• Mr Halik, the discussions at the second session of the World Synod have come to an end after almost four weeks. How do you assess the final phase?

Halik: I am convinced that the future of Christianity - at least in this first century of the third millennium - depends to a large extent on how the process of synodal renewal of the Church continues.

What most threatens synodal renewal is the idea that the second session is some kind of conclusion to the synodal process. In reality, it must be a beginning.

• How do you think the success of synodality should be measured?

Halik: It must be measured primarily on two levels: The first is the transformation of mentality, which presupposes a deepening of theology and spirituality.

The second is the ability of the Church to extend the synodal principle beyond the visible boundaries of the Church and to offer it as inspiration in order to transform the process of globalisation into a process of sharing, mutual respect and compatibility in the spirit of the encyclical "Fratelli tutti" (2020) to transform it.

• There were some "controversial" topics during the Synod, such as the Church's treatment of LGBTQ people, more lay participation and the question of the ordination of women. But this synod was not supposed to make any decisions. What does Pope Francis really want to achieve?

Halik: The synod assembly in Rome is not an ecumenical council, but rather a kind of "retreat", "spiritual exercises".

They are intended to inspire a rethink, show the direction of the way forward and encourage people to walk this path independently and creatively together in the local churches - bishops, priests and laity, people in the "centre" and on the "periphery" of the Church.

• What else can we expect in the future? How will the process continue?

Halik: It will be important for the diocesan and continental synods to build on the current phase of the synodal process and, above all, for the existing synodal groups to continue their work.

The work of the existing theological advisory commissions of the Synod will certainly be supported by the "Magisterium of Theologians" with further proposals.

• What is the next step you think the Church should take?

Halik: What we can expect as the next step and as a fruit of the experience so far is a greater decentralisation of the Church.

Some concrete reforms that were expected by many have not materialised, probably mainly because it is clear that some local churches are ripe for reform and others are not yet.

One reason for this is, for example, the different understanding of the role of women in the various cultures.

I fear that some local churches - especially in some post-communist countries - have not yet sufficiently embraced the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).

It is therefore not surprising that they are hesitant to continue along this path. The overall situation today is different from that of the 1960s, when the Church came to terms with modernity - piquantly enough, at a time when modernity was already coming to an end.

• What should synodal renewal look like then?

Halik: Paradoxically, those who expect radical institutional changes from the second session of the synod - and will probably be disappointed - are displaying a clerical attitude: they expect changes "from above".

Synodal renewal, however, should be a response to the new "signs of the times" - but this task still awaits the Church on the next stage of the synodal journey.

The continuation of the synodal process requires a deepening of theology and spirituality, or rather a linking of theology and spirituality, as Pope Francis proposed in his motu propriu "Ad theologiam promovendam" (2023).

• First published in katholisch.de and translated in english.katolisch.de
• Mario Trifunovic is a student of Catholic theology in Frankfurt/Main.

To cite a classic for-instance, critics have noted that plenty of advocates of women clergy and LGBTQ+ outreach were included among the official delegates, but no devotees of the traditional Latin Mass and few prominent pro-lifers. (Notably, the word "abortion" never appears in the 51-page concluding document.)

A superficial look at the voting on the concluding document, adopted Saturday night, could support an impression of false conformity. Most of its 155 paragraphs were adopted by an overwhelming majority of the 355 participants casting votes, with a typical result being 352-3 or 350-5.

The lone case in which the "yes" vote dropped below 300 was for paragraph 60, which deals with women deacons, but even the 97 contrary votes it drew do not necessarily represent a register of conservative dissent.

Consider the wording: "The question of women's access to diaconal ministry remains open.

This discernment needs to continue." That might have displeased a conservative who would prefer a straightforward "no," but it equally might have irritated a liberal frustrated with all the talk who believes the time has come to pull the trigger.

The left-leaning ethos of the synod was perhaps most clear on Oct. 24, when Argentine Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, prefect of the Vatican's Dicastery of the Faith, held an open meeting with roughly 100 participants to discuss the role of women, including an earlier statement by Fernandez that "there is still no room for a positive decision" on the diaconate.

To be clear, Fernandez is hardly anyone's idea of a traditionalist.

He was the ghost writer of 2016's Amoris Laetitia, opening a cautious door to communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, and the official drafter of Fiducia Supplicans, the December 2023 text authorising blessings of persons in same-sex relationships.

Yet he was forced to spend most of the hour and a half discussion last Thursday convincing synod insurgents that he's progressive enough.

(We know the contents of this discussion because the Vatican released an audio recording of it, despite a general information blackout on internal synod discussions.)

Critical questions

During the discussion, Fernandez took a total of 12 questions, almost all of which, to one degree or another, were critical.

One questioner, for instance, asked why of the ten study groups established by Pope Francis to ponder sensitive matters raised by the synod, the group dealing with ministry, including female deacons, is the only one entrusted to a Vatican department, suggesting it's not a terribly "synodal" arrangement.

Another mockingly asked about repeated claims that conditions are not "mature" for resolving the issue of women deacons.

With fruit, he said, one determines maturity by looking at colour, aroma and texture. What, he asked, are the indicators for the Church? Without such clear criteria, he warned, "We could be doing this for the rest of our lives." (That line drew one of just three rounds of applause during the session.)

Another questioner noted that a 1997 study by the International Theological Commission which was favorable to the idea of women deacons was never published, and said "there are suspicions something similar" is happening now.

