouncing injustice and exploitation that attacks human dignity and excludes from society people such as the poor, migrants and victims of human trafficking, she said.

Given the synod's rule that conversations and speeches are confidential, Cardinal Tobin was less specific about the discussion in his small group.

As a superior general and then as a bishop, the cardinal said he had attended six previous synods, and this is "the most diverse synod I've ever participated in." At the same time, he said, many of the questions, concerns and hopes expressed by Catholics in different countries and regions of the world are remarkably similar.

"We're talking about things we heard in our own dioceses," he said. "That's what the church does; it listens."

"We believe in a God who became flesh and blood, like the rest of us, who didn't stay in some celestial isolation," he said. "So, the church always has to be concerned with flesh and blood issues."

The questions Cardinal Tobin's group was asked to reflect on included welcoming the excluded while proclaiming "the fullness of the Gospel truth."

The question of outreach to those who feel "they are not at home in the Catholic Church," including members of the LGBTQ community, was raised repeatedly in the Archdiocese of Newark's listening sessions and was present in so many reports to the synod that it was included in the assembly's working document, he said.

The archdiocese, he said, has "arguably the most beautiful cathedral in North America and it's five feet longer than St. Patrick's in New York," but -- quoting one of his auxiliary bishops -- "it's most beautiful when the doors are open."

"And so, I think the real beauty of our Catholic Church is clear when the doors are open and welcoming," he said. "And it is my hope that the synod will help us to do that in an even more significant way."

Sister Franco said members of the assembly have their "feet on the ground," looking honestly at the reality of "a world in which there is xenophobia, exclusive nationalism, leaders who are committed to building borders."

"And in a world like this, our world, the option of the church is the option for fraternity, it is the option for synodality, it is the commitment to understanding that we are all brothers and sisters," she said. "And in a world and in a church where we see each other as brothers and sisters, there is room for everyone."

When asked, both Cardinal Tobin and Sister Franco insisted synod members were free to speak their minds and that the concerns listed in the synod working document were those that came from listening sessions at the parish, diocesan, national and continental levels.

The reports of each small group for each section of the synod assembly will be handed in to a committee charged with writing a synthesis; synod members will have an opportunity to amend it and to vote on whether it reflects their discussions.

In the end, which is after the second assembly in October 2024, Cardinal Tobin noted, Pope Francis will determine what and how to enact the synod's conclusions.

"Before I left the diocese, somebody asked me a question about discernment," the cardinal said. "And I said, well, you can decline the verb 'to discern' this way in the context of the synod: I discern. You discern. He decides."

— Cindy Wooden

Synodal spirituality is at 'heart of church's renewal

Synodal spirituality is at 'heart of church's renewal,' cardinal says

VATICAN CITY — All members of the Catholic Church, from bishops to laypeople, must be formed in a "synodal spirituality" which will guide the church forward, a cardinal said.

"The laborers of the harvest are bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated men and women, the lay baptized; all need to be formed in a synodal way of proceeding" as a church, Cardinal Béchara Raï, patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church, said in his homily during a Divine Liturgy with participants in the assembly of the Synod of Bishops Oct. 9.

"It is a formation toward a way of life of communion, mission and participation," he said, as well as "to a synodal spirituality which is at the heart of the church's renewal."

The Divine Liturgy, presided over by Melkite Catholic Patriarch Joseph Absi, was celebrated in the Byzantine rite at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter's Basilica, as synod participants were about to begin the assembly's second module, focusing on the theme of communion and the question, "How can we be more fully a sign and instrument of union with God and of the unity of all humanity?"

Many of the synod assembly's 20 members from Eastern Catholic churches concelebrated the Divine Liturgy, which filled St. Peter's Basilica with singing and chanting provided by the Pontifical Greek College. Two Byzantine icons were placed in front of the altar.

In his homily, Cardinal Raï reflected on the Gospel reading from St. Matthew, in which Jesus, moved by compassion, tells his disciples "the harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest."

The cardinal identified several issues touched upon in the synod assembly's working document that he said participants are called to address as part of the Lord's harvest: wars, climate change, an economic system that produces inequality and waste, religious persecution, strengthening interreligious ties and healing the wounds caused by sexual, economic and institutional abuses. He also asked the synod participants to find ways to promote charity for the poor and marginalized and to consider pastoral practices to assist people who have divorced and remarried or are in polygamous marriages.

Citing the synod's working document, Cardinal Raï said Christ makes himself present in the synod assembly and gives participants the Holy Spirit, which "guides the church to find a consensus about how to walk together toward the kingdom and help humanity to proceed in the direction of unity."

The cardinal also noted the difficult situations many people live in today, highlighting those who are "poor, lost, persecuted, cast aside, disappointed, refugees, innocent victims of war, isolated, homeless, wounded in their human dignity."

"All arouse the compassion of Christ, who has chosen us one by one" to heal these wounds and "fight for a better world, to live in our common home in peace and tranquility," he said. "Let us pray in this Divine Liturgy that the Lord makes us worthy laborers of his harvest."

— Justin McLellan

Synod participants discuss formation, building a welcoming church

Synod participants discuss formation, building a welcoming church

VATICAN CITY  — The formation of seminarians, the Catholic Church as a welcoming home for all, migration and ecumenism arose as common themes of discussion among participants of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops Oct. 6, the Vatican said.

Divided into 35 small groups of 10-12 people ranging from cardinals to college students, the participants spent the third day of the synod assembly sharing what they had discussed in their small groups in the previous days and listening to individual remarks made to all synod members present.

The assembly spent Oct. 5 holding small-group conversations on forming a synodal church. Reports on the discussions, voted on in each working group to ensure they accurately reflected the work of the group, were shared with the entire assembly Oct. 6 followed by individual remarks made to the assembly, each expected to last about three minutes.

Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, told reporters that 18 small-group reports were presented and 22 individual interventions or speeches were made as of midday Oct. 6.

"Practically everyone has underscored the fraternal climate of welcoming that has been created in the synod," he said, adding that participants also discussed how to be in communion with those who did not participate in the synodal process due to persecution, indifference or apathy.

Ruffini said that the formation of seminarians was widely discussed, including ways to increase their participation in the community and engagement with people on the margins of society.

"There are few seminarians, sometimes their selection has created problems and there are seminaries that could have improved organization," he said, summarizing participants' comments.

Participants discussed the role of women in the church and the promotion of their active participation in the church's decision-making processes, he said, as well as ways of continuing to accompany migrants after they have migrated.

One small-group report, Ruffini noted, asked about ways the church can consider revising its structures through canon law and altering the Curia.

"How does the church become welcoming? Should something be changed to make a welcoming church? What should be changed?" he summarized.

Ruffini was asked about the synod rule of confidentiality and Cardinal Gerhard Müller, a synod member and former head of the Vatican doctrinal office, giving an interview and speaking about the synod discussions. "Each synod member makes their own discernment" about how to maintain the environment of sharing created in the synod assembly, Ruffini said. The rules given to synod participants require them to maintain confidentiality on what they, or others, say during the assembly, but "there is not a police force that punishes you."

He also shared that a participant's remarks underscoring how the church suffers in certain parts of the world, particularly in Ukraine, solicited applause from the entire synod assembly.

