The Synod working document is failing to address adequately the needs of people on the margins of society, according to Bishop Erwin Kräutler.
Kräutler, a prominent voice for social justice, is disappointed with the Catholic Church’s preparations for the second session of the Synod on Synodality.
“The Synod cannot retreat ‘from the evil world’ into incense-filled sacristies.
“Trying to attract the masses with pomp and grand liturgical events is the wrong approach” writes Kräutler in a published article for Herder Korrespondenz.
The focus is on internal Church issues
Kräutler argues that the working document focuses primarily on internal Church matters rather than addressing real-world issues like poverty and social injustice.
He expresses concern that the Church risks becoming “preoccupied with itself”, especially in the aftermath of the abuse scandals that have rocked its credibility.
The Synod
cannot retreat
‘from the evil world’
into incense-filled sacristies.
“The document recommends listening to people who experience poverty and marginalisation” Kräutler said, “but has the Church only just realised that it is important to listen to these people?”
He says that genuine synodality would require Church leaders to move beyond the “sheltered security of the Church” and into the “abhorred insecurity of the peripheries”.
Referencing Vatican II’s Gaudium et spes Kräutler writes that, in principle, the Synod’s working document is directed more ‘ad intra’ and not the “joy and hope, grief and fear of people today, especially the poor and oppressed of all kinds”.
Call for reforms in Church leadership
Kräutler, who served as bishop in Brazil’s Xingu diocese until 2015, called for deeper reforms, particularly the need to remove “barriers to a synodal church”.
He noted that certain priests and bishops continue to cling to a traditionalist view of authority which he believes only widens the gap between Church leaders and the laity.
“Church ‘authority’ does not elevate anyone above the people. On the contrary, we are here ‘for’ the people and travelling ‘with’ the people of God” Kräutler said, calling this the true spirit of synodality.
Women’s role in the Church
Kräutler also emphasised the critical role women play in the Church, particularly in Amazonian communities where they serve as worship leaders, catechists and religious teachers.
He criticised Pope Francis for removing the topic of women’s ordination from the synod’s agenda, adding that gender justice in the Church is long overdue.
“If women have been keeping the Church alive in many communities, ‘gender justice’ must now also arrive in our Church” Kräutler said, urging that women no longer be denied ordination.
Kräutler has long been an advocate for the rights of indigenous people and environmental protection, particularly in South America.