The final questioner pointed to Pope Francis's recent decisions to open the ministries of acolyte, lector and catechist to women, saying that when he started out in the church decades ago, his local community already had women playing those roles.

How long, he wondered, will we have to wait for the pope and the Vatican to recognise that once again, they're fifty years late?

Throughout, Fernandez often seemed a bit on the defensive, trying to assure everyone he's not the stereotypical Vatican official of years past.

"I'm not famous in the Church for being stuck in the Middle Ages," he insisted at the end. "You can relax, knowing I've got an open heart for seeing where the Holy Spirit takes us."

Synod's soft landing

Given all that, the real question about the 2024 synod may how such a seemingly skewed assembly nevertheless produced a basically cautious and non-revolutionary result.

Examining the final document, on most points it seems to bend over backwards to strike a balance between innovation and continuity, and never actually endorses radical change on any front. In effect, the earthquake many expected three years ago turned out to be a minor tremor.

One explanation may be that the more conservative minority in the synod punched above its weight, another a general fatigue among participants with the arguments that erupted last time and a desire to end on a pacific note.

Mostly, however, one has to say it was Pope Francis who steered the synod toward this soft landing, taking most of the hot-button issues off the table and sending signals that he wanted the focus to be on the journey, not the destination.

Francis also announced Saturday night that unlike in past synods, this time there will be no apostolic exhortation to draw conclusions - the final document will stand on its own as the closing act.

In this way, Francis has short-circuited the possibility that activists disappointed with the lack of breakthroughs from the synod might hope to get them from the pope. Read more

• John L. Allen Jr. is the editor of Crux, specialising in coverage of the Vatican and the Catholic Church.

No doubt there are many angles to explore in the 28,000 word document. But let's take a quick dive into it to see what it says about the role of lay people, their mission and vocation - their lay apostolate - and the role of the lay apostolic movements, the two themes that we have developed on this site over the last couple of years.

Word frequencies

Starting very simply by looking at a few word frequencies. The word "pope" appears 15 times and the word "papal" three times more. "Bishop" appears 98 times and the word episcopal another 28 times while "priest" appears 27 times.

In contrast, the word "laity" only appears twice while the adjective "lay" appears another 17 times. The word "nun" does not appear at all but there are 10 references to "consecrated life" in relation to both men and women.

On the other hand, there are 26 references to the "baptised," emphasising the equality between all who form part of the Church.

Well, at the end of the day, a Synod is still a Synod of bishops, rather than an Assembly of the People of God such as the ones we've seen emerging in Latin America.

Still, given the Synod's disavowal of "clericalism," it's difficult to avoid the conclusion that the Church is still an extremely clerically-centred institution! Lay people - the 99 percent - and consecrated religious thus inevitably take a more - ironically - peripheral role.

Ministry

Another word that's very striking in its frequency in the Final Document is the word "ministry" and its variations (minister, etc.), which appear 108 times in the English translation and 98 times in the original Italian.

Almost all of these references to ministry relate to internal roles and functions in the Church - the Church ad intra, as it were.

There are only a couple of specific references to lay ministry. And these also relate to ad intra functions:

66. A missionary synodal Church would encourage more forms of lay ministries, that is, ministries that do not require the sacrament of Holy Orders, and this not only within the liturgical sphere.

77. The lay faithful, both men and women, should be given greater opportunities for participation, also exploring new forms of service and ministry in response to the pastoral needs of our time in a spirit of collaboration and differentiated co-responsibility.

In particular, some concrete needs have emerged from the synodal process.

All this illustrates the fact that the Synod was overwhelmingly preoccupied with internal aspects, which is frankly quite surprising, given the Synod's stated aim of promoting a missionary Church, which implies looking outward, ad extra.

The specifically lay role of lay people

Having said all of the above, the Final Document does contain some excellent passages affirming the role of lay people.

Thus, §66 insists that "mission involves all the baptised." And it continues on to say that:

The first task of lay women and men is to permeate and transform earthly realities with the spirit of the Gospel (cf. LG 31.33; AA 5-7).

It continues:

At the behest of Pope Francis (cf. Apostolic Letter in the form of Motu Proprio Spiritus Domini, 10 January 2021), the synodal process urged local Churches to respond with creativity and courage to the needs of the mission.

But why then does the rest of §66 go on to speak about "charisms" and "ministries," even if they are "lay ministries"?

This response should involve a form of discernment among the various charisms in order to identify which of these should take a ministerial form and thus be equipped with adequate criteria, tools and procedures.

Not all charisms need to be configured as ministries, nor do all the baptised need to become ministers, nor do all ministries need to be instituted.

For a charism to be configured as a ministry, the community must identify a genuine pastoral need. This should be accompanied by a discernment carried out by the pastor who, together with the community, will make a decision on whether there is a need to create a new ministry.

As a result of this process, the competent authority reaches a decision. A missionary synodal Church would encourage more forms of lay ministries, that is, ministries that do not require the sacrament of Holy Orders, and this not only within the liturgical sphere.

They can be instituted or not instituted. Further reflection should be given to the most effective way of bestowing lay ministries at a time when people move from one place to another with increasing ease, specifying the times and areas of their exercise.

It's as if the underlying thinking is that those "earthly realities" will only be permeated and transformed provided that the Church identifies enough charisms and organised enough ministries!

Fortunately, this is not the whole story! §58 and §59 do in fact spell out the lay vocation more clearly albeit without specifically naming it as such:

58. Each baptised person, man or woman, responds to missionary needs in the contexts in which they live and work, according to their dispositions and abilities. This demonstrates the freedom of the Spirit in bestowing God's gifts.

Owing to this dynamism in the Spirit, the People of God, listening to the reality in which they live, discover new forms of commitment and new ways to fulfil their mission.

Christians, each according to their diverse roles - within the family and other states of life; in the workplace and in their professions; engaged civilly, politically, socially or ecologically; in the development of a culture inspired by the Gospel, including the evangelisation of the digital environment - walk the paths of the world according to their life situations and proclaim the Gospel, sustained by the gifts of the Spirit.

This does indeed reflect the vision of Lumen Gentium §31-33 much more closely.

Strangely, however, it avoids mentioning the term "lay people," i.e. the 99% who live in families, work in workplaces and professions, etc.! Nor does the term "lay apostolate" - the chosen term of Vatican II - rate even a single mention in the whole document!

There's an almost-reference to the see-judge-act, recognising the need for people to "listen to the reality in which they live" and and to find "new ways to fulfil their mission," i.e. act, although oddly it misses out the judge or discern stage!

§59 is also important - perhaps the most important of all - recognising the need for the Church to sustain people in their mission in life.

59. In doing so, they ask the Church not to abandon them but rather to enable them to understand that they are sent and sustained in mission. They ask to be nourished by the bread of the Word and the Eucharist, as well as by the familial bonds of the community.

They ask that their commitment be recognised for what it is: Church action in light of the Gospel, and not merely a personal choice. Lastly, they ask the community to accompany those who, through their witness, have been drawn to the Gospel.

In a missionary synodal Church, under the leadership of their pastors, communities will be able to send people out in mission and support those they have sent.

Communities will, therefore, see themselves as primarily devoted to the service of a mission that the faithful carry out within society, in family and working life. They will, therefore, not remain focused exclusively on the activities that take place within their own communities and upon their own organisational needs.

Yes, this is indeed necessary and a very welcome affirmation by the Synod!

The role of lay apostolic movements

Again, strangely, however, there is no reference in §59 to any particular role of any of the lay apostolic movements that for the last century have sought to sustain lay people in their role in the world.

In fact, there are only six references in the Final Document to the role of "movements."

True, §7 does recognise that "the simplest but most precious fruits (of synodality) mature in the life of families, parishes, movements, small Christian communities, schools and other movements."

§9 also insists on the need to "continue their daily journey" with those communities and movements "with a synodal methodology of consultation and discernment."

Similarly, §65 recognises that "associations, movements and new communities, all have a special contribution to make to the growth of synodality in the Church."

But it also adds a word of warning to those groups not to remain isolated;

At the same time, synodality invites - and sometimes challenges - pastors of local Churches, as well as those responsible for leadership in consecrated life and in the movements, to strengthen relationships in order to bring to life an exchange of gifts at the service of the common mission.

Sure, movement leaders do indeed need to work on building relationships with the whole Church and avoid isolating themselves or turning into sects.

Finally, §118 does explicitly highlight the role that those groups and movements can play:

We recognise that institutes of consecrated life, societies of apostolic life, as well as associations, movements and new communities, have the ability to take root locally and, at the same time, connect different places and environments, often at a national or international level.

Their action, together with that of many individuals and informal groups, often brings the Gospel to highly diverse contexts: hospitals, prisons, homes for the elderly, reception centres for migrants, minors, those marginalised and victims of violence; to centres of education and training, schools and universities where young people and families meet; the arenas of culture and politics and of integral human development, where new forms of living together are imagined and constructed.

Conclusion

In the end, the Final Document does de facto recognise the lay apostolate lauded by the Vatican II documents Lumen Gentium and Apostolicam Actuositatem, albeit without naming it, and it does endorse the role of the lay apostolic movements.

But if the Church is to become a community of genuinely missionary lay disciples and apostles acting ad extra for the transformation of the world in the light of the Gospel then that needs to be the focus.

Perhaps the next Synod…

• First published in Substack.com
• Stefan Gigacz is an Australian researcher and writer with a special focus on the life and work of Joseph Cardijn, founder of the Young Christian Workers (YCW) or Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne (JOC).

Theologian and spiritual director Annemarie Paulin-Campbell said Pope Francis has been a superb leader in many respects.

"However," she said, "when it comes to the issue of women's ordination, he seems to have already made a decision and does not seem open to discerning this issue."

There have been two Vatican commissions on women's ordination to the diaconate—in 2016 and 2020—but their reports have not been made public.

"Where is the transparency in this?" Ms. Paulin-Campbell asked. "It is difficult to feel that these have not simply been a patronizing attempt to pacify women."

She described "a deep sense of disillusionment that the church, on the one hand, is saying we need to be a synodal listening church, and has yet again, it seems, on the other hand, taken the diaconate for women off the table."

This "severely undermines the whole idea of listening and journeying together," Ms. Paulin-Campbell said.

High hopes for the Synod

There had been high hopes that the Synod on Synodality would address this issue concretely.

It was on the agenda for the first sitting in October 2023, but the discussion has been removed from the agenda for the second sitting of the synod, taking place this month.

Ms. Paulin-Campbell said that Pope Francis' remarks in an interview in May with U.S. media - reaffirming that women will never be ordained deacons - has "broken the last thread of hope many women were holding onto, and some have decided to leave now."

Biddy-Rose Tiernan, S.N.D.deN. (pictured), one of South Africa's best-known and loved religious women, said that she keeps asking why there seems to be such a deep-seated fear among the ordained men leading the Roman Catholic Church.

"Is it power? Is it insecurity? So many women are well-educated in theological, scriptural and historical matters."

"Jesus was revolutionary in his inclusion of all as disciples and friends," Sister Tiernan said. "I keep looking for reasons why there is this reluctance or fear and refusal because when I understand the reason behind any decision, I am better able to accept it."

"It would be interesting to hear what's behind Pope Francis' turnaround regarding [the discussion of the] diaconate for women," said Cathy Murugan, H.F. "I'm disappointed in Francis because I believed the synod was about discussing previously ‘unmentionable issues.'"

She said that she does not believe that God's call is "selective and prejudicial." Sister Murugan said that by excluding women from "responding fully to God's call…the church is doing violence to women."

Nontando Hadebe, a member of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians and Catholic Women Speak/Preach, said that women's equality is central to both continental and national priorities: "Africa leads the world with the highest number of female parliamentarians.

In Rwanda, for example, 60 percent are women." She said that "the church [in Africa] stands alone and disconnected."

"But there is also another facet to this," Ms. Hadebe said, referring to "the lack of a grassroots, visible, active movement among Catholic women in Africa for women's diaconate."

Many women in Africa are "disconnected and isolated from their global sisters within and outside the church advocating for women's rights."

African Catholic women found some consolation in comments made by Archbishop Buti Tlhagale, the archbishop of Johannesburg, South Africa, who warned bishops of southern Africa of a "deep down" anger among some women because "we have excluded them from ordination."

Prejudice against women

During a sermon at a plenary session of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference in August, Archbishop Tlhagale told the bishops that, despite the continuing overall support for the church among women, "priests and bishops don't necessarily have a good reputation [with them]."

Archbishop Tlhagale said that prejudice against women is a sin that should be included among others "when you are going to confess."

He pointed out that the church readily accepts women into its congregations, and they are "in fact, the majority in any community…. Yet, somehow, there is an inbuilt prejudice against women among the Catholic clergy, and I don't think we're going to do much about it now." Read more

• Russell Pollitt, S.J., is America Magazine's Johannesburg correspondent.

Beazley is also Vicar for Maori in the Auckland Diocese.

"As Maori, synodality is nothing new to us. In a sense it's part of our DNA as Maori people" Beazely (pictured) says. Both synodality and hui emphasise collective decision-making and inclusivity.

Maori come together to hui and to wananga, to gather and to reflect on the big issues facing the community Beazlet explains. "Through the combined wisdom of the community we come out the other end of it with something new to take us forward."

Beazely says he finds the similarity between the synodal and hui approaches "quite reassuring".

It's something that we are already familiar with here in Aotearoa and the Pacific, and among the many indigenous people through the Pacific who practise synodality in some shape or form, he says.

Coming together, sharing wisdom and then moving forward together will mean we will be a Church that journeys together, Beazely observes.

"If we are to say that we are a Church for all then we should be a Church for all. A Church where everyone is welcomed, a Church where everyone can belong and be accepted.

"For me that would be the ultimate sign of the Church that we are a place where all people can find a home."

Community collaboration shapes the Church of the future, he says.

When in Rome

This month's synod in Rome is the second time Beazley will represent Aotearoa New Zealand during the Synod on Synodality process.

Getting there with a sense of everyone's views has been hard work. He's read the Instrumentum Laboris. And spoken to countless people.

He's sought to maximise everyone's participation "so that we can journey together on this road towards synodality through listening and dialogue and also forming a co-responsible church" he says.

When Beazely was at the Synod last year, a key outcome was contacting like-minded ministers and joining them as if they were another family. He said they continue to keep in touch using modern media.

Since then, Beazely says he has thrown himself deeply into parishes and communities, spreading the word about synodality and helping parishes and communities form their synodal structures.

"I think that's key to how we are to go forward, the more we can speak about synodality as not being something new but reaching back into the great treasure of our Catholic history and bringing all of that into the future.

"It's really just about sitting down, talking with people, sharing ...their hopes, their aspirations for the church and also their frustrations at some of the things that they see happening in their local church" he says.

"And just hearing the depth and the breadth of all of that Catholic experience - that's what I hope to take to the synod ... to be able to share with the global church all of those things that affect people from outside the world."

Source

• Facebook
• NZ Catholic
• CathNews

The document was relatively stunning in its admission of challenges, beauty of language on the Trinity and Christ and mission; and, for its announcement that opening the diaconate for women will not be a topic of discussion at this coming October synod in Rome.

But there were many omissions — too many for a document that was to lay out the next steps in the "listening" process called synodality.

When it comes to my beloved Catholic Church, I am a realist.

I did not expect there to be a decision on women deacons finalised and announced after the October synod.

I did, however, expect input from experts, robust dialogue, learning and discerning among those present.

Last year's proposal

The synthesis report from last October contained 81 proposals.

Those proposals included bishop accountability, enhancing priest engagement in the synod, more formation for laity and priests, establishing ministries for youth in local parishes, and increasing awareness of Catholic social doctrine, among many others.

The proposals were contained within the document's three major parts: "The Face of the Synodal Church," "All Disciples, All Missionaries," and "Weaving Bonds, Building Communities."

These proposals were the outcome of global listening sessions in parishes, schools and other institutions; with results compiled into diocesan, national and then continental reports.

