The head of the Vatican synod office says both doctrinal concerns and pastoral considerations are important when it comes to hot-button issues.
Questions about the reception of Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics and the blessing of same-sex couples are examples Cardinal Mario Grech (pictured) mentions.
“These issues are not to be understood simply in terms of doctrine, but in terms of God’s ongoing encounter with human beings,” Grech says.
“What has the church to fear if these two groups within the faithful are given the opportunity to express their intimate sense of spiritual realities which they experience?
“Might this be an opportunity for the church to listen to the Holy Spirit speaking through them also?”
Grech, the Synod of Bishops’ secretary-general, made the remarks during a virtual address to the annual summit of Leadership Roundtable last week.
The Roundtable promotes a model of co-responsibility between ordained and lay people as a best practice for church governance.
“The whole people of God must be involved” in the current global synod process, Grech told the summit.
To support this view, the Vatican body named the “Synod of Bishops” is shifting its branding to “the Synod,” as a signal that the office and the process is open to everyone.
“The Synod has been transformed into a listening process,” he continued. “The Synod does not exist separately from the rest of the faithful.”
While Grech was speaking, a group of theologians and pastoral leaders from six continents were meeting in Italy. With them they had over 100 national synod reports to synthesise for the next stage of the global synod.
That will take place at the continental level over the next year, before an October 2023 gathering in Rome.
Listening is the “founding act of the synod” and a “true pastoral conversion of the church,” says Grech.
“Bishops have a duty to listen to their people.”
All the baptised are “empowered by the sacraments of baptism and confirmation. Let us trust in our people.
“Let us trust that the Holy Spirit acts in and with our people. And this Spirit is not merely a property of the ecclesial hierarchy.”
The Vatican synod office head acknowledges some bishops and others have “serious concerns” about where the synodal process will lead the church.
He hopes it will reveal that there is “legitimate” diversity in church life, but that should not lead to rupture among believers.
“The ties which draw the faithful together are stronger than those which separate them,” he said. “Let them take unity in what is necessary, freedom in what is doubtful and charity in everything.”
Whether it be LGBTQ Catholics or those who favour the Latin Mass, Grech says “everybody should be listened to” and “nobody is excluded”.
“I hope the synodal process will provide an experience that will inaugurate a much-needed spiritual, systematic and missionary renovation for the whole church.”
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