by Elza Ferrario, Noi Siamo Chiesa
The second Synodal Assembly was held in Rome from 31 March to 3 April 2025: about a thousand participants, including laywomen and laymen, religious men and women, priests and bishops.
There was a document to be approved and delivered to the bishops for their assembly in May, from which the official document to be sent to the dioceses would emerge, at the conclusion of the four-year synodal journey. Everything was ready, everything was already armoured: very few amendments were allowed, it could only be approved.
But the Synodal Assembly said no to a text sent only two days before the start of the Assembly, written by the Presidency of the Synodal Journey without involving the Synodal Committee. No to a text from which all reference to women deacons had disappeared, with ambiguous wording for LGBTQ+ people, never openly mentioned, and only vague references to the structural problem of clergy abuse. No to a text that betrayed the complexity and richness of four years of confrontation and journey together.
Four years ago, the Synodal Assembly would have bowed its head and said yes. But in these four years the virus of synodality has crept into the Italian dioceses, even among the bishops, and the Assembly said no! Now the document will be rewritten, by the entire Synodal Journey Committee, and voted on at a third Synodal Assembly, to be held on 25 October. And the Bishops' Conference Assembly will wait, and slip from May to November!
This proves that synodality is dangerous: if it manages to make the Italian Church, traditionally supine towards the Bishops' Conference, say "no", then one really has to be careful, no Church is safe any more!
News article:
https://www.cittadellaeditrice.com/munera/la-ribellione-dei-funzionari-non-ha-funzionato/
https://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2025/04/04/news/sinodo_cei_vescovi_gay_documento-424105372/
https://www.finesettimana.org/pmwiki/uploads/RaSt202504/250404kocci.pdf
https://www.finesettimana.org/pmwiki/uploads/RaSt202504/250404nocetiagasso.pdf