 — Justin McLellan

Pope warns against idolatry camouflaged as sacred

In book given at synod, Pope warns against idolatry camouflaged as sacred

VATICAN CITY — Christian life is a battle each person must fight against the temptation to be self-sufficient and against a paganism disguised as sacredness, Pope Francis said in an introduction to a small book distributed to participants at the synod on synodality.

Such "spiritual worldliness," he wrote, "though it be camouflaged with the appearance of the sacred, it ends up being idolatrous because it does not recognize the presence of God as Lord and liberator of our lives and of the history of the world. It leaves us prey to our capricious desires."

The booklet contains two republished essays by the pope that are "united by the concern, which I feel to be a loud call from God to the entire Church, to remain vigilant and to fight with the strength of prayer against every concession to spiritual worldliness," he wrote in the introduction.

Titled, "Holy, Not Worldly: God's Grace Saves Us From Interior Corruption," the booklet was released by the Dicastery for Communication and the Vatican publishing house Oct. 6 and was offered to the more than 350 participants attending the afternoon session of the Synod of Bishops on synodality.

"I offer these texts to the reader as an opportunity to reflect on his life and on the life of the Church, with the conviction that God asks us to be open to His newness, he asks us to be unquiet and never satisfied, searching and never stuck in comfortable opacity, not defended within the walls of false certainties, but walking on the road of holiness," the pope wrote in the introduction.

"Christian life is a battle" against the temptation of closing in on oneself, he said, and instead to let God's love dwell within.

"The battle we carry out as followers of Jesus is first of all a battle against spiritual worldliness, which is a form of paganism in ecclesiastical clothing," he wrote.

This battle is not in vain or without hope, he wrote, "because this battle has already been won by Jesus," who, with his resurrection, "has made it possible for us to become new persons."

The cross of Jesus is "the criterion of every choice of faith," he wrote, because "it is the sign of a limitless love, humble and tenacious. Jesus loved us to the point of the ignominious death on a cross in order that we no longer be able to doubt that his arms will remain open even for the last of the sinners."

The pope offered a lengthy quote from Blessed Pierre Claverie, the 20th-century martyred bishop of Oran, Algeria: "I believe that the Church dies if it is not sufficiently close to the cross of her Lord. Though it may seem paradoxical, strength, vitality, hope, Christian fruitfulness, the fruitfulness of the Church come from here. Not from elsewhere."

"All the rest is but smoke in our eyes, worldly illusion. The Church betrays herself, and betrays the world, when it stands like a power among powers, or like an organization, even a humanitarian one, or like an evangelical movement capable of making a splash," the late bishop wrote.

"This is why I wanted to collect in this short volume two essays which were published at different times," Pope Francis wrote. The first essay was written in 1991 and updated in 2005 when he was the archbishop of Buenos Aires and is a reflection on corruption and sin. The second essay was the pope's letter this year to priests of the Diocese of Rome, dated Aug. 5, on "Avoiding hypocritical formalism."

— Carol Glatz

Pope says church must pause, 'fast' from public words

Pope says church must pause, 'fast' from public words

VATICAN CITY — "The church is taking a break," Pope Francis said.

"It is a break for the whole church, as we engage in listening," he told members of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops -- and journalists.

Addressing the opening working session of the assembly, the pope may have exaggerated a bit, yet for participants his words certainly rang true. For the duration of the assembly Oct. 4-29 all the heads of Vatican dicasteries and hundreds of cardinals, archbishops, bishops, religious superiors, professors, students and parents were scheduled to be away from their homes and their desks.

For Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, that is the "news" of the synod.

"An institution as large as the church is giving itself a moment for common discernment in silence, listening, faith and prayer," he told reporters Oct. 5.

The theme of the synod -- "For a synodal church: communion, participation, mission" -- covers a vast gamut of topics dealing with the very life of the church, its identity, its membership, its leadership, its outreach and its role in the world.

Journalists and others hoping to follow the synod assembly's work may be frustrated not knowing what is going on inside the Vatican's Paul VI Audience Hall where the pope, the 364 synod other members and 85 experts, facilitators and ecumenical representatives are meeting morning and afternoon Monday through Friday and Saturday mornings as well.

But Ruffini suggested the public silence is a big part of the story.

Pope Francis had told synod members at the beginning that participation required "a certain fasting from speaking in public" to "safeguard" the synod's discernment process.

In societies filled with noise and people trying to shout over each other, Ruffini said, maybe the world should draw a lesson from what the church is trying to do.

Making space for silence and for listening to others could help end wars or prompt real action to stem the climate crisis, he said, suggesting the synod's process deserved to be understood and appreciated far beyond the church.

The rules for synod members distributed to participants said, "In order to guarantee the freedom of expression of each and all regarding their thoughts and to ensure the serenity of the discernment in common, which is the main task entrusted to the Assembly, each of the Participants is bound to confidentiality and discretion regarding both their own interventions and the interventions of other Participants. This duty remains in force once the Synodal Assembly has ended."

The balance between "confidentiality" and "discretion" was not spelled out.

After the rules were distributed, some synod members canceled appointments for interviews they had made with reporters. Those most active on X, formerly Twitter, went mute or began sharing only prayers and photos of how the assembly space was laid out.

However, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, former prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, went on EWTN Oct. 5 to talk about the synod. One question in his small group, he said, was "what is the nature and substance of this synod" given that "laypeople have the same vote" as bishops, unlike at previous synods.

Although the cardinal was critical of the process before the assembly began, he told EWTN that his experience in his small group "was very good, and I have, therefore, a certain form of optimism."

Other participants were less specific, but offered their own takes on synod proceedings.

Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna tweeted Oct. 5: "The beauty of such a synod is the experience of the universal church widely sharing our challenges and our hopes."

After the small groups began making their reports to the general assembly Oct. 6, Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, tweeted: "The vision of Vatican II is the shared point of reference for the Synod starting from the catholicity of the People of God. Each individual part contributes through its special gifts to the good of the other parts and of the whole Church. Please pray for the Synod’s success."

Ambushed as he left the synod for lunch the same day, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, said the work was going well and, "the Spirit is blowing."

As the synod moved from small group discussions to listening to reports and speeches Oct. 6, Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of Seattle said he was grateful for the pauses for silence and reflection that punctuated the morning session. But there were still a lot of speeches in many languages.

"It is a fascinating experience, I can tell you that," he said, adding that he would encourage people "to keep praying for us, to invoke the Holy Spirit upon us because that's the voice we're listening for."

— Cindy Wooden

Members begin small-group discussions on 'synodality'

Synod members begin small-group discussions on 'synodality'

VATICAN CITY —The 364 members of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops and the 85 experts, facilitators and ecumenical delegates accompanying them began their work in earnest Oct. 5, meeting, sharing and praying in small groups.

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, relator general of the synod, introduced the work late Oct. 4, asking members of the assembly to prepare for the small-group discussions by reflecting in prayer on the Gospel story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, who recounted their life with Jesus, their "hope and enthusiasm," but also their "disillusionment, frustration, anger and fear" after his death.

Although they initially do not recognize the risen Jesus walking with them, "they are not afraid to entrust all this to the mysterious wayfarer, and so they discover that listening to his Word dissolves their heaviness and transforms their desolation into a consolation that grows," Cardinal Hollerich said.

"I do not know if we will have many moments of desolation in our walking together," the cardinal told synod members, "but I am confident that by the work of the Holy Spirit, consolation will enter our hearts, which is the condition for undertaking a good discernment."

The theme of the synod is: "For a synodal church: Communion, participation, mission." As the synod assembly proceeds through Oct. 29, its members will discuss the issues in the gathering's working document in order, beginning with the foundational question of what are "the characteristic signs of a synodal church?"

Topics to be addressed later in the month include being a sign and instrument of union with God and unity with humanity, how to share gifts and tasks in the service of the Gospel and what processes, structures and institutions create a missionary synodal church.

Most of the synod's work was scheduled to take place in small groups, arranged by language and with a mix of cardinals, bishops, priests, religious, lay women and lay men. The 35 working groups, with 10-12 people each, include 14 groups working in English, eight in Italian, seven in Spanish, five in French and one in Portuguese.

Pope Francis, president of the synod, does not attend the sessions when the work is devoted to small group discussions.

The synod members were asked to begin by focusing on the assembly working document's assertion that "a synodal church is founded on the recognition of a common dignity deriving from baptism, which makes all who receive it sons and daughters of God, members of the family of God, and therefore brothers and sisters in Christ, inhabited by the one Spirit and sent to fulfil a common mission."

After morning prayer Oct. 5, the groups began with each member sharing, for a maximum of four minutes, "what seems most important and most meaningful, what they feel emerges most strongly from their memory" of the input of the various synod listening sessions over the past two years regarding what contributes to or detracts from strengthening that model of a synodal church.

Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Dicastery for Communication and president of the assembly's Commission for Information, told reporters Oct. 5 the morning work followed the model of "spiritual conversation": members shared their experience and after a pause for silence and prayer, each person shared what struck or touched them most about what the others had shared. After more silence, they began trying to list common traits and obvious differences in what they had heard.

Each working group will be asked to draft a short report on their conversation, vote on whether it accurately reflects the discussion and then choose someone to read it to the whole assembly. After a discussion of all the reports in the full assembly, each group will decide whether or how to amend their reports before turning them into the synod secretariat for inclusion in a summary report on that section of the synod's work.

 — Cindy Wooden

Synod begins work with focus on Holy Spirit and listening

Synod begins work with focus on Holy Spirit and listening

Members of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops recite morning prayer during their retreat outside of Rome in this screen grab from Oct 3, 2023. (CNS photo/Vatican Media via YouTube)

VATICAN CITY  — Pope Francis opened the work of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops asking members to meditate on ancient theological texts about the Holy Spirit, have the courage to be honest about their disagreements and focus much more on listening than on sharing their opinions.

The synodal process "is not easy, but it's beautiful, very beautiful," Pope Francis told some 364 other synod members and 85 non-voting experts, ecumenical delegates and facilitators the afternoon of Oct. 4 as the synod work began in the Vatican audience hall.

"A certain asceticism" is needed for the synod, the pope said. He asked forgiveness from journalists trying to cover the monthlong meeting but insisted "a certain fasting from public words" would be needed to ensure the proper spiritual atmosphere for the synod members.

And, in fact, the synod rules distributed that evening said, "In order to guarantee the freedom of expression of each and all regarding their thoughts and to ensure the serenity of the discernment in common, which is the main task entrusted to the assembly, each of the participants is bound to confidentiality and discretion regarding both their own interventions and the interventions of other participants."

Pope Francis also repeated what he has said many times: "the synod is not a parliament" where the ideas of opposing parties will be debated and voted up or down along party lines. Neither, he said, is it "a meeting of friends" getting together to exchange opinions and try to solve problems they see around them.

"The synod is a journey that the Holy Spirit makes," he said, so constant prayer and listening are necessary to follow the path the Spirit indicates.

"The Holy Spirit triggers a deep and varied dynamism in the Christian community, the confusion of Pentecost," when people from every nation heard the disciples speaking in their own languages, the pope said. From the experience, the Spirit creates not uniformity, but harmony.

Differences of opinion will surface, he said. "If you don't agree with what that bishop or that nun or that lay person says, say it to their face. That's what the synod is for. To tell the truth, not the chatter under the table."

Pope Francis also acknowledged how people outside the synod members are offering "hypotheses about this synod -- 'But what will they do there?' 'The priesthood for women?' -- these are the things that are being said outside."

But what is happening, he said, is that the universal church has gathered in Rome to pause and to listen.

"The church has stopped, as the apostles stopped after Good Friday, on that Holy Saturday," closed in the Upper Room, he said. "But they were afraid; we are not. … It is a pause for the whole church to listen."

Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the synod, told the members, "Today the church is at a crossroads, and the urgent challenge, strictly speaking, is not of a theological or ecclesiological nature, but how at this moment in history the church can become a sign and instrument of God's love for every man and woman."

"God's love is the medicine that can heal today's wounded humanity, and as the church our mission is to be a sign of this love," he said.

In discerning the best ways to do that, Cardinal Grech said, participants should remember the assembly is not "an isolated act," but part of a process that began two years ago with local, diocesan, national and continental listening sessions.

The presence of members who are not bishops -- some 70 priests, religious, lay men and women -- is not meant to represent "the totality of the People of God," he said, but to "remind us with their presence" of the whole synod process and its invitation for all Catholics to participate, sharing their experiences of things that help or hinder their sense of communion, participation and mission.

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, relator general of the synod, noted how the members were gathered at round tables in the Vatican audience hall rather than in the rows of the synod hall to promote conversation but also to remind them of similar experiences they had at listening sessions in their parishes and dioceses.

"Bishops who were not very active in the process but have been elected by their (bishops') conferences," he said, "may face challenges at the beginning. On the other hand, there are the members who are not bishops. Many among them were particularly involved in the continental stage of this synod and are called to testify their experience."

In the synod discussions, he urged members to remember that each person, with his or her differences, is a Christian trying to follow the Lord.

"The church is the people of God, walking through history, with Christ in her midst," Cardinal Hollerich said. "It is only normal that there is a group walking at his right, another at his left, while some run ahead and others lag behind."

From any of those positions, he said, when a person looks at the Lord, "they cannot help but see the group that is doing the opposite: those walking on the right will see those walking on the left, those running ahead will see those lagging behind."

"In other words, the so-called progressives cannot look at Christ without seeing the so-called conservatives with him and vice-versa," he said. "Nevertheless, the important thing is not the group to which we seem to belong, but walking with Christ within his church."

 — Cindy Wooden

Pope addresses fears around synod: 'Not a political gathering'

Pope addresses fears around synod: 'Not a political gathering'

VATICAN CITY  — Members of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops are not gathered in Rome to implement a "plan of reformation" but to walk together as a church that discerns God's will for the present moment, Pope Francis said at the assembly's opening Mass.

With cardinals from across the world at his side, including 20 new cardinals from 16 nations created just four days prior, the pope urged people to avoid looking at the synod through the lens of "human strategies, political calculations or ideological battles."

Asking "whether the synod will give this or that permission, open this or that door, this is not useful," he said at the Mass Oct. 4 in St. Peter's Square.

Instead, Pope Francis said the primary task of the synod is to "refocus our gaze on God, to be a church that looks mercifully at humanity, a church that is united and fraternal -- or at least tries to be united and fraternal."

The pope acknowledged that some people have fears about the synod, but he asked them to remember that it is "not a political gathering, but a convocation in the Spirit; not a polarized parliament, but a place of grace and communion."

"The Holy Spirit often shatters our expectations to create something new that surpasses our predictions and negativity," he said.

Through "synodal dialogue," the pope said, "we can grow in unity and friendship with the Lord in order to look at today's challenges with his gaze," becoming a church "which does not impose burdens" and is "open to everyone, everyone, everyone."

"The blessing and welcoming gaze of Jesus prevents us from falling into some dangerous temptations: of being a rigid church -- a customs office -- which arms itself against the world and looks backward; of being a lukewarm church which surrenders to the fashions of the world; of being a tired church, turned in on itself," he said.

Lay members and ecumenical delegates to the assembly of the Synod of Bishops led the procession into St. Peter's Square -- still decorated with flowers from the consistory that created 21 new cardinals Sep. 30 -- followed by priests, bishops and then cardinals. Synod members had participated in a retreat outside Rome Oct. 1-3, during which they reflected on ways to overcome differences of opinion and to listen to each other and to the Holy Spirit.

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re was the main celebrant at the altar for the Mass; Cardinals Mario Grech, synod secretary-general, and Robert Prevost, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, one of the new cardinals, joined him at the altar. The Vatican said some 25,000 people were present in St. Peter's Square.

Celebrating the Mass on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, a day when Pope Francis also published an apostolic exhortation on the environment, he recalled the story that Jesus told the medieval saint to "repair my church."

"The synod serves to remind us of this: our mother the church is always in need of purification, of being repaired, for we are a people made up of forgiven sinners," he said.

St. Francis lived in a time of "struggles and divisions between temporal and religious powers, between the institutional church and heretical currents, between Christians and other believers," Pope Francis said. But the saint "did not criticize or lash out at anyone." Rather, he took up the "weapons of the Gospel: humility and unity, prayer and charity."

"Let us do the same!" urged the pope, noting that the "most fruitful moments of the synod are the moments and prayer and the environment of prayer in which the Lord acts in us."

After the Mass, Pope Francis individually greeted the 20 new cardinals with him on stage, some of whom will remain in Rome to participate in the synod assembly while others were to return to their dioceses. Cardinal Luis Pascual Dri, a 96-year-old Capuchin friar from Argentina, did not travel to Rome to receive his red hat because of his health.

 — Justin McLellan

U.S. delegates say prayer is key to preparation for synod

U.S. delegates say prayer is key to preparation for synod

Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, a delegate to the Synod on Synodality from the United States, said that going into a pre-synod retreat, he thought it was a "good idea," but added that he has been pleasantly surprised by the number of meaningful personal interactions he has had with other participants in the world Synod of Bishops.

"This is really a spiritual exercise that I've found very enriching," he told OSV News Oct. 2. "This is really beginning with a strong spiritual focus."

Speaking from Fraterna Domus retreat house 17 miles north of Rome in Sacrofano, Italy, Bishop Rhoades said the Oct. 1-3 retreat has not included "the content" of the synod at the Vatican, but instead has provided opportunities for "really, really good conversations" with people from around the world.

"I understand what the Holy Father is hoping for -- that there will be spiritual conversations," said Bishop Rhoades, leader of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, "that we get to know each other, but that prayer is such an integral part of it."

Bishop Rhoades is one of 14 U.S. bishops participating in the synod's Oct. 4-29 general assembly meeting. Ten other voting nonbishop delegates appointed by Pope Francis also are attending from the United States and Canada, including four U.S. laypeople: Richard Coll, the director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development; Cynthia Bailey Manns, adult learning director at St. Joan of Arc Parish in Minneapolis; Wyatt Olivas, an undergraduate at the University of Wyoming; and Julia Oseka, an international student from Poland at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia.

Additional nonbishop delegates from the United States are Father Ivan Montelongo of the Diocese of El Paso, Texas, and Sister Leticia Salazar, a member of the Order of the Company of Mary Our Lady, and chancellor of the Diocese of San Bernardino, California. All nonbishop members participated in North America's continental-level pre-synod meetings.

The synod, which is formally themed "For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission,” includes more than 450 participants -- 363 of whom are voting delegates -- with leaders from the Vatican curia and episcopal conferences. More than a quarter of synod members are nonbishops, including laypeople, who for the first time will have a vote during synod deliberations. The synod general assembly has been divided into two sessions, with a second meeting planned for October 2024. According to a synod preparatory document, the synod is guided by questions of how the church can "journey together" to evangelize and how to grow to be more "synodal," sometimes described as a "listening church."

Prayer has been an important part of delegates' synod preparation. Prior to leaving Minnesota for Rome, Bailey Manns asked her community for prayers -- for good health, as well as "prayers for patience, prayers for clarity, compassionate empathy, to make sure I'm open," she told The Catholic Spirit, newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Asked if the appointment weighs heavily on her, Bailey Manns said yes and no.

"It's not heavy in terms of it's too much responsibility," said Bailey Manns, who holds a doctorate in ministry from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. "It is intense, and the importance of it. I've always been a person who is very comfortable in being one of the few at the very beginning of anything. And so that space is not the piece that challenges me. It's wanting to make sure that I'm doing this well and that I'm paying attention to God in all of this."

She said prayer runs through the preparatory documents for the synod and will be important all the way through.

"They have a wonderful phrase in there, that the protagonist of this is the Holy Spirit," she said. "And so, how do we all try to embody that in a way that's compassionate and deliberative and with empathy, and also with a great deal of self-awareness in terms of where our issues are, things that are important to us? And so that is the grounding of it."

In a video posted Sept. 29, Oseka told Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez of Philadelphia that being chosen was "a humbling experience" with both universal and personal aspects.

"I felt that there is a huge mission ahead of us as a church, but also this desire to grow in my prayer as well, to truly be a delegate, not only Julia, going to the synod," she said.

"I hope to bring the experience of the young church, not only here in the United States or greater North America, but also my experience of the young church in Poland," said Oseka, who is studying physics and theology. "Those two are very interwoven, and there's no generalization happening. It's a mosaic of experiences of my friends and people I've met."

Bishop Pérez asked her to summarize the experience of a young adult Catholic for the pope.

"Young people of North America and other continents as well, I'm sure, want to be the 'now' of the church, want to be active protagonists in the church, want to learn and listen to the Spirit and work hand-in-hand with those in higher positions, leadership positions in the church," Oseka said.

Speaking on social media from Chicago O'Hare International Airport ahead of his flight to Rome Sept. 28, delegate Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, said he had just finished praying a decade of rosary and asked that others join him in prayer for the synod.

"The last several weeks, I've been praying very much with this synod in mind," said Bishop Barron, who founded Word on Fire, a Catholic media apostolate. "This high-level gathering, really outside of an ecumenical council, is probably the highest level gathering for church people to discern what the Holy Spirit wants us to do."

On Oct. 1, Jesuit Father James Martin, author and editor-at-large for America magazine and a synod "at large" delegate specifically chosen by Pope Francis, tweeted from Sacrofano that retreat director Dominican Father Timothy Radcliffe, former master of the Order of Preachers, gave a "beautiful opening meditation" that "uses the story of the Transfiguration to help us reflect on the church today."

Ahead of the synod, the USCCB organized several opportunities for the U.S. delegates to build community and reflect on their role, including a virtual and in-person meeting at University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary near Chicago Aug. 28-29. Part of that meeting was "creating a spiritual plan for our delegates to sustain themselves in October," Julia McStravog, senior adviser on synodal matters for the USCCB, told OSV News.

"They're long days, they're long weeks. It's a lot of talking and listening and taking in big ideas or new ideas and different ideas," said McStravog, who planned to accompany the U.S. delegation to Rome to assist them throughout the synod.

The nonbishop delegates "have been committed to this work for the past two years (throughout the synod preparation phase) and to participating and listening deeply, and they're incredibly prayerful people," McStravog said. "They love the people of God and they want really to honor and care about what it means to be chosen to do this."

 — Maria Wiering

Questions around women's diaconate run right through the priesthood

For synod, questions around women's diaconate run right through the priesthood

As the Synod on Synodality opens Oct. 4 in Rome, among the most closely watched topics under discussion is the question of whether the Catholic Church can or will extend the permanent diaconate -- restored after the Second Vatican Council -- to women.

The synod's working document released June 20 notes that most continental assemblies called for a discussion on the inclusion of women in the diaconate, and asked, "Is it possible to envisage this, and in what way?"

Up to now, the answer to that question is not clear and is debated.

"The key is not whether there were women deacons," said Deacon Dominic Cerrato, director of the Office of the Diaconate in the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois, and editor of The Deacon magazine, published by OSV, which is also the parent company of OSV News.

"Of course there were women deacons. But tradition never called them part of the diaconate, never saw them as part of the diaconate," he said.

Deacon Cerrato served with nine other international scholars on the papal commission on women and the diaconate established by Pope Francis in 2020. The pope formed an earlier commission in 2016; before that, two others were held by the International Theological Commission, which advised the Vatican's Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The matter of women deacons or deaconesses, Deacon Cerrato maintained, has been "studied to death."

In his understanding, the female diaconate role developed due to the ancient tradition of nude baptism -- "it would not be appropriate for the bishop to see a woman in the nude," he said -- and to avoid potential scandal during individual catechetical instruction.

Deaconesses, said Deacon Cerrato, also examined signs of harm in spousal abuse cases.

"They emerged likely out of the order of widows and virgins," he said, "and they probably morphed into abbesses and women religious."

While Deacon Cerrato emphasized there is "no question of the historic place of deaconesses in the early church," he cautioned -- citing differences in ordination rites and discrepancies in liturgical, sacramental and ministerial roles -- that this evidence is not enough to say their roles were equivalent to the male diaconate.

Deacon Cerrato said the onus is on proponents of ordaining women to the order of deacon "to demonstrate through divine revelation -- and all the criteria that is set up in the standard development of doctrine -- whether this is a true development of doctrine."

However, Phyllis Zagano, adjunct professor of religion at Hofstra University on Long Island, and co-author of the 2012 book "Women Deacons: Past, Present, Future," told OSV News that "if the church needs deacons, it stands to reason that it needs women deacons."

Zagano served on the papal commission on women and the diaconate established in 2016, and previously remarked that the issue can be "partly resolved by the synod, then formally approved by the pope."

"History notes that women were sacramentally ordained as deacons in various eras and various places," Zagano told OSV News. "The liturgies used were examined in the 17th century by Jean Morin and found to meet the criteria for sacramental ordination according to the Council of Trent."

Father Morin, a French priest, theologian and biblical scholar, studied manuscripts of various ordination rites recorded in Greek, Latin and Syriac.

As to the objection that opening the diaconate to women could be viewed as an encouragement to the priesthood, Zagano said, "Theologically, it is important to recognize that the diaconate is not part of the priesthood, and that diaconal ordination does not necessarily qualify anyone for priestly ordination."

Zagano noted Pope Benedict XVI "codified the distinction -- already noted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church" with his 2009 apostolic letter "Omnium in Mentem."

Pope Benedict's text stated that those "in the order of the episcopate or the presbyterate receive the mission and capacity to act in the person of Christ the Head, whereas deacons are empowered to serve the People of God in the ministries of the liturgy, the word and charity."

The catechism states deacons "receive the imposition of hands 'not unto the priesthood, but unto the ministry'" and adds they are configured to Christ, "who made himself the 'deacon' or servant of all."

That distinction is key -- and may be the gimbal on which the anticipated synod discussion turns.

Pope St. John Paul II declared in his 1994 apostolic letter "Ordinatio sacerdotalis" that "the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and ... this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful."

In his responses to a set of questions from retired cardinals made public Oct. 2, Pope Francis noted St. John Paul's teaching on the impossibility of ordaining women to the priesthood, which "must be adhered to by all," also has "not yet been fully developed" and can be further studied. He noted the importance of the church understanding the dynamic between the common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial priesthood, noting the function of the latter is not about domination but "is totally ordered to the holiness of the members of Christ."

"If this is not understood, and practical consequences are not drawn from these distinctions, it will be difficult to accept that the priesthood is reserved only for men," Pope Francis said, "and we will not be able to recognize the rights of women or the need for them to participate in various ways in the leadership of the Church."

Zagano has argued that Pope Francis' 2021 modification of canon law allowing the "institution" of women, not just men, to the lay ministries of lector and acolyte could serve as a model for changing the church's law to permit women to join the permanent diaconate.

Sister Sara Butler of the Missionary Servants of the Most Blessed Trinity, a well-known theologian who taught at two seminaries, served on St. John Paul's International Theological Commission and wrote the 2007 book “The Catholic Priesthood and Women: A Guide to the Teaching of the Church," told OSV News the question before Pope Francis is "whether he has the authority to admit women to the sacrament of Holy Orders as permanent deacons."

"It's not a question of whether he should do this, but of whether he can," she explained.

She noted the pope has not released the reports of the two commissions he appointed to study the question.

Sister Sara said she expected the Synod's two-year process at most to "raise the question in a way that prepares for a magisterial decision one way or the other."

The historical case is not certain that the women who served as deaconesses in the early church would be considered as part of the diaconate that is today considered one of the "major orders" of Holy Orders, she said.

"Were they 'women deacons' or 'deaconesses'?" she said.

Sister Sara's own research has concluded "they belonged to a women's order that the church provided in certain places to provide ministry to other women."

In essence, Pope Francis could potentially restore the office of the "deaconess" without having to resolve the question of whether women can be ordained to the diaconate.

"There is no historical or theological obstacle to reinstating the order of deaconesses," Sister Sara said. "They would not receive Holy Orders, but would be 'instituted' by the bishop in a stable, public ministerial role."

Deacon Bill Ditewig, former executive director of the Secretariat for the Diaconate at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops who has held multiple academic and diocesan posts and co-authored the 2012 book on women deacons with Zagano, noted the theological and historical debate.

The deacon told OSV News he sees the ultimate question coming down to: "Are the needs of the people of God served better if there are women and men serving as deacons?"

"Is there anything from the (church's) history that says we shouldn't do this, or that we can't do this?" he said. "We were able to do it before; there's no reason why we can't look at it again."