These reports from around the world were reviewed, analysed and summarised in the Document for the Continental Stage. That information then led to the instrumentum laboris, which guided the discussions for the October 2023 in Rome.

Each of these reports contained the aspirations and frustrations of Catholics from around the world and provided a foundation for future listening and discussion.

The Document for the Continental Stage, for example, opened with the call for us to "enlarge the space of your tent, spread out your tent clothes unsparingly; lengthen your ropes and make firm your pegs" (Isaiah 54:2), urging the church to expand the horizons of our structure and mission.

This month, the instrumentum laboris for the October 2024 synod discussions in Rome was released, with 112 separate assertions. Paragraph 17 notes:

"While some local Churches call for women to be admitted to the diaconal ministry, others reiterate their opposition.

"On this issue, which will not be the subject of the work of the Second Session, it is good that theological reflection should continue, on an appropriate timescale and in the appropriate ways.

"The fruits of Study Group 5, which will take into consideration the results of the two Commissions that have dealt with the question in the past, will contribute to its maturation."

The problem

Here's my fundamental issue with this declaration.

The synthesis report from last October included 81 separate proposals.

Of those 81, the only one itemised as "not … the subject of work of the second session" is one regarding women's ordination as deacons.

That, along with Pope Francis' "no" response during a recent interview about whether little girls can look forward to being deacons in the future, is a bit chilling.

While there is language about continued theological reflection — it does seem odd to call out this issue as the only one off the synod table.

Also odd is the rationale.

The fact that some churches call for women's ordination and others do not is an inadequate reason for not discussing an issue.

I would argue every one of those 81 proposals has some support and some opposition.

Since when has 100 percent agreement in the Catholic Church been a criterion for moving forward?

Aside from a handful of the obvious, I can't name a single theological, social, political or moral issue all Catholics can agree with. (Even the "obvious" might be a challenge.)

Here are the practical impacts of this decision.

Catholics around the world are hopeful about changes that could arise from collective listening to the Holy Spirit.

People have spent hours engaged in the process; speaking from the heart about what they love about the church — and what breaks their heart.

My simple expectation is to continue the process.

We know the church is proud of "thinking in centuries" and that change comes slowly. It is, however, even slower when you don't bother to fully discuss an issue in an ongoing listening and discerning process.

Women deacons necessary

Fundamentally, the church needs women deacons.

I attended Seattle University School of Theology and Ministry and the Jesuit School of Theology Sabbatical Renewal Program. I also participated in the Loyola Institute of Spirituality Spiritual Exercises for Everyday Life.

In each of these sessions, as well as in my parishes, I have met many women capable of serving as deacons, and frankly, as priests. Read more

• Daryl Grigsby is an author and is currently a presenter in the Jesuit School of Theology Sabbatical Renewal Program.

It - and other documents from all over the globe - will contribute to the global Synod on Synodality meeting in October.

The Synod has been underway since 2021 and concludes in Rome after the October meeting finishes.

Pope Francis established the Synod to help set the Catholic Church's future direction.

The post-October Vatican Synodal Church in Mission report asked for responses to these questions to reflect input from a wide range of national Catholic lay organisations.

Catholic voices

Called "Towards October 2024", the Rome-bound synod consultation document includes Catholic voices from throughout New Zealand.

The NZ Catholic bishops established a consultation process to garner responses to specific questions that arose during last October's synod.

These responses came from numerous people, including bishops' conference agencies, religious, youth groups and diocesan organisations as well as groups involved in previous synodal processes.

Bishops' voices

New Zealand's six Catholic bishops introduce "Towards October 2024" saying -

"Our people have spoken again with frankness and humility about their shared journey as the People of God, and about how we can be a synodal Church in mission.

"As we said when we presented our National Synod Synthesis in 2022, we may not agree with everything they have said, but we want their voices to be heard.

"Their responses to the various questions provide important insight into how we might together follow Jesus Christ, walking his way, telling his truth, living his life."

Following the synod progress

The first of the Synod on Synodality's two-part 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops was held in Rome last October.

The second part will be held this coming October.

Copies of "Towards October 2024" can be downloaded via the NZ Catholic Bishops' Conference link below.

• New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference

Basically, it means you risk losing your faith when you go to the Eternal City.

It's certainly a phrase that was bantered about during the 16th century when Martin Luther (an Augustinian friar from Germany), John Calvin (a theologian from France), and John Knox (a priest from Scotland) - Roman Catholics one and all - became leaders of various movements to reform a Church they saw as corrupt and worldly, one that had drifted far away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Of course, the senior hierarchs in the papal court at that time saw things somewhat differently and these "Catholic reformers" ended up breaking with Rome (actually the pope excommunicated them), cementing what has since been known as the Reformation - the Protestant Reformation.

The deep divisions - and religious wars - that followed, fractured Western Christianity to the point that Roman Catholicism and the new Reform Church communities became entrenched in a sectarian mentality over time.

Rome and the "restoration" of Church unity

The pontificate of John XXIII (1959-63), and the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) that he convoked, brought to fruition the efforts that some Church leaders and theologians, both from Catholicism and the Reform tradition, had been working on during the previous decades to promote unity in the one Church of Jesus Christ.

The Vatican, and the rest of Roman Catholicism, suddenly became committed to the ecumenical movement in a way that the Bishop of Rome and those in communion with him had never been before.

Despite Vatican II, which is considered the most monumental event in the Christian Church since the 16th century Reformation, the ecclesial community in Rome has been cautious in how it promotes the "restoration" of the Church's unity, as the Vatican II decree on ecumenism, Unitatis redintegratio, called it.

