Starting this Wednesday, the Catholic Church faces a crucial event for its future. Today the Synod of Bishops begins in the Vatican, which will deal with very delicate issues that have to do with how it can be adapted to current times, such as the reception of LGTBI people or the inclusion of women in decision-making. This is an assembly on “synodality”, which the Vatican wants to define as “walking together” and listening to all parts of the Church for decision-making, which has already begun with controversy due to criticism from the ultra-conservative minority to the Pope who does not see this meeting favorably.
464 people will participate, of which 364 members will have the right to vote. Including 54 women, because it is the first time – in an unprecedented decision by Pope Francis – that women and lay people will be able to express their opinions with a vote. . Women had traditionally taken part as observers or experts, without being able to express their opinions, and until now only men had the right to vote on the final documents. The first session begins this Wednesday and debates will continue until the end of the month, while the Next year, in 2024, it will culminate in another second session, which will be the time when participants will vote on the conclusions.
In the working document that the participants will have, thorny issues are not avoided, from the celibacy of priests to the inclusion of the divorced. The roadmap states that “there are people who do not feel accepted in the Church,” something that “leads some to feel less important or less welcome within the community.” “What concrete measures are necessary to reach people “Who feel excluded from the Church because of their emotions and sexuality?” reads the text, which specifically mentions the examples of divorced and remarried people, people in polygamous marriages or LGTBI people.
The Synod will also relaunch the debate on women’s access to the diaconate so that they can exercise some functions reserved for priests, although the female priesthood is not on the table. However, it has been the reception of LGTBI people that has raised the most blisters in sectors critical of Francisco. In recent days, a letter of dubia (doubts) from five ultra-conservative cardinals, known for their opposition to the Pope, has been made public, in which, among other things, they indicate their concern that “the blessing of homosexual couples could create confusion, not not only by making them seem analogous to marriage, but because homosexual acts would be presented as a good.
The Pope’s response, which the Vatican made public this week, has defused these doubts with an apparent openness by the Pontiff to the blessing of homosexual couples in some cases, without this being confused with marriage, which the Pontiff insists it must be only between a man and a woman and open to procreation. The ultraconservative cardinals asked him if he could accept as “a possible good objectively sinful situations such as unions between people of the same sex.” The Pope concedes that in dealing with people “pastoral charity” must not be lost. “The defense of objective truth is not the only expression of that charity, which is also made of kindness, patience, understanding, tenderness, and encouragement. Consequently, we cannot become judges who only deny, reject, exclude,” Bergoglio wrote.
These cardinal critics are the American Raymond Leo Burke (75 years old), the German Walter Brandmüller (94), the Mexican Juan Sandoval Íñiguez (90), the Guinean Robert Sarah (78) and the Chinese Joseph Zen Ze-kiun (91 ), and none of them will participate in the Synod. They are known for their critical opinions of the Pontiff, and two of the signatories, Burke and Brandmüller, already clashed with the Pope in 2016 by taking a stand against the papal decision that some divorced people could remarry, under certain conditions. receive communion. Precisely this issue has once again become a matter of debate in recent hours, after the Pope has defended giving the sacraments to the divorced and remarried and in some cases, also if they do not comply with the sexual “continence” requested by the Church. He did so in response to the Archbishop Emeritus of Prague, Cardinal Dominik Duka, who wrote on behalf of the Czech Bishops’ Conference to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to raise further doubts about the application of this 2016 apostolic exhortation on the family. .
In any case, the debate is being held in the Paul VI Hall of the Vatican, the space where the participants will meet, which is already ready with the tablets – also Francis’s – that they will use to follow the work. All of this has been in preparation for years, with a process of listening to the faithful and dioceses on different continents, and represents a crucial moment in this pontificate. The last word will always be the Jesuit Pope, who must write an apostolic exhortation after next year’s session, the official document in which he will express his vision on the issues consulted.