The possible sight of women deacons preaching or assisting at Mass, Deacon Ditewig admitted, may bring about a mixed reaction. "Some of those images frighten some of our fellow Catholics," he said, "and others say, 'No, that's exactly what we need ... that kind of witness.'"

However, when it comes to the synod discerning this crucial question, both Deacons Ditewig and Cerrato are concerned that the ones who can speak to this vocation -- the church's 49,000 permanent deacons -- are almost completely absent with one exception: a Belgian deacon there to represent Europe.

"To me, that's a pretty glaring omission," Deacon Ditewig said. "There's going to be questions about how to make use of the diaconate in the future -- and there's nobody there to really talk about it from any sense of experience."

 — Kimberley Heatherington

Synod is called to understand authority, recognize truth

Synod is called to understand authority, recognize truth, preacher says

ROME — Competing notions of authority and giving certain Christian truths preeminence over others can not only derail the assembly of the Synod of Bishops but, worse, cripple the church's ability to share Christ with the world, Dominican Father Timothy Radcliffe told synod members.

Speaking about authority "is a crucial element for understanding what a synod is, what the church is. I think so much misunderstanding about the nature of the synod, the nature of the life of the church comes from too narrow, political, executive understanding of authority," Father Radcliffe said Oct. 3.

"Part of the adventure of the synod will be seeing how we walk with a much richer, diverse understanding of authority," he told the 364 members of the synod on the last day of their three-day retreat at Sacrofano, north of Rome, before the synod assembly was to open Oct. 4.

The church speaks with authority, he said, when it shares beauty, goodness and truth.

Understanding authority in that way, he said, it is clear "there need be no competition, as if the laity can only have more authority if the bishops have less, or if so-called conservatives compete for authority with progressives."

Even in a world seemingly filled with "fake news, wild assertions on the internet (and) mad conspiracy theories," Father Radcliffe said, buried in every person is "an ineradicable instinct for the truth, and when it is spoken, it has some last vestiges of authority."

The working document for the synod assembly "is unafraid to be truthful about the challenges we must address," he told the synod's voting members, who include lay men and women for the first time. The document "speaks openly about the hopes and sorrows, the anger and the joy of the people of God" and asks the members to do the same.

"How can we draw people to the One who is the truth if we are not truthful about ourselves?" Father Radcliffe asked.

In seeking and sharing the truth, he said, "disciplined scholarship" is necessary so that individuals overcome the "temptation to use the Word of God and the teachings of the church for our own purposes," which, in effect, is to claim, "God must be right because he agrees with me!"

The prayer and listening the synod calls for are essential, he said, because "if what another says is indeed true, it cannot threaten the truth that I treasure. I must open my heart and mind to the spaciousness of the divine truth. If I believe that what the other says is not true, I must of course say so, with due humility."

"If we let ourselves be guided by the Spirit of truth, we shall doubtless argue" during the synod, he said. "It will sometimes be painful. There will be truths we would rather not face. But we shall be led a little deeper into the mystery of divine love and we shall know such joy that people will be envious of us for being here, and will long to attend the next session of the synod!"

 — Cindy Wooden

Participants in Synod say they seek 'new vision' for church

Participants in Synod on Synodality say they seek 'new vision' for church from assembly

As Catholic delegates arrived in Rome from across the globe for the Synod of Bishops on Synodality Oct. 4-29 and continued their retreat ahead of the assembly, hopes were high that the upcoming discussions will set the church on a secure path for the future, despite today's multiple competing perspectives and priorities.

"Some Catholics have little knowledge of what this synod is about, while others are following it closely -- but most are aware of its importance and will want it to get things right," explained Father Jan Nowotnik, mission director for the bishops' conference of England and Wales.

"But there are also deeply polarized views emerging via social media, especially in Europe and the United States, and this isn't helpful," said the priest, who is among the nonbishop voting members of synod. "The pope is adamant this is an ecclesial event, an act of prayer and discernment -- it won't be if we get bogged down in rival political agendas."

The priest spoke as over 450 bishops, priests, women religious and lay Catholics gathered for the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which takes place Oct. 4-29 on the theme "For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission."

In an OSV News interview, he said he felt "awestruck" by the "momentous, historic responsibility" of being part of the British delegation at the assembly, the first to give voting rights to laypeople, and hoped the monthlong encounter would enable participants to "discern what the Holy Spirit is saying."

Meanwhile, a lay delegate from Poland told OSV News his team was aware that "contrasting ways of thinking about the church" were being prepared in readiness for the assembly, but was confident the method of synodality would enable these to be "talked about in a new way, without harsh divisions."

"Rather than pursuing unnecessary doctrinal changes, our conservative Polish delegation will seek to combine the vision of the Second Vatican Council with better forms of evangelization, apostleship and pastoral mission," said philosophy professor Aleksander Banka, a member of the Polish church's Lay Apostolate Council.

"We can expect to be joined by conservative participants from Africa and other growing parts of the church, who also want to find new solutions to contemporary challenges while upholding the church's heritage," he said.

Maronite Father Khalil Alwan, secretary-general of the Council of Catholic Patriarchs in the Middle East, told OSV News that his hopes are precisely that lay leaders in the church will be listened to. The priest served as coordinator of the continental assembly of the synod for Catholic churches in the Middle East.

Father Alwan noted that "from day one" of the continental phase he helped organize, "all felt that they were equal: patriarch, bishop and laity."

"I hope that all the churches listen more to the laity, that they trust in their zeal for the church and their competence to serve her and that they respect and listen to them," the Lebanese priest told OSV News.

He also hopes "that all churches and believers will realize the importance of listening to the Holy Spirit and spiritually (while) listening to the opinions of others, and will adopt spiritual discernment in all church decisions. This is the methodology of the synod," he said.

The Rome assembly will consider reports drawn up in February and March at continental assemblies in Europe, Oceania, the Middle East, North America, Asia, Africa and Latin America, which in turn debated "national syntheses" tabled created by bishops' conferences following diocesan and parish-level consultations.

The synod's working document, known as an "instrumentum laboris," published June 20, reviewed common challenges facing Catholics worldwide, but also highlighted the role of local churches as a "privileged point of reference," stressing the synod's role as a "process of discernment," rather than an arena for parliamentary-style conflict.

Reflecting on the contradicting views in the church, Cardinal Luis José Rueda of Bogotá, Colombia, who received his red hat Sept. 30 at the Vatican consistory, pondered that Latin America does not have "all the answers, given that the Holy Spirit blows wherever he wants."

"That is the beauty of the church: We will also be enriched by what comes from Europe, Asia, Africa, Europe and Oceania," he told OSV News.

But the Latin American church does have a distinct experience to share with other particular churches, he argued.

"We lived the experience of a missionary communion, with a way of evangelizing that is based on reading the sign of the times and on seeking to serve everyone, all the communities and all human beings," he said.

While Xavière Missionary Sister Nathalie Becquart told OSV News the synod is "about togetherness," she also acknowledged that there are differences and diversity in the church. "Unity is not about uniformity," one of the highest ranking women in the Vatican said, quoting Pope Francis, "but about the diversity in which there is a dialogue among all. And a mutual listening and trying to have a mutual understanding." This is key to the synodal process, she said.

