The Curia takes control of the Synod

Pope Francis has announced that many of the key issues from the Synod will not be voted on at the October 2024 Synod. Instead they will be handed over to 10 Study Groups who will not report until late in 2025.

So while we were told that “What affects all should be decided by all”, this has now been translated into “What affects all will be decided by the Curia”.

The issue of Women in Ministry has been discussed for many decades. It was an important issue for all continents in the current Synod. There have been at least 4 Reports on the Diaconate for Women which have not been published. Now the Synod Office and the Curia will “select” the members of these Study Groups. Will any women with a sense of vocation to ordained ministry be included in these Study Groups? Will women theologians feature or will male clerics dominate all Study Groups? Does Synodality mean the curia still decides?

Following the gospel of Jesus, the Catholic Church should be a symbol for EQUALITY – for Laity, for Women, for LGBTQ+, for Married People. Instead this is totally undermined by the Curia who are determined to hold onto their patriarchal power and priviliges.

However EQUALITY is seen as a core Christian message by communities around the world. It is in those communities that the reforms so important to our church are spreading.

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Colm Holmes, Chair We are Church International
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Phone: +353 86606 3636

Dr Martha Heizer, Vice-Chair We are Church International
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We Are Church on the 11th anniversary of the election of Pope Francis on 13 March 2024

On the occasion of the eleventh anniversary of the election of Pope Francis, We Are Church International appeals to all Church people at all levels to remain faithful to the urgently needed course of reform initiated by Francis. In his speech at the pre-conclave, Cardinal Bergoglio called for a radical reorientation of the Church, both internally and externally. We are currently experiencing this radical change of direction, for which he was elected by the cardinals.

In the eleven years of his pontificate so far, Pope Francis has brought the Roman Catholic world church back onto the theological course of the Second Vatican Council, which his two predecessors had largely abandoned. This urgently needed course of reform, which includes in particular the worldwide Synodal Process 2021 to 2024 initiated by Francis, must be continued so that it becomes irreversible. We also acknowledge his bold social and ecological commitment.

Re-establishing synodality

The current aggressive polarisation within the Church shows how important it is to re-establish synodality as a form of ecclesial life and leadership that existed in the early Church. Pope Francis' reform process has already fundamentally changed our Church. But the church crisis is far from over and there is strong resistance to Pope Francis' reform course that was previously unimaginable. It is now a matter of enduring these tensions and overcoming divisions if our Church wants to be truly Catholic, i.e. inclusive.

Further developing theology and canon law

The revelations about spiritual and sexualised violence and its cover-up are shaking the credibility of the Catholic Church in more and more countries. This requires addressing the systemic issues: the abuse of clerical power, the subordination of women and outdated sexual doctrine. All of this must be further developed in terms of theology and canon law. Genuine co-responsibility means not only consulting, but also co-deciding! And this at all levels. Decentralised solutions must be possible.

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Colm Holmes, Chair We are Church International
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Phone: +353 86606 3636
Dr Martha Heizer, Vice-Chair We are Church International
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Phone: +43 650 4168500

During the first session of the Synod on Synodality, the theologians of the CLAR – Latin American Confederation of Religious - group of theologians and theologian consultants of the presidency produced a series of thematic sheets on some of the topics discussed in the assembly, intended for the synod fathers and mothers as well as the Christian communities, especially Latin American ones, to contribute to the reflection and debate.

We invite you take a look at
https://www.clar.org/quienes-somos/etap/aportes-para-el-sinodo-2023/

(Chrome, Edge and Firefox browsers offer translation)

The following message was approved by the WAC Coordinating Team on 13 October 2023 and has been sent to 238 of the participants of the October 2023 Synod for whom we could find email addresses.

16 December 2023

Dear *,

We are hopeful that Synodality represents the future of the Church.

We ask that at the October 2024 Synod that you strongly support three main themes:

1. Equality for laity We are delighted to see non-bishops with Voting Rights at the October 2023 Synod. We would like to see all future Synodal assemblies including an equal number of lay people as Voting participants. And the lay participants should be selected by the laity.
   
   
2. Unity in diversity The October 2023 Synod showed that many of the hot button issues which we would like to see are not supported by many in the global south. Therefore, the best way forward is to embrace unity in diversity. This is clearly outlined in Chapter 19 (g) and (j) of the Synod Synthesis. This would allow some countries to move ahead with important issues of equality for laity, women, LGBTQ+ and married people.
   
