Decision-making methods, the position of women, migrants, homosexuals, cultural traditions, climate change, the training of priests… Rarely has a document from Rome dealt with so many issues so openly. The Secretariat of the Synod published Tuesday, June 20, a “working tool” in view of the first meeting of bishops and lay people to be held in October at the Vatican, ahead of a second session in October 2024 to reflect on the future of the Church .
The authors of this document chart the future through a series of questions addressed to the participants of the Synod on Synodality, launched by Pope Francis in autumn 2021 and which has already led to a consultation of Catholics around the world of what they call the Synod “Synodal Church”, more in line with their base. The word also occurs 71 times in this text, circulated by the Vatican in Italian, English, French, Spanish and Portuguese.
The Instrumentum laboris (the traditional name of this document) is intended to organize the work in October, but “cannot be understood as the first draft of the final document of the synodal assembly,” the authors warned. The series of questions he proposes in 33 pages nevertheless offers a fairly clear vision of the church.
Recognizing what the world is “good at”
Beyond the first part, which is a spiritual presentation of the concept of synodality, through the themes chosen or the way in which it poses its questions, the Vatican outlines the vision of a more grass-roots Church in which the question of margins is omnipresent . We are recognizing an institution made up of believers called to play a more active role and rethinking the way it proclaims its message to today’s world, a thousand miles from a besieged fortress church that is a should defend what has been acquired.
“With what attitude do we approach the world? Do we see the good in this while committing ourselves to prophetically denounce everything that undermines the dignity of human beings, human communities and creation? “, we can read in the working instrument. According to the document, a survey was necessary because of the “abuse crisis”. “In addition to asking forgiveness from the victims of the suffering they have caused, the Church must continue to pursue the path of conversion and reform to prevent similar situations from recurring in the future,” he writes.
Integration of “LGBTQ+ people”
The text raises the question of integrating “groups of people who do not feel well received in the church, such as people who are divorced and remarried, polygamous people or LGBTQ+ people”. It should be noted that this is the first time the Vatican has used this expression to refer to homosexual people. The document also worries about “racial, tribal, ethnic, class, or caste discrimination that also exists among God’s people.” However, certain subjects are missing, such as bioethics and the pre-conciliar liturgy.
In addition, the status of women, a ubiquitous theme in the on-site consultations, is also one of the central themes of the document, which even raises the issue of women deacons, but without explicitly mentioning ordination. of priestesses, against whom Pope Francis has repeatedly spoken out. “What new ministries could be created to provide means and opportunities for women’s effective participation in the decision-making and decision-making bodies? ‘ ask the authors of the document.
Another very sensitive issue that the Synod Secretariat did not avoid: the ordination of married men. “Is it possible, as certain continents are proposing, to reflect on the possibility of reviewing, at least in certain areas, the discipline of married men’s access to the priesthood? A problem that was already raised during the last Synod on the Amazon organized in Rome, without really having been decided.
The Vatican goes so far as to question the role of priests, bishops and even the pope when addressing the issue of the authority of Catholic leaders, clergy and laity and the need to adapt their training. “How should the role of the Bishop of Rome and the exercise of primacy develop in a synodal church? A previously unimaginable question in a document released by the Vatican.
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“In a synodal assembly Christ is present and acts”
Instrumentum Laboris, Working Instrument of the Synod on Synodality, October 2023 :
“The synodal assembly cannot be understood as a representative and legislative assembly, like a parliamentary assembly with its majority logic. Rather, we are called to understand it by analogy with the liturgical assembly. According to ancient tradition, a synod is celebrated: it begins with the invocation of the Holy Spirit, continues with the profession of faith, and ends with common decisions to ensure or restore ecclesial communion. In a synodal assembly, Christ is present and active. (…) Those who gather in the name of Christ hear his word, listen to one another, discern in docility to the Holy Spirit, and proclaim what they have heard and seen as the light of the Church’s way. »