Pope Francis announced Sunday that the planned 2023 gathering of bishops has been extended and will now take place in two stages. There will be one session in October 2023 and a second in October 2024.
Resistance from some Church hierarchy and accusations the synodal process hasn’t been representative of laity were behind the Pope’s decision to extend the global consultation of Catholics on the Church’s future.
Through this listening process, all Catholics were encouraged to talk about their needs and hopes for the Church.
Francis explained he decided to extend the timeframe around the process “to have a more relaxed period of discernment.
“The fruits of the synodal process underway are many, but so that they might come to full maturity, it is necessary not to be in a rush,” Francis said.
“I trust that this decision will promote the understanding of synodality as a constitutive dimension of the Church, and help everyone to live it as the journey of brothers and sisters who proclaim the joy of the Gospel.”
In their reports to Rome, several bishops’ conferences indicated there was minimal participation by Catholics. Europe, for example, reported rates of less than 10%.
Opponents to Francis’s synodality continue to scoff at the initiative.
One leading critic, the very conservative Cardinal, Gerhard Mueller, labelled synodality as a “hostile takeover” of the Church.
Mueller is the former powerful head of the Vatican’s Doctrine of the Faith whom Francis removed, without reason, from his position.
Breaking synod smaller parts seems to be Francis’s way. In 2014-15 he broke the synod on the family into two sessions.
One of the outcomes of this extended synod was it opened the way for letting divorced and civilly remarried Catholic receive Holy Communion.
The two sessions of the Synod of Bishops will now take place from October 4 to 29, 2023, and in October 2024.