   
3. Equality for Women All ministries should be open to all the baptised who have that vocation, regardless of sex, gender orientation or Marital status. The Synod Synthesis noted different positions about women’s access to the diaconal ministry. Opening access for women to the diaconate would be an important step in opening all ministries to women.

We ask for your support for the three themes outlined at the October 2024 Synod.

Blessings and best wishes,

Colm Holmes,
Chair We are Church International
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Phone: +353 86606 3636

Dr Martha Heizer,
Vice-Chair We are Church International
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Phone: +43 650 4168500

NOW THERE IS A YEAR TO TRANSLATE THEM INTO CONCRETE CHOICES

The first session of the Synod on Synodality closed with the publication of the Synthesis Report, charged with summarising the work of the assembly and relaunching the contents considered to be a priority for the discernment of the local Churches and for theological and canonical in-depth study in view of the formulation of proposals for the second, more decisional session, scheduled to take place in a year's time.

The first datum that emerged with unprecedented clarity during this first session was the diversity of socio-cultural contexts, theological views and pastoral urgencies with which the Catholic Church today finds itself having to measure itself, which makes it difficult to hypothesise valid answers everywhere and opens the way to a decentralisation leading to thinking of it as a communion of local Churches. The second fact highlighted in the assembly in Rome is that the reforms to promote which We are Church was born and has been committed to these almost three decades (full recognition of the equal dignity of all believers and overcoming the division between clergy and laity, participation of the local Churches in the appointment of bishops, opening of ordained ministries to women, the right to celebrate the Eucharist in a plurality of forms, abolition of the obligation of celibacy for priests and reintegration of married priests in the service of the community, positive evaluation of sexuality - hence revision of the exclusion of remarried divorcees from the Eucharist and overcoming all discrimination against homosexuals - commitment also ecumenical for peace, justice and the protection of creation, justice for the victims of abuse by members of the clergy, etc. ), until a few years ago the patrimony of small groups and excluded from discussion in institutional circles, can no longer be evaded, they are at the centre of the Church's debate. This has certainly been helped by the consultation of the local Churches, the process of preparation and the participation, albeit numerically completely insufficient, of baptised and baptised 'non-bishops' in the episcopal assembly, which is a fundamental step towards a truly synodal Church.

Certainly the point reached in the discussion so far appears to be more advanced in some cases: e.g. For example, the chapter on the Eastern Churches, whose attempts at Latinisation are condemned in the text, and for which new institutional instruments are proposed to recognise their dignity; the chapter on the ministry of the bishop, for which the need to rethink the election mechanisms in a more participative way is pointed out, and forms of regular verification are foreseen for their work; the chapter on groupings of Churches, which opens the way to the recovery of ancient synodal institutions, the development of unprecedented continental assemblies and the strengthening of Episcopal Conferences. In other cases, however, it is more backward: the one on Christian initiation does not mention the link between liturgy, in particular the Eucharist, and personal, community and social life; the one on the poor, while reaffirming the "preferential option", does not link "choice of the poor" and "synodality", resulting somewhat spurious; on clericalism there is only one passage (par. On clericalism, there is only one passage (par. 11c), so the subject is not dealt with in much depth. What is puzzling is the absence of an explicit reference to sexual minorities, which were discussed in the assembly but only alluded to in the text, and the silence on the possibility of ordaining women not only as deacons but also as priests. The very decision not to devote a specific paragraph to abuse, but to scatter references in various parts of the text detracts from the strength of the theme.

In this light, the task of We are Church is to advance, with its own specific activities and by strengthening its networks with other national and international reform groups, such as those that during the Synod days gave life to the "Spirit Unbounded" event, the consensus towards the reforms, seeking contacts with the delegates most in tune or available and offering them training tools on the controversial issues, so that they arrive at next year's session better prepared.

If the Catholic Church showed the possibility of facing together the challenges it faces - in particular the radical solution of the abuse issue and the full recognition of equal dignity and access to ministries regardless of gender, sexual orientation and state of life - and achieve 'unity in diversity', it would offer a prophetic witness to a world that seems unable to resolve its crises and manage its differences in a non-destructive way.

6 November 2023 THE NATIONAL COORDINATION OF NOI SIAMO CHIESA