Print friendly
What paths is the church being called to take in the coming decades?
While the synodal process already underway has just begun to reveal some of these paths, the dialogues that have taken place identify a series of challenges that the people of God must face if we are to reflect the identity of a church that is rooted in the call of Christ, the apostolic tradition and the Second Vatican Council.
Many of these challenges arise from the reality that a church that is calling all women and men to find a home in the Catholic community contains structures and cultures of exclusion that alienate all too many from the church or make their journey in the Catholic faith tremendously burdensome.
Reforming our own structures of exclusion will require a long pilgrimage of sustained prayer, reflection, dialogue and action—all of which should begin now.
It is important at this stage in the synodal process for the Catholic community in the United States to deepen our dialogue about these structures and cultures of exclusion for two reasons.
The first is to continue to contribute to the universal discernment on these issues, recognising that these same questions have surfaced in many nations of the world.
The second reason is the recognition that since the call to synodality is a call to continuing conversion, reforming our own structures of exclusion will require a long pilgrimage of sustained prayer, reflection, dialogue and action—all of which should begin now.
Such a pilgrimage must be infused with an overpowering dedication to listen attentively to the Holy Spirit in a process of discernment, not political action.
It must reflect the reality that we are part of a universal and hierarchical church that is bound together on a journey of faith and communion.
It must always point to the missionary nature of the church, which looks outward in hope.
Our efforts must find direction and consolation in the Eucharist and the Word of God.
And they must reflect the understanding that in a church that seeks unity, renewal and reform are frequently gradual processes.
“Enlarge the Space of Your Tent,” the document issued last year by the Holy See to capture the voices of men and women from around the world who have participated in the synodal process, concluded that “the vision of a church capable of radical inclusion, shared belonging and deep hospitality according to the teachings of Jesus is at the heart of the synodal process.”
We must examine the contradictions in a church of inclusion and shared belonging that have been identified by the voices of the people of God in our nation and discern in synodality a pathway for moving beyond them.
We must examine the contradictions in a church of inclusion and shared belonging and discern in synodality a pathway for moving beyond them.
Polarisation Within the Life of the Church
An increasingly strong contradiction to the vision of a church of inclusion and shared belonging lies in the growth of polarisation within the life of the church in the United States and the structures of exclusion that it breeds.
In the words of “Enlarge the Space of Your Tent,” “the wounds of the church are intimately connected to those of the world.” Our political society has been poisoned by a tribalism that is sapping our energy as a people and endangering our democracy. And that poison has entered destructively into the life of the church.
This polarisation is reflected in the schism so often present between the pro-life communities and justice-and-peace communities in our parishes and dioceses.
It is found in the false divide between “Pope Francis Catholics” and “St John Paul II Catholics.”
It is found in the friction between Catholics who emphasise inclusion and others who perceive doctrinal infidelity in that inclusion.
Even the Eucharist has been marred by this ideological polarisation in both the debates about the pre-conciliar liturgy and the conflicts over masking that roiled many parishes during the pandemic of the past several years.
As “Enlarge the Space of Your Tent” observes, we find ourselves “trapped in conflict, such that our horizons shrink and we lose our sense of the whole, and fracture into sub-identities. It is an experience of Babel, not Pentecost.”
Our political society has been poisoned by a tribalism that is endangering our democracy. And that poison has entered destructively into the life of the church.
A culture of synodality is the most promising pathway available today to lead us out of this polarisation in our church.
Such a culture can help to relativise these divisions and ideological prisms by emphasising the call of God to seek first and foremost the pathway that we are being called to in unity and grace.
A synodal culture demands listening, a listening that seeks not to convince but to understand the experiences and values of others that have led them to this moment.
A synodal culture of true encounter demands that we see in our sisters and brothers common pilgrims on the journey of life, not opponents. We must move from Babel to Pentecost.
Bringing the peripheries to the centre
“Closely related to the wound of polarisation,” the U.S. report on the synod concludes, “is the wound of marginalisation.
Not only do those who experience this wound suffer, but their marginalisation has become a source of scandal for others.”
The continuing sin of racism in our society and our church has created prisons of exclusion that have endured for generations, especially among our African American and Native American communities.
Synod participants have testified eloquently to the sustained ways in which patterns of racism are embedded in ecclesial practices and culture.
These same patterns infect the treatment of many ethnic and cultural communities within the life of the church, leaving them stranded on the periphery of ecclesial life at critical moments. Piercingly, the church at times marginalises victims of clergy sexual abuse in a series of destructive and enduring ways.
The poorest among us, the homeless, the undocumented, the incarcerated and refugees often are not invited with the same energy and effectiveness as others into the fullness of church life and leadership. And the voice of the church is at times muted in advocating for their rights.
Faced with such patterns of exclusion in our church and our world, we must take to heart the message of Pope Benedict speaking to the people of Latin America on the wounds that marginalisation inflicts: “the church must relive and become what Jesus was; the Good Samaritan who came from afar, entered into human history, lifted us up and sought to heal us.”
Pope Benedict XVI: “The church must relive and become what Jesus was; the Good Samaritan who came from afar, entered into human history, lifted us up and sought to heal us.”
One avenue for lifting us up and healing the patterns and structures of marginalization in our church and our world is to systematically bring the peripheries into the centre of life in the church.
This means attending to the marginalisation of African Americans and Native Americans, victims of clergy sexual abuse, the undocumented and the poor, the homeless and the imprisoned, not as a secondary element of mission in every church community, but as a primary goal.
Bringing the peripheries to the centre means constantly endeavouring to support the disempowered as protagonists in the life of the church.
It means giving a privileged place in the priorities and budgets and energies of every ecclesial community to those who are most victimised and ignored.
It means advocating forcefully against racism and economic exploitation. In short, it means creating genuine solidarity within our ecclesial communities and our world, as St John Paul repeatedly urged us.
Women in the Life of the Church
The synodal dialogues in every region of our world have given sustained attention to the structures and cultures that exclude or diminish women within the life of the church.
Participants have powerfully pointed out that women represent both the majority of the church and an even larger majority of those who contribute their time and talents to the advancement of the church’s mission.
The report of the Holy Land on its synodal dialogues captured this reality: “In a church where almost all decision-makers are men, there are few spaces where women can make their voices heard. Yet they are the backbone of church communities.”
The synodal dialogues have reflected widespread support for changing these patterns of exclusion in the global church, as well as for altering structures, laws and customs that effectively limit the presence of the rich diversity of women’s gifts in the life of the Catholic community.
There are calls for eliminating rules and arbitrary actions that preclude women from many roles of ministry, administration and pastoral leadership, as well as for admitting women to the permanent diaconate and ordaining women to the priesthood.
One productive pathway for the church’s response to these fruits of the synodal dialogues would be to adopt the stance that we should admit, invite and actively engage women in every element of the life of the church that is not doctrinally precluded. Continue reading
Related Posts:
News category: Analysis and Comment.
