- Written by: Alex Walker
- Written by: Frank Callus
We have just completed the Synod on Synodality in Rome. The attention of the world has started to focus on the key issues that the Church will grapple with in the years ahead. Some emphasis has been laid on the scale of the event – four hundred bishops; some on the breaks with tradition- the role of women and the fact that some have voting rights. Following years of press coverage on the issue of clerical sexual abuse, this relatively positive interest in the Catholic Church is welcome.
The holding of the Synod marks a key point in the process. It represents the culmination of discussions that led to diocesan syntheses, to a national synthesis and to a Continental Stage held in the Spring. In the months ahead we will learn more of the discussions in Rome and something of the preparations for the follow-up Synod in October 2024. It is certainly becoming easier to think of synodality as a characteristic of the nature of the Universal Church, a process for determining its structures and systemic realities. To be sure, there will be decisions made that are applicable to the whole Church, ways of acting out the Gospel that will be influenced by the global conversations and deliberations. Pope Francis, himself, has defined the Church through this synodal process – the Church is synodal by and in its very nature.
- Written by: Chris McDonnell
Chris McDonnell 28 October 2023
When someone is elected to high office, we often talk of their having “a honeymoon period”, a time to settle in before judgements are made on performance, a time to get to know how to exercise responsibility, a time of patience with the occasional mistake. Only later does the scrutiny become more incisive and the edges sharper in argument.
- Written by: Alex Walker
Source: Vatican News
On Sunday morning, 1 October, Dominican Friar and former Master of the Order of Preachers, Father Timothy Peter Joseph Radcliffe, reflected on the meaning of 'Hoping against hope' with those who will participate in the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops set to begin on Wednesday, 4 October.
When the Holy Father asked me to give this retreat, I felt enormously honoured but nervous. I am deeply aware of my personal limitations. I am old - white- a Westerner- and a man! I don't know which is worse! All of these aspects of my identity limit my understanding. So I ask for your forgiveness for the inadequacy of my words.
We are all radically incomplete and need each other. Karl Barth, the great Protestant theologian, wrote of the Catholic 'both/ and.' For example, Scripture and tradition, faith and works. He is said to have called it the 'damned Catholic "And"', 'das verdammte katholische "Und"'. So when we listen to each other during the coming weeks and disagree, I pray we shall often say, 'Yes, and…..' Rather than 'No'! That is the Synodal way. Of course, No is also sometimes necessary!
Read more: First Synod Retreat Meditation with Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP