October 29 sees the conclusion of the first general assembly of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality [16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops]. The assembly, focusing on ‘communion, participation, and mission,’ brought together 450 people including, cardinals and bishops, men and women religious, and laypeople. What fruit it will bear in the Church in the long term has yet to be seen; the second general assembly will still take place in 2024
When he opened the synod on October 4, Pope Francis stressed the need for a “priority of listening”—especially to the Holy Spirit, asking participants to exercise a certain “fasting from the public word”.
Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, who is also president of the Commission for Information referred to this as “a moment of silence in faith, in communion, in prayer…”
It is clear that Pope Francis desired participants in the synod to feel they are in a safe place, a place where they may express themselves, exercising “confidentiality and discernment”; a place where discussion and encounter can take place.
The coming of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality has been met with hopes for the role of the laity in the Church who have felt unheard and unseen—especially women, for how better to reach out to the marginlised, for pastoring young people, minoritites, the divorced and remarried, and LGBTQ+ persons, for addressing the wounds of the sex abuse crisis, and much more. It has also been met with some pushing of agendas, doubt, perhaps even fear.
However, the likes of Jean-Claude Cardinal Hollerich of Luxembourg, the synod’s relator general, and Fridolin Cardinal Ambongo of Kinsasha, Congo, cautioned against preconceived demands and bloated expectations. Cardinal Ambongo noted on October 7: “There are a lot of people who believe that this synod will bring solutions to all problems,” Cardinal Ambongo said, “but the synod will define the new way of ‘doing’ Church.:
Michael Cardinal Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development has remarked that the hierarchical Church has “nothing to fear from a process that begins with listening.”
Bishop Daniel Flores from Brownsville, Texas, said: “I have simply heard honest, sincere, faithful, charitable conversations ‘sub tutela Petri’ under the care of Peter,” he said, adding that such discussions are “not a threat to the faith.”
Sadly, a glance at certain social media—for example X [formerly known as Twitter], and even some Catholic media—reveals the fire of the untamed tongue which St. James describes as “a world of malice”… “a restless evil, full of deadly poison…” [James 3:6, 8].
As this stage of the synod draws to a close, let us ask the Lord to set a guard over our mouths and “keep watch over the door” of our lips [Psalm 141:3], and grant us the grace to await with eagerness and patience for what the Holy Spirit will reveal. SE