The unfunny joke often repeated during the pontificate of John Paul II was that the Vatican's form of ecumenism was "you-come-in-ism".

In other words, the other Christian denominations should just "return" to Rome and submit to the leadership of the Roman Pontiff.

Pope Francis has changed that, but - ironically - without undertaking any major ecumenical initiatives, at least at the institutional level.

It is difficult to call to mind any groundbreaking events or projects the Dicastery (formerly Pontifical Council) for Promoting Christian Unity has sponsored to help hasten the "restoration" of Church unity.

Its officials continue to participate in the dialogues with other parts of the fractured Church that were established decades ago, but their Vatican office has not done much else.

A focus on the "peripheries"

Francis, on the other hand, has often met individually with leaders of other parts of the Church not in communion with Rome.

He even went to Sweden in 2016 to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in a gesture of friendship and show of at least partial Church unity with Christians of what can now rightly be called the Reform tradition.

And the Jesuit pope's concerted effort to focus on the Church in the "peripheries" has played a role in helping Catholics (and others) to begin taking a healthy distance from Rome and the unhealthy obsession with all things Vatican.

Another irony, however, is that this has somewhat increased the (also) unhealthy idolisation (or at least idealisation) of the Roman pope!

The Synod

Hopefully, the upcoming two-pronged assembly of the Synod of Bishops will, despite its being held at the Vatican, further help Catholics and Christians of other denominations see that a balance can be struck vis-à-vis the role that Rome and its bishop play within the one, though still divided Church.

The first of the assembly's two sessions (the second is twelve or so months from now) gets underway on October 4th.

It will be prefaced a few days earlier with a large ecumenical prayer vigil in St. Peter's Square, followed by a three-day retreat for the 400-some participants of the month-long Synod gathering.

The aim of this assembly, which was carefully prepared over the past two years through consultations with Catholics all over the world in all walks of life, is to prayerfully discern where the Holy Spirit is calling the Church today.

It is crucial that those who will be at the assembly are aware that there is no future for a divided Christianity.

If the focus is only on the Roman Church (and just those Christian communities in communion with it), this will be another waste of time, because Rome and the Vatican are no longer the center of the Christian or even more narrowly defined "Catholic Church" universe.

It should be clear by now that this is one of the major things that has shifted in the Church during the ten-year pontificate of Pope Francis.

• Robert Mickens is La Croix International's Editor in Chief. He had lived ed, studied and worked in Rome for 30 years.
• First published in La Croix International. Republished with permission.

They agree the decision will compel Asia's national churches to widen male and female lay Catholics' participation in Church activities.

The ruling means "the universal Church, as well as local churches, must open their doors to welcome the greater and active participation of women in making crucial decisions about the Church's activities," says a Vietnamese theologian.

Theologians across Asia agree.

They allude to how national churches have been excluding lay people, particularly women, from various church bodies: these include those that make decisions on their budgeting, ministry programmes, volunteer labour and internal operations.

Men, mostly clerics, continue to lead the work.

"The Church must return to its nature, that is to make sure there is no discrimination against women - as Jesus allowed some women to take part in the activities of the apostles," he says.

Women's participation varies across Asia

In the Philippines, women lay leaders are common.

At the national and continental levels of the synod, religious and lay people - men and women - fully participated as delegates.

In Sri Lanka, while some women are lectors and Eucharistic Ministers, some parish priests do not allow women to read the parish notices and announcements, a priest says.

"If women can vote in the Synod of Bishops, it is very important they are given positions, especially in Church media and parish councils," he adds.

Some priests claim "lay people need to be paid when they are involved in Church activities and ministries. But nothing needs to be paid to invite women to Maundy Thursday foot-washing rituals. But there are priests who are not interested in that too."

Cut patriarchal cultural barriers

In Pakistan, a leading theologian sees the Pope's decision as an "effort to revisit the teachings of the Second Vatican Council - giving it a pastoral and prophetic reinterpretation.

The Church in Muslim-dominated Pakistan has been "a bit against this vision" of equality, he says - but now the Pope asks us to "work for the teachings of the Gospel that holds women as a complete persons with equal rights as a believer.

The first woman president of the Indian Theological Association says Francis has been consistently taking steps towards the full participation of women in the Church.

Francis wants the Church to function in a "Synodal way - a journeying of all members together.

Therefore, it is most appropriate to include lay people including women to be participants with voting rights in the third phase of the synod which is the universal phase."

Matristics as important as Patristics

"Arguably India has the largest number of women religious in the world," an Indian theologian says.

In the Indian context, "the papal decision must impel us to take initiatives to audit women's role in the shaping of the Church," he says.

Women should be listened to in the synodal discussions.

An Indonesian lay theologian notes women played "great and important roles" in the early Church. But the "superpower of the so-called patriarchy eliminated" women roles.

"We have only the theological discipline of Patristics or Patrology - the theological study of early Church fathers.

But the Church also needs to study the Matristics - the early Church mothers, he says.

Hope for a better Church

In Myanmar, Bangladesh and Korea, theologians are delighted with the change.

They agree "local Churches should seek ways to implement this mechanism of synodality, where all the people of God join together."

Source

• UCA News

The Vatican has always said while input from many was essential to a synod, bishops were tasked with discerning and voting.

The move to allow lay women and lay men to vote at the Synod of Bishops has come late in the synodal process; even the last point of filtering, the Continental Phase of the Synod, was completed only by bishops.

