THE SYNOD HAS been described at the biggest consultation exercise in human history and will begin its final phase at the Vatican this October.
Pope Francis described the synod as a “journeying together” and listening to one another to discern the best path forward for the Church.
The current synod was years in the making and formally announced in March of 2020.
Since 2021, the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics have been invited to express their views on the Church and its challenges to help guide the institution through the 21st Century.
In Ireland, this insight from local parishes was distilled into a national synthesis document, which in turn fed into a continental document that shaped the universal synod.
The first phase of this universal synod took place last year, when more than 400 members made themselves free to travel to Rome for a month to discuss issues the Church faces.
For the first time, women and laypeople have a vote in the synod assembly – previously, voting members of synods have been all men.
Of the 365 voting members, 54 are women.
Last October, they spent a month discussing 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.
They will gather again this coming October, and then a final document will be given to Pope Francis, probably in early 2025.
Pope Francis will then decide whether or not to incorporate its findings as part of the Church’s official teaching.
Bishop of Limerick Brendan Leahy participated in the synodal discussions in Rome and described it as “exciting but intense”, and also “enriching”.
“There were people from Syria, the Holy Land, Ukraine, Myanmar, from all these zones where war is going on,” Bishop Leahy told The Journal.
“Pope Francis always keeps a focus on migrants and refugees and there were loads of prayer moments for peace and migrants and refugees, which really seasoned the whole conversation.”
He further explained that during discussions, “everyone had four minutes to give their input and we all listened respectfully”.
“There was then a second round where everybody reacted to what they heard, and four minutes again where we tried to tease out where we are converging or diverging.
“You came away with a strong sense of a worldwide body of people moving together, even though we have different nuances in our approaches, we’re moving together as one people.”
While Bishop Leahy said the synod is about “moving together as one people”, there were reports of tensions within the synod discussions, particularly around LGBTQ+ issues.
Some bishops were even said to have taken offence at the acronym and to have left the discussions at one point when LGBTQ+ issues were being raised.
The term LGBTQ didn’t appear in the synthesis document presented at the conclusion of last October’s discussions.
Bishop Leahy described this document as the “sharing of what happened last October”.
“Rather than using the word ‘tensions’, I would use the word ‘divergences’,” said Bishop Leahy.
“Of course, there were differences expressed, but I don’t necessarily think they were tensions in the sense of conflicts.”
On reports that some bishops took issue with the term LGBTQ+, Bishop Leahy told The Journal: “It is a term we use in Ireland and that is how LGBTQ+ people want to be addressed and we are respectful of that.
“It was in the original draft synthesis document, but some of the groups didn’t feel that it was suitable for a final document.
“There were a number of reasons for that, but in general, people wanted to be respectful of all the LGBTQ+ community and the issue itself was certainly named and addressed.”
Julianne Moran is the general secretary of the Irish Synodal Pathway.
She noted that this synthesis document was voted on “paragraph by paragraph as to whether or not it’s approved to be the published version of the document”.
“I think they did extremely well to find a harmony amongst that diversity to ensure the issue remained in the document, even if the term LGBTQ+ wasn’t used.”
She also remarked that “sometimes we get a sense of a very Europe-centric idea of the Catholic Church”.
“What’s of real importance in the northern European hemisphere, may not be the major priority elsewhere,” she told The Journal.
“What is of utmost importance in Ireland is of less importance in say the Solomon Islands, places worried about their parishes physically disappearing under the ocean because of climate change.
“We’re asking very different questions in terms of our pastoral approach to being more diverse.
“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.”
Bishop Leahy added: “Issues within the LGBTQ+ community are felt strongly within the western Church, but perhaps some of the African delegates might have felt at times there is a risk that issues are coming in on top of them from the Western world that aren’t quite their direct issue.
“They sometimes feel there is an ideological stance.
“Here in the West, we’re trying to say, ‘we have to respond pastorally to the challenges being put before us’ and we understand that pastoral challenge.”
Timothy Radcliffe, an English priest and Dominican friar, was the “spiritual advisor” to the synod.
He told The Journal: “As an advisor, I did not take part in the synod discussions. I sat on the edge with other experts, including some cardinals, to be called on if any group wanted advice.”
When asked about some bishops leaving during discussions on LGBTQ+ issues, Father Radcliffe said: “I heard this was the case at least once but I did not see the incident.
“There did not seem to be a process for healing such a rupture. We need to ensure at the next Assembly that everyone is treated with respect.
“Any actions that might impede free and open discussion, or which are bullying, simply cannot be tolerated. They would be against the very nature of Synodality.”
He was also asked about reports of bishops taking issue with the term LGBTQ+.
“I too heard that this happened in some small groups, but again I did not witness it,” said Fr Radcliffe.
“The Church in the West, and indeed the Vatican, are generally at ease with the term LGBTQ+ as a way of referring to a community of people who should be welcomed in the Church and embraced as our beloved brothers and sisters.”
However, he added that in some parts of the world, “ the term is seen as representing a whole Western ideological subculture which other continents would resent having imposed on them”.