Meanwhile, a "counter-synod," demanding women's ordination and church blessings for homosexual couples, is to be staged Oct. 8-14 by Catholic movements including Germany's feminist Maria 2.0 and the U.S.-based Catholics for Choice, which supports legal abortion.

Others such as German Cardinal Gerhard Müller, former prefect of the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, have warned of "hostile takeover" of the church over some reform demands, while five cardinals from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas have challenged the pope to uphold church teaching on homosexuality and women's ordination, and on Oct. 2 published five questions they submitted to Pope Francis, known as "dubia," as well as an open letter to the Catholic faithful in which they outlined their concerns.

Meanwhile, other figures, such as Luxembourg Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the synod's relator general, have cautioned against preconceived demands and inflated expectations.

In Latin America, many expect that the Synod on Synodality can be a landmark in a process of relevant changes in church life.

"The Latin American church has its own dynamism and has been a booster of new proposals, always looking for a work model based on the idea of seeing Jesus in the face of our brothers and sisters, especially the poorest in society," Bishop Pedro Cipollini of Santo André, one of the Brazilian delegates, told OSV News.

In the opinion of Father Agenor Brighenti, one of the nonbishop participants of the synod, the Latin American church is "rather advanced in the reception of the Second Vatican Council and is mature when it comes to taking steps toward more substantial changes."

He said that different church segments hope that the synod may introduce "concrete measures to overcome clericalism and allow a better insertion of laypeople, especially women, in decision-making." Father Brighenti, a liberation theologian, expects new ministries to become a reality, including the ordination of married men and women deacons.

"But we are aware of the difficulties to reach consensus, given that there are great differences among the churches. That may lead to local changes first, and then a gradual progression towards the whole church," he affirmed.

Bishop Cipollini argued that "changes cannot be abrupt" and the synod is "a place in which a consensus is persecuted, because we have to walk together."

"That march many times is slow, but we have to be always together," he concluded.

In Europe, where most bishops' conferences have set up special synod sections on their websites, church leaders have voiced apprehension about the wide divergence of Catholic views, as well as the possible dominance of Germany's Catholic Church, which launched its own "Synodal Path" discussions in December 2019.

When Germany's 65-member bishops' conference met Sept. 25-28 for its fall session at Wiesbaden, its five delegates to the Synod of Bishops each issued their own statements, disagreeing over whether their "Synodal Path" could offer a model for the Rome assembly, and how far the pope should be bound by the synod's conclusions.

Father Nowotnik, the English mission director, thinks such disagreements will limit the capacity of European delegations to crowd out the Roman synod or impose their reform preferences further afield.

Having long been the bastion of Catholicism, offering support and guidance to the global south, Europe itself can now learn from church experiences on other continents, Father Nowotnik pointed out -- such as from Latin America, where the synodal approach is already widely followed, or from the vibrancy of liturgical devotions in Africa.

Poland's own delegation will be hoping for new signs of spiritual awakening, and making a careful distinction between synodality and democracy, said lay participant Banka.

"Pope Francis has shown how the church is flourishing in other parts of the world -- for all its historic achievements, Europe is no longer dominant," the Polish professor told OSV News.

"Although there'll certainly be liberal voices here seeking to modify the church's teaching in various areas, I don't think they'll lead the agenda. Nor should we see this Assembly in political categories. It should instead be a moment for listening to various church perspectives and promoting those which seem appropriate and effective."

The synod's 27,000-word "instrumentum laboris" calls for a dynamic sharing of "gifts and tasks" in service of the Gospel, as well as a structuring of "instances of synodality and collegiality" between local churches.

This looks set to raise the profile of Catholic communities in the global south, including Africa, where the continental assembly in March, meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, set out to articulate the continent's "authentic voice" and confirm "the church's way of doing things in Africa."

"Today, the church needs to conceive and bring Jesus Christ, the Word of God, to the world that is torn and confused," Archbishop Anthony Muheria of Nyeri, Kenya, wrote in a Sept. 28 statement on his way to the synod in Rome.

Even within Europe, it also should ensure a platform for smaller churches, whose voices are often drowned out by the vocal Catholic establishment in France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain, commented Bishop Brian McGee, whose diocese of Argyll and the Isles in Scotland is one of Europe's smallest and most remote. He counts on participants at the Rome assembly to "listen to the Holy Spirit," rather than "acting on their own preferences or repeating the views of others."

He's confident love for God and the church will offset factional tensions and any inclination to "fight and argue."

"Certainly, we can listen to the Spirit by listening to others and being influenced by them -- that's how the synod assembly has been organized. But we should also be ready to put aside our own personal circumstances and ask God what he wants," Bishop McGee, Scotland's delegate, told OSV News.

"Pope Francis has been asking us to hear the smaller voices on the margins, not just the big ones. I think that's where we can make our distinctive contribution, acting as God's instrument in settings far removed from the big cities and national centers," he said.

Like others, Bishop McGee hopes the synod will implement unfulfilled aspects of the missionary vision set out at Vatican II (1962-1965), including the "essential equality that comes to everyone from baptism."

Father Nowotnik thinks this will mean developing the idea of the "people of God" outlined in Vatican II's 1964 Dogmatic Constitution on the Church ("Lumen Gentium"), and finding the right balance between local and universal priorities in how the church is run.

"The pope has repeatedly called for the local church to enjoy greater autonomy and subsidiarity on issues not pertaining to faith and morals -- to be able to relate to its own cultural context, within the deeper tradition and communion of the universal church," the English delegate told OSV News.

For professor Banka, the voices of laypeople such as himself, with their distinctive perspectives and insights, could be crucial in ensuring the vision of a devolved but united church is realized.

"The assembly is taking place at a time of world crises over the war in Ukraine, migration, famine, social divisions and injustices -- and in this context, it could resemble a kind of Third Vatican Council," the Polish philosopher told OSV News.

"At the very least," he added, "it will demand a deep reflection on where we are today, on how the church can treat the wounds of contemporary society and respond effectively to the challenges before us, seeking new pastoral solutions and evangelical possibilities for the future."

— Jonathan Luxmoore

Synod members look at ways to accept, overcome differences

On retreat, synod members look at ways to accept, overcome differences

ROME — Knowing they would be wrangling with different opinions and that Catholics around the world had different hopes and fears for their work, the 364 full members of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops gathered for a retreat.

At a large complex in Sacrofano, about 20 miles north of Rome, Dominican Father Timothy Radcliffe and Benedictine Mother Maria Ignazia Angelini were asked to provide the spiritual foundations for the synod's work over the course of the retreat Oct. 1-3. Pope Francis did not attend the retreat.

"The risk for us, men and women of the church, is to proceed from our inner, objective, pressing navigation systems" with all the potential danger signs marked out, Mother Angelini said during lauds Oct. 1. But without prayer, "we lose the horizon."

"We are not synodal church first and foremost because we face each other and exchange opinions, much less because we talk over each other," but because "we draw on the same foundation," that of faith and openness to the Holy Spirit, she said.

Father Radcliffe, former head of the Dominican order, told synod members they were at the retreat "because we are not united in heart and mind" and yet are called through the synod to find ways to embrace "the Catholic both/and" in responding to the Holy Spirit and to the hopes and fears of Catholics around the world.

