After two years of a process of listening to the faithful and the dioceses of the world, Pope Francis inaugurated yesterday in the Vatican the long-awaited synod of bishops on synodality, a global symposium in which more than 400 participants will debate crucial issues for to the future of the Catholic Church, such as the reception of the LGBTI community, the celibacy of priests or the inclusion of women. These are all difficult matters that have once again put the small but noisy ultra-conservative opposition to the Argentinian pontiff on guard, against an assembly so crucial for this pontificate that some have described it as a “mini-council”.
The Pope, in his homily during the opening Mass in Saint Peter’s Square, seemed to respond to these criticisms and assured that the synod must promote welcome, and not be a place where ideologies prevail. “It does not serve us to have an immanent view, made of human strategies, political calculations or ideological battles”, he assured after warning that this assembly “is not a parliament” of opposing political sides, but a meeting “that serves to walk together, with the gaze of Jesus, who blesses the Father and welcomes all those who are afflicted and overwhelmed”.
In the afternoon he insisted on the same idea, during the first session held in the Pau VI Hall, where he did not sit at a lectern, but at a round table like the rest of the participants. There, he assured that the protagonist must be the Holy Spirit, because otherwise, if the participants are guided “by human, personal and ideological interests, it will not be a synod, but a parliamentary meeting or something else”.
The 464 participants will meet until the end of October, while next year it will culminate in another second session, which will be the moment when the 364 members who have the right to vote will express themselves on the conclusions. It is an unprecedented synod, because it is also the first in which women (54 among the participants) and lay people will be able to vote after Francis’ historic decision to allow it. Until now, only men had the right to vote in the final documents, while women had traditionally been part of them as observers or experts, without their opinions being shaped. The Jesuit pope will always have the last word, who will have to write an apostolic exhortation after the 2024 session, the official document in which he will express his vision on the topics discussed.
The assembly on “synodality”, which the Vatican wants to define as “walking together” and listening to all parts of the Church for decision-making, has begun with a great uproar after the letter of dubia (‘doubts’ ‘) sent by five ultra-conservative cardinals, aged between 75 and 94, who don’t like the fact that delicate subjects such as the blessing of homosexual couples can be studied in this meeting. One of its leaders, the American Cardinal Raymond Burke, assured that it is necessary to fight against “the poison of confusion, error and division” which, in his opinion, could create this assembly.
But Francis thinks just the opposite, that “Jesus also invites us to be a Church that welcomes” and “not with closed doors”. He believes that in today’s times the Church must avoid falling into some “dangerous temptations”, such as “being a rigid Church, a customs, which armors itself against the world and looks towards the past; that of being a lukewarm Church, which surrenders to the fashions of the world; that of being a tired Church, withdrawn into itself”. “The church of the door open to all, all, all”, the Pontiff later emphasized.
Yesterday was a day of great activity in the Vatican. In addition to the opening of the synod, the Holy See published the apostolic exhortation Laudate Deum, the Pope’s update of the environmental encyclical Laudato si’, published eight years ago. Here, Francesca notices that the world is getting upset by the inaction of politicians and economic interests in the face of the climate crisis and warns that it may be approaching “a point of bankruptcy”.
In addition, the Holy Father charged against the climate deniers. “No one can ignore that in recent years we have witnessed extreme phenomena, frequent periods of unusual heat, drought and other groans of the earth that are just some palpable expressions of a silent disease that is affecting us all”, he warned .
