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ON WEDNESDAY, POPE Francis opened the second and final session of a historic Synod in the Vatican.
This final phase of the rather mysteriously titled ‘Synod on Synodality’ is taking place until 27 October and it may suggest doctrinal changes to Church teaching.
The first phase took place last October and a final document from the Synod will be presented to the Pope early next year.
The Pope will then later issue his own final text based on the Synod’s discussions.
While the first phase of the Synod addressed issues such as the place of LGBTQ+ people within the Church and whether women should be ordained, these topics have since been sent out to study groups to consider.
These groups are due to report back next June, meaning any decision won’t be taken until then.
However, the group looking at whether women should be ordained this week said that while the study remains open, “based on the analysis conducted so far… there is still no room for a positive decision regarding the access of women to the diaconate”.
Kate McElwee, the executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference, said that “while many have attempted to silence the conversation on women’s ordination, dismiss our work as ‘lobbying,’ or relegate the discernment into the shadows, we are determined to be visible”.
Pope Francis had said that taking these issues off the table would help Synod members to focus more on the “mission of the Church” and how to increase participation.
This week, he also called on members to “be careful not to see our contributions as points to defend at all costs or agendas to be imposed” and added that participants should not “seek to advance their own causes or agendas without listening to others”.
However, groups partaking in the Synod have said it is “inevitable that these issues will come up in discussions”.
Indeed, the term LGBTQ+ didn’t appear in the synthesis document arising from the first phase of the Synod.
This document was voted on line by line, and it’s understood the term LGBTQ+ was left out because of concerns that any paragraph including it would not get the two-thirds vote required due to opposition from African and Eastern European bishops.
Julianne Moran is the general secretary of the Irish Synodal Pathway and speaking to The Journal last year, she said: “I can understand the upset for people that the actual title LGBTQ+ didn’t appear in the document, but sexual identity as a question did.”
The Synod assists the Pope with its counsel and “consider questions pertaining to the activity of the Church in the world”.
The word “synod” means “assembly” and Pope Francis describes it as “journeying together”.
This is the 16th Synod and for the first time, women and laypeople have a vote in the assembly.
While the majority of the 368 voting members are bishops, 70 are non-bishop members and 54 of these are women.
The current synod was formally announced in March, 2020 and the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics were invited to express their views on the Catholic Church and its challenges to help guide the institution through the 21st Century.
Insights from local parishes feed into national documents, which in-turn were distilled into continental documents presented at the Synod.
Topics addressed in the first phase included issues such as the place of LGBTQ+ people within the Church, whether women should be ordained, and whether married men can serve as priests in regions with insufficient clergy.
A letter from Pope Francis in February remarked that these issues “require in-depth study” which is not possible to do this month during the second session of the Synod.
The Pope said the study groups should contain “Pastors and Experts from all Continents to take part in them.”
He added that they should take into “consideration the most relevant current experiences in the local Churches”.
It’s likely Pope Francis will issue the final Synod text after receiving the study group reports in the summer.
A group that supports LGBTQ Catholics, DignityUSA, said that while it is “inevitable that these issues will come up in discussions, we recognise that specific proposals will not come out of October’s deliberations”.
But DignityUSA questioned how diverse the study groups are and added that the Synod process has “exposed the need for truly radical changes in our Church”.
A Penitential Vigil presided over by Pope Francis took place in St Peter’s Basilica on Tuesday on the eve of the Synod.
The Vigil “requested forgiveness for sins of abuse, sins against women, and sins of using doctrine as stones to be hurled”.
There were testimonies of war, sexual abuse and migration.
The testimony about sexual abuse came from Laurence, a South African man who was abused at the age of 11 by a priest.
“One beautiful South African morning, he took me by the hand to a dark place where, in shuddering silence, he took from me what should never be taken from any child,” he told St. Peter’s Basilica and the pontiff during the service.
“My story is one of many, and it is by sharing these experiences and facing them fearlessly that we shed light on this particular perfidious darkness,” said Laurence.
He said the “reluctance to address these crimes openly has been a disservice to the victims and a betrayal of the Church’s ethical and spiritual responsibilities” and that a “key factor in the crisis is a lack of transparency within the Church”.
Francis said the service was intended “to begin to heal wounds that never stop bleeding.”
“We ask forgiveness, feeling ashamed, from those who have been hurt by our sins,” said the Pope.
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Fair play to Belgium calling this creep out to his face last week on the issue of the ongoing child abuse cover ups. Of course, they got the usual mealy mouth answers. Lessons learned etc, but talk is cheap.
@Dermot Blaine: Was talking to your mother last night, she said that she wished that you grew up.