"This is a significant crack in the stained glass ceiling, and the result of sustained advocacy, activism and the witness" of a campaign of Catholic women's groups demanding the right to vote, said Kate McElwee of the Women's Ordination Conference, which advocates for women priests.

The late changes to include a significant number of lay people emphasise Francis' vision for the Church.

The real story

Some label the 27 April announcement as unprecedented, but the real story is not that lay people will get the right to vote but the number of lay people involved.

On March 16, CathNews reported that all participants, including women, could vote at the Synod; but, at the time, the number of lay people involved was tiny; the only woman with a vote was Sr Nathalie Becquart, who in February 2021 was appointed the Synod's General Secretary.

However, Thursday's announcement changes the significance of lay involvement because, unlike previous Synods, at the 2023 Synod of Bishops, approximately up to 25 percent of those with voting rights will be lay people.

The lay participants will be chosen by the Pope.

He will select 70 people from among a list of 140 nominations supplied by the Continental Synod meeting held recently around the world.

Francis wants 50 percent of the nominations to be women and for young people to be emphasised.

The Vatican says participants will be selected based "not only their general culture and prudence, but also their knowledge, both theoretical and practical, as well as their participation in various capacities in the synodal process".

However, it remains unclear what portion of the 140 nominations each "Continent" can nominate and the basis for nominations.

One observer that CathNews spoke to said the Vatican could use several measures to allocate the portion of lay people from each continent.

She said that, for example, the continent's land mass, the continent's geographical size, the estimated number of baptised Catholics in each continent, or perhaps even the number of bishops or cardinals in a continent are but some of the measures the Vatican could use.

Participants' names would be made public "as soon as possible," the Vatican says.

Pope Francis will also appoint a number of members himself, who will also have a right to vote.

Other changes

Also among the changes is the elimination of the auditors, people who were previously allowed to speak in the assembly but did not have the right to vote. Removing the auditors makes way for the lay and possibly some priest voting participants.

Another gender balance in the composition of the Synod sees it having "five women religious and five men religious" instead of the "ten clerics" of religious congregations elected by their representative bodies who previously sat in the synod.

The Apostolic Consituition which governs the composition of these assemblies also mentions that representatives from the Vatican dicasteries will no longer participate ex-officio, but will be appointed directly by the pope.

Synod timeframe

The final phase of the synod, which began in 2021 will be conducted in two sessions. The first is in October 2023 and the second in October 2024.

It is expected the 2023 Synod of Bishops membership will be around 370 and in general, the same participants will attend each session.

Cardinals Mario Grech, the Synod's secretary general, and Jean-Claude Hollerich SJ, the rapporteur for Synod, announced all the changes.

The working document for the October 2023 phase of the synod is expected to be published by the end of May.

Source

• AP News
• America Magazine
• RNS
• La Croix International

The comment comes from the West Australian archbishop and member of the preparatory committee for the General Assembly of the Synod, Timothy Costelloe.

He says that ongoing consultation with Catholics worldwide needs to give more deference to local church authorities.

Pope Francis's global synod - which began in 2021 and finishes next year - shows just how diverse the Church is and the various ways people express their Catholic faith, says Costelloe.

A significant feature of synodality is the understanding that unity does not call for uniformity within the Catholic Church, he says.

"One of the most important things that we are experiencing on the journey, and that we experienced very powerfully during these continental assemblies is that there is, in fact, more than one way of being the Church.

"I think that's a very important thing and something that's emerging as a significant feature of this synodal journey."

Different ways of being Catholic have always been a part of the Church, Costelloe says.

Therefore, it is something "we need to acknowledge more and more to celebrate and be grateful to God.

"I would say that what is happening, both in the ideal world, but also in reality, is that we're beginning to experience a profound unity, which is not only not grounded in uniformity ... we all know, unity and uniformity are not the same thing."

Costello says there's "almost universal appreciation of the process and a desire that we do not go backwards.

We've found something precious in the life of the church, which has great potential for the future and that we need to continue down this pathway to the future, to be more fully the church that we're supposed to be."

Just the same, the Synod cannot be reduced to just a few concerns, he cautions.

"It's really a synod on how the church, as it grows in its understanding of being a synodal church, can find more productive or more fruitful ways of beginning to grapple with all of these issues," he says.

Synod's 'continental phase' finished

Costelloe's remarks came during a Vatican press conference last week, marking the conclusion of the continental phase of the three-year synod process.

During February and March, seven continental meetings took place.

At these, attendees reflected on themes that emerged during the first phase of the synod process, which included tens of thousands of listening sessions with Catholics worldwide.

After the second phase of those gatherings, the third phase will include two month-long assemblies in Rome in October 2023 and October 2024.

Source

• NCR Online
• Crux

A leading Catholic theologian says the need is clear. It's expressed in a strong "lament" emerging from the "listening phase" of the Church's global synodal process.

Professor Anna Rowlands from Durham University says a strong, universal theme emerging from the listening phase was concern about the quality of sermons.

"The quality of homilies is a major, major universal feedback across the Church - people lamenting, either sermons that are just too hurriedly prepared or sermons that are too abstract and intellectual, or sermons that lack any kind of real meat and content to them.

"So there's a kind of lament from across the world that we would like better homilies that genuinely feed us spiritually. Well that doesn't require a policy change in Rome to make that happen."

Rowlands has been seconded to the Vatican for two years to help with the Synod.