“This has even been a condition of receiving aid, much to the anger of governments in the Global South,” said Fr Radcliffe.
“So the rejection of the term is not for any of them a rejection of gay people but of what they see as Western cultural arrogance.
“Despite these tensions, the whole assembly voted overwhelmingly in favour of the proposition that no one should be discriminated against on the basis of their sexuality, that everyone was welcome and the dignity of everyone must be respected.”
Issues relating to the Church’s treatment of the LGBTQ+ community appeared to dominate the synodal discussions.
At one public synod gathering, Fr Radcliffe recalled a speech given by a woman in private synodal discussions, a speech which is said to have drawn the first round of spontaneous applause from the synod.
“Many of us wept when we heard of that young woman who [died by] suicide because she was bisexual and did not feel welcomed.
“I hope it changed us,” he added.
When asked about this moment and whether LGBTQ+ issues dominated discussions, Bishop Leahy told The Journal: “There was a young woman who spoke, and it was very moving.
“Indeed, there were several moving testimonies, such as from people living in warzone areas in really difficult circumstances.
“I can’t say any one issue dominated, because we went through a variety of issues – perhaps too many because we really were flat out for four weeks looking at all kinds of issues in the life of the church.
“The issue of women in the Church was perhaps the biggest issue in one sense.”
On the role of women within the Church, the synthesis document said there was an “urgent” need to give women decision-making roles.
It also called for “theological and pastoral research” into the idea of allowing women to become deacons – who are able to celebrate baptisms, marriages and funerals, but not Masses.
Bishop Leahy noted that issues pertaining to the Church’s treatment of the LGBTQ+ community and the role of women “are emerging as important issues all over the world”.
“Women in the Church, all over the world there’s a recognition that needs much greater attention, but with different nuances,” said Bishop Leahy.
“For instance, in Africa, there are some communities where there are small groups of Catholics living together and in general, these small communities don’t have priests in them and women are the leaders of those communities.
“There is a recognition that that needs to be acknowledged institutionally.”
On the role of women within the Church, Fr Radcliffe told The Journal that the “equal dignity of women must not only be recognised in theory but their voice must be heard and they must have a role in the Church’s decision making”.
He added that the synod will address the “how”.
“The Assembly was in favour by a large majority of resolving the question of the ordination of women to the diaconate soon, at least by the end of the next Assembly.
“Personally, I hope that we move forward on this,” said Fr Radcliffe.
“We need the voice of women to be heard in our Sunday Masses.”
Some within the Church are hopeful that tangible change will come from the conclusion of the Synod, when the final document is presented to Pope Francis in early 2025.
This tension was outlined last October by Fr Radcliffe, who said: “Often people have told me: ‘This Synod will not change anything.’
“Some with hope and some with fear.”
In the interim before further discussions this coming October, Bishop Leahy explained: “The idea is that we now get a bit of time to reflect in our own countries and come back in October with a greater resolve to land a bit more on some of these issues.”
Meanwhile, Fr Radcliffe told The Journal: “We finished this first Assembly with all sorts of questions hanging in the air.
“The word ‘reflect’ occurs 21 times in the synthesis document,” he remarked.
Fr Radcliffe added that priests – “surprisingly” – need to be “brought into the conversation”.
“Often, priests feel they are being criticised, blamed for failures and left alone.
“The synthesis at the end of this first session was highly critical of ‘clericalism’, the idea of the clergy as an elite caste, set above the People of God, and not accountable for what they do and say.
“This is right but we also need a good way to cherish their vocation, and bring them into the conversation, otherwise we shall get nowhere.”
When asked if we can expect concrete change arising from the discussions to take place in October, Fr Radcliffe said “the basis of all ‘real and concrete changes’ must be rooted in changes in how we are as a community”.
“We are invited to become a Church in which we listen to each other with open hearts and minds, as we did in the Synod last October,” Fr Radcliffe told The Journal.
“Barriers will fall, and I pray we shall move beyond the polarisation that has afflicted our Church in many places, especially in the West.
“It is from this new way of being together – with a deeper sense of the dignity of every baptised person – that new ways of doing things will come.”
Meanwhile, Bishop Leahy told The Journal “there is no doubt that there is a strong sense of a need for reform in the Catholic Church”.
“That has come across, from the highest levels to every grassroots level,” he added.
He also cautioned that there is a need to be watchful against the “polarity of whose side are you on”.
“We’re all on the side of wanting to move into what God wants,” he said.
“People have fears, but I think we have to accept that the Holy Spirit is pushing the Church through a deep reform and that is going to involve changes.
“People are worried about changes to doctrine, but even doctrine allows for development of new nuances of a way of seeing and approaching things.
“We should expect that there will be changes, that reform will be the order of the day.”
Bishop Leahy added that the synod is “not just a cosmetic exercise” and that the reform could be “quite deep”.
“The Church has been here for 2,000 years, it’s getting ready for the next thousand years,” Bishop Leahy told The Journal.
“If you don’t change and if you don’t move on, you’re leaving the gift of the faith in the past and to history.
“We want that gift to be for today, for tomorrow, for the next millennium, and that’s the going deeper that this Synod is about.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say