"The vast majority of people who have taken part in the synodal process have been surprised by joy," he said, because for many of them, "it is the first time that the church has invited them to speak of their faith and hope."

But there are conflicting expectations, Father Radcliffe said. "Some hope that the church will be dramatically changed, that we shall take radical decisions, for example about the role of women in the church. Other are afraid of exactly these same changes and fear that they will only lead to division, even schism."

Synod participants, he said, need to ask the Lord to vanquish their fears and give them hope, "the hope that this synod will lead to a renewal of the church and not division; the hope that we shall draw closer to each as brothers and sisters."

The ultimate source of hope for Catholics is the Eucharist, he said. In that sense, he said, synod participants are gathered "like the disciples at the Last Supper, not as a political debating chamber competing to win."

"At the Last Supper, there seemed to be no future. All that lay ahead apparently was failure, suffering and death," he said. "And in this darkest moment, Jesus made the most hopeful gesture in the history of the world: 'This is my body, given for you. This is my blood poured out for you.' This is the hope that calls us beyond all division."

In his second meditation Oct. 1, Father Radcliffe said the synod members cannot ignore the clerical sexual abuse crisis, which "has been the last straw" for many Catholics. "They have packed their bags and gone."

"God remains in our church, even with all the corruption and abuse. We must therefore remain," he said. "But God is with us to lead us out into the wider open spaces of the kingdom. We need the church, our present home for all its weaknesses, but also to breathe the Spirit-filled oxygen of our future home without boundaries," the promised kingdom of God.

Different understandings of the church "tear us apart today," the Dominican said. "For some it is defined by its ancient traditions and devotions, its inherited structures and language, the church we have grown up with and love."

"For others, the present church does not seem to be a safe home. It is experienced as exclusive, marginalizing many people, women, the divorced and remarried," he said.

The synod working document also mentions "gay people and people in polygamous marriages," he continued. "They long for a renewed church in which they will feel fully at home, recognized, affirmed and safe."

Focusing too much on what it has meant to be Catholic, "we risk becoming a sect," he said, but "if we just stress the adventure toward an identity yet to be discovered, we risk become a vague Jesus movement."

Most Catholics are "nourished by beloved traditions and devotions. If they are lost, we grieve," he said. "But, also, we must remember all those who do not yet feel at home in the church: women who feel that they are unrecognized in a patriarchy of old white men like me! People who feel that the church is too Western, too Latin, too colonial. We must journey toward a church in which they are no longer at the margin but in the center."

In his meditations Oct. 2, Father Radcliffe focused on the Gospel call for Jesus' disciples to be friends. "This synod," he said, "will be fruitful if it leads us into a deeper friendship with the Lord and with each other."

"In the synod we have the creative task of making improbable friendships, especially with people with whom we disagree," he told synod members. "If you think that I am talking nonsense, come and befriend me!"

The conversations will not lead to friendship, he said, if they are phrased like "'Why do you hold these ridiculous views on liturgy?' or 'Why are you a heretic or a patriarchal dinosaur?' or 'Why are you deaf to me?'"

Instead, he said, they must seek to understand, "Where are you? What are you worried about?"

"If we really listen, our ready-made answers will evaporate," Father Radcliffe said. "If I do not know how to respond to my sister or brother's pain or puzzlement, I must turn to the Lord and ask for words. Then the conversation can begin."

— Cindy Wooden

Concerns about synod are sign of faith

Cardinal Burke says his concerns about synod are sign of faith

ROME — U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke said when he and four other cardinals formally asked Pope Francis to respond to questions related to the synod on synodality, they were seeking reassurances about the "perennial truths" taught by the church and not attacking the person of Pope Francis.

"The five 'dubia' deal exclusively with the perennial doctrine and discipline of the church, not the agenda of the pope and certainly not the agenda of the five of us cardinals," Cardinal Burke said Oct. 3 at a conference in Rome about perceived problems with the synod, which was to begin the next morning.

"They have nothing to do with the person of the Holy Father and, in fact, by their nature they are an expression of the veneration owed to the Petrine office and the successor of St. Peter," the cardinal said.

Cardinal Burke, a former Vatican official now without a portfolio, spoke at a conference the day after he made public the questions, called "dubia," and the Vatican published the lengthy reply that Pope Francis had written to the cardinals in July when they first posed the questions.

In writing the questions to the pope, Cardinal Burke was joined by German Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, Mexican Cardinal Juan Sandoval Íñiguez, Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah and Chinese Cardinal Joseph Zen. The questions regarded: the interpretation of Scripture; the possibility of blessing same-sex unions; the pope's assertion that synodality is a "constitutive dimension of the Church"; the ordination of women; and whether repentance is necessary for a person to receive absolution.

In a theater near the Vatican, Cardinal Burke was joined by U.S. Father Gerald E. Murray, a canon lawyer and frequent commentator on EWTN, and by an Italian philosophy professor at a conference titled, "The Synodal Babel."

Riccardo Cascioli, editor of the Italian Catholic news site that sponsored the conference, said the title was chosen because Babel, like the synod in his opinion, describes a situation of confusion.

The conference took place as the 364 full members of the synod, mainly cardinals and bishops, were ending a three-day spiritual retreat outside of Rome.

When Cardinal Burke mentioned the "dubia" in his speech, he was greeted with applause by an audience of about 200 people, including laity and priests. Cardinal Sarah was seated in the front row.

The cardinal said the purpose of the synod on synodality was to "profoundly modify the hierarchical constitution" of the Catholic Church and to weaken its teaching on moral issues.

"Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our only savior, is not at the root and center of synodality," he told the conference. "This is why it overlooks and, truthfully, forgets the divine nature of the church."

Much of Cardinal Burke's talk focused on similarities he found in Pope Francis' reform of the Roman Curia and the pope's vision of a "synodal church," both of which he said seek to "profoundly modify the hierarchical constitution of the church."

A weakening of the church's identity as "one, holy, catholic and apostolic" in favor of a "synodal" church, he said, "has as a further consequence a weakening of its teaching in moral matters as well as in church discipline."

"Bishops and cardinals today need much courage to confront the grave errors that are coming from within the church itself," Cardinal Burke said. "The sheep depend on the courage of the shepherds who must protect them from the poison of confusion, error and division."

The first half of Father Murray's presentation focused on Pope Francis' decision that some "non-bishops" -- priests, religious, lay men and women -- would participate in the synod assembly as full members, including with the right to vote.

The change, Father Murray said, ignores "the essential distinction between the ordained and non-ordained in the church. Christ's establishment of a hierarchical church means that certain roles pertain to the shepherds that do not pertain to the sheep."

"When non-bishop members with voting rights are introduced into an assembly of bishops with voting rights, the assembly ceases to be episcopal in nature," he said, and thus has no standing in the church's canon law.

The second half of his speech focused on the synod assembly's working document and what he described as its "hoped-for 'soft' revolution in the church." As drafted, he said, the document aims to "jettison" church teachings that exclude people who embrace "decadent Western sexual mores and radical feminist" claims about the equality of women.

"The church of 'me, myself and I,' where each person recognizes himself in his personally curated set of beliefs, may promise satisfaction," he said. But "it's a make-belief, delusional religion of self-worship in which God is relegated to the role of the 'divine affirmer' of whatever each one decides to believe."

— Cindy Wooden