She'll be working with both the General Secretariat of the Synod and the Dicastery for Integral Human Development.

Her role will focus on the synod process for the Vatican and Catholic social teaching for the Dicastery.

It's "all hands to the pump" after the global grass-roots listening process and, in the last few weeks, the continental phase meetings, she says.

"Now we are going to pivot and turn into the next stage of the synod which is the discernment phase, where it is our task to reflect together on what the global Church has said, what the priorities should be for reflection."

Rowlands says the process is "advisory" to the Pope.

She is one of the few people to have read every document submitted to the synod office from the worldwide church as a result of the listening phase.

Besides the need for better homilies, several common themes emerged from these documents.

Issues such as better governance, more transparency, the response to the abuse crisis and recognising the dignity of the baptised for women were themes that came up, although with different emphases, in different parts of the world.

New Zealand's contribution exemplified

Rowlands says in some areas of the world, such as New Zealand, there had already been change in response to the listening phase

Local churches have realised lay participation could be increased in areas such as renewal and outreach, without the need for discernment at the universal Church level.

"Lots of things were things that could be acted on without needing major policy change from Rome," Rowlands says.

Better formation for priests and lifelong formation for the laity are among them.

The synod process is leading up to two meetings in Rome in October 2023 and October 2024.

Source

• The Tablet

Kasper, who is the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity's President Emeritus, points to the Second Vatican Council's path in synodal fellowship.

The Church would have a future only if it continued on that path - a path that the German synodal path "had failed to take," he says.

This won't mean acting like bookkeepers, but "in creative loyalty and synodal fellowship by listening to God's Word and to one another together.

"In my and other people's opinion, the German ‘synodal' gives the impression that it can and feels it has to discover a new Church and must push through its own agenda."

As the German way forward has "unfortunately failed", he says he puts all the more hope in the World Synodal Process Pope Francis has launched.

The Catholic Church's future must concentrate on the Gospel Message and the "wounds of the world", not just itself, he says.

The Council should not be seen as a break with tradition but as a "new departure to a more alive and comprehensive understanding of tradition and catholicity".

To do justice to the Council as a whole, it is necessary to go deeply into the Council's texts and editorial history. This is a theologically challenging and demanding undertaking that is still ongoing, Kasper notes.

At the same time, the Council and its documents had meanwhile become a part of church history, he says.

Francis belongs to a post-Council generation who regard the decisions and documents as facts from which it is necessary to think further.

"And that raises the question of the yet undetected future potentials in the Council texts," Kasper points out.

The question of the Church's relationship to the world must be re-examined, he says.

The corresponding Council document "Gaudium et spes" was determined by an "optimistic outlook" of the time, Kasper recalls.

Since then, secularisation and the priestly sexual abuse crisis have led to a massive loss of trust in the Church. They have also made the "crisis of faith in God" more visible. That was something unforeseen at the time of the Council, Kasper says.

In the Western World today, atheism and widespread indifference to the question of God are common.

This means renewing church structures is "irrelevant for the majority of people and is only of interest for church employees", Kasper says.

It also means regarding the question of God, post-conciliar theology must go "deeper than the Council was able to" and look into the "metaphysical homelessness of modern human beings."

The ongoing debates on church reform would benefit from another look at what the Church constitution Lumen Gentium said on the common priesthood of all the faithful, Kasper says.

The Council highlighted the co-responsibility of the laity, but that did not mean that there was "rivalry or opposition" between lay Catholics and priests and bishops, he stresses.

>Source

• The Tablet

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.

Sources

• CNA
• Associated Press

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."

Source

• NCR Online

Individuals and groups were invited to reflect on and respond to a series of questions across the Synod of Bishops' three key themes: communion, participation and mission.

The online portal for submissions closed in March with more than 1100 responses received on behalf of thousands of people.

Trudy Dantis, the national coordinator of the Synod of Bishops and director of the National Centre for Pastoral Research, said the various sources of information will allow for meaningful reports to be prepared.

Dantis said, "When you add the significant content that was gathered during the Plenary Council's initial Listening and Dialogue phase, which was also collated at the diocesan level, there is rich material for each diocese to draw into their Synod of Bishops reports."

The Diocese of Parramatta held a Synod of Bishops Exhibition Night titled: ‘A Church diverse, but in union'.

The meeting was held over Zoom (pictured) and facilitated by the Diocesan Committee for the Consultation on the Synod of Bishops and the Diocesan Synod Writing Group.

More than 650 responses were received and then assembled into a draft synthesis titled "Go out into yhe deep: become the Church Christ calls us to be".

Anastasia Boulus, a member of the writing group, presented a summary of the responses. From the responses received, the writing group identified seven themes.

The themes explored and acknowledged the existing synodality of the diocese through pastoral councils, approaches to leadership, school commitments, and the wisdom of religious institutes.

The themes also identified areas for growth and change including

• cultural inclusion and welcome
• embracing the spirit of Vatican II
• transparent and synodal leadership
• more opportunities for education and formation
• greater inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
• LGBTQIA+ catholics
• those of other faiths
• creative and welcoming liturgies

Jim, a participant, described the Synod as "a group of people together, listening intently to each other across the great variety of differences of points of view and considering what they're hearing in a very prayerful way."

The Writing Group was due to finish its report on 1 May, then to be forwarded as the Diocesan Contribution to the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

Sources

Catholic Outlook

Diocese of Parramatta

Australia Catholic Bishops Conference

Go out into the Deep: Draft Document