Theologian asks Pope to ditch bishop interventions at synod

An Australian theologian has asked Pope Francis to ditch the 10-minute “interventions” made by bishops at the upcoming synod on the family.

In a wide-ranging open letter to the Pope, Fr Paul McGavin said such interventions lead to “bald and combative declarations”.

Rather, Fr McGavin proposed a process oriented to “dialogue and learning”.

He suggested the bishops first meet in groups and listen to each other, in an attempt to find “meeting points between different perceptions and different ways of fidelity to what the Church has received and the challenges of the world . . .”

Fr McGavin, who is Catholic chaplain at the University of Canberra, suggested the Pope move around the various groups, “not only listening but contributing to the dialogue”.

An elected bishop from each group would present the consensus or lack thereof back to a plenary session, speaking maybe for half an hour.

The Pope should continue to foster dialogue at this stage, and bring the discourses together in his post-synodal exhortation.

“This does not guarantee that everyone will agree with that exhortation,” Fr McGavin wrote.

“But it does substantially increase the likelihood that what the Pope writes will find resonance with more bishops and faithful and provide a means whereby the Church may remain faithful to the entrustment received from the Lord and better communicate her mission to a disparate and confused world.”

Fr McGavin said he did not “see this happening while bishops speak in 10-minute sound bites and decide on numerical voting”.

“To me this seems unecclesial,” he wrote.

The theologian stated he dislikes “vote by numbers” on matters of doctrine.

“I believe in the Church it should be ‘it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us’ (Acts 15:28).”

Touching on the issue of Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried, Fr McGavin wrote that it makes sense to him to say it is not enough to consider the problem only from the perspective of the Church as a sacramental institution.

“As I see it, we need comprehensive thinking and reasoning within the complete inheritance and authority of the Church.”

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News category: World.

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