@Dermot Blaine: someone tore you a new one, the other day lol
@Brendan’s Mother: Was talking to Satan earlier today, said you’re a pric. Funny aul world
@Brendan’s Mother: Good trolls are funny, you’re just a gob $hite who thinks he is
@Dermot Blaine: *chuckling
@Dermot Blaine: Hope you do the same when SF calls canvassing.
@Vincent Alexander: of course I will. I usually ask my local SF td if he was present at the SF Ard Fheis when they gave a standing ovation to Garda Jerry McCabe’s killers, (he was, so we’re most of the party’s front bench)
It’s funny watching him squirm. He still won’t say it was wrong though.
@Dermot Blaine: Good. I hope many more follow your example.
Oh, how cute, a bunch of old men in dresses think that they know what god wants. Even better, they think they can vote on what god thinks and wants. And the cherry on the cake – a bunch of people believe that a bunch of middle aged men in dresses know what god wants.
Very cute and funny :)
@Termaz FX: Mocking Catholics in particular seems to be your agenda rather than dealing with the issues.
The Catholic Church is a pedophile ring and a cult. All its assets should be ceased. It’s funny that the journal is telling me this comment may be perceived as toxic for telling the truth
@Chris Lane: here here Chris. Slowly (unfortunately) but surely the catholic church is becoming irrelevant in Ireland. Now get them out of the schools and stop the brainwashing of kids.
@Chris Lane: Yes, Ireland is a multireligious country now, Islamic state.
@Chris Lane: 4%
@Chris Lane: A serious lack of balance, perspective and context displayed here. The not-so-subtle implication is that Catholicism is a pedophile cult. What an outrageous stance.
@Chris Lane: they still continue to cover up their crimes. Its strange they have supporters in the comments.
I am able to talk to the dead
@Brendan’s Mother: sounds tiresome. Not much of a life to talk about when you’re dead.
@Brendan’s Mother: not a surprise, you’re already brain deceased yourself
@Dermot Blaine: lol
The National Vetting Bureau Act (Children and Vulnerable Persons) 2012 to 2016 provides the
legislative basis for the mandatory vetting of persons who wish to undertake certain work or
activities relating to children or vulnerable persons. It places vetting on a statutory basis, making
it a criminal offence for organisations not to “receive a vetting disclosure from the Bureau in
respect of that person” for individuals who undertake “relevant work or activities” with children
or vulnerable persons.
This legislation or equivalent was needed to weed out the 4% of priests that are accused of abusing.
@thomas molloy: and the 96% who covered it up. It’s a pity the Church didn’t report the ’4%’ to the state authorities instead of moving them around to repeat the abuse.
@Dermot Blaine: The state also had the mistaken belief that a good telling off cured men of :::::?:::: whatever is pc to call evil men who are attracted to boys. This issue is still not being dealt with in society
Do you really believe that when a priest blesses a wafer, it turns into the body of Christ? Are you seriously telling me you believe that? Are you seriously saying that wine turns into blood?” Mock them. Ridicule them. In public. Don’t fall for the convention that we’re all too polite to talk about religion. Religion is not off the table. Religion is not off limits. Religion makes specific claims about the universe which need to be substantiated and need to be challenged and, if necessary, need to be ridiculed with contempt.
@aidan bergin: Far too circumspect there Aido; you should go full-on Pol Pot by building and staffing ‘reeducation camps’ and be done with it. Your SPHE indoctrination is too subtle for the thick Orish kids (did I get that ‘smoked-salmon’ socialist accent right ?).
@jak: nonsense
An outmoded and out dated. Irrelevant institution going around in ever decreasing circles. Hopefully it will soon vanish up its own fundament!
@Padraig O’Brien: Check it out in another 2000 years time
Desperately trying to stay relevant
Keep grooming for the death cult
Unlikely that they will change anything regarding women or gay people. The Pope himself referred to gay people using the deeply offensive term ‘Fag***ery’ (in relation to gay priests) and had to apologise for it. The excuse was he comes from a macho culture and he’s old. Would we accept this language of hate from President Higgins, or Trump or Biden? Or David Attenborough? Age doesn’t excuse this hurtful language of bigotry. So I would not be holding my breath for any meaningful changes for either the proper inclusion of women at all levels within the church or for the just treatment of gay people. They allowed 70 odd non-priests to participate out of over 400. 99.9% of catholics are non-priests. They wont change, and within the next 2 generations, churches will be almost empty.
@Paul whitehead: do you seriously think that if Catholicism allows itself to be influenced more by the world than by tradition and the word of God, that mass attendance on Sunday will increase?
Groomers for boomers
have your say