Following up on the recent Where Peter Is Field Hospital podcast episode, where Jeannie Gaffigan and I talked to Kim Daniels about the global synodal process (also known as the “Synod on Synodality”) that the Catholic Church is currently undertaking, I’m sharing another podcast that is dedicated entirely to discussing synodality in the Church.
The “Church’s Radical Reform” is hosted by the longtime Vatican correspondent for The Tablet, Christopher Lamb, and explores the different areas of the Church that are being addressed by the synod, as well as the diverse groups participating in it. I posted about it when the first episode was released (back in December), but after five episodes, it seems like now is a good time to share once again.
In his most recent episode, Lamb interviews Cardinal Mario Grech, the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops about the aims of the Synod and the questions and challenges it seeks to address.
Back in March, Lamb wrote about Cardinal Grech’s address to the Catholic chaplaincy at the University of Oxford. He reported that Cardinal Grech “says the synod is an opportunity to have a ‘frank and open’ discussion on the fundamental questions about the future of Catholicism.” Lamb goes on quote the cardinal’s thoughts on the range of questions and problems in the Church that are in great need of response: “The clearest example which comes to everyone’s mind is the sexual abuse crisis that the Church went through and is still going through. Unfortunately, this is not the only instance of a problem in the Church about which we choose to remain silent. What about the general silence concerning the deep divisions within the Catholic Church?”
In this podcast episode, Cardinal Grech discusses many of the areas of division and controversy in the Church today, including the German Church’s Synodal Path, various groups that believe they aren’t being heard by the Church, and what the synod hopes to accomplish.
From the podcast description:
Pope Francis has launched the most ambitious Catholic renewal project for 60 years with a listening exercise that aims to give every member of the 1.3 billion Church a stake in its future.
Through a “synodal” process, the Pope is asking Catholics to help re-imagine the future of the Church, and grapple with questions such as the role of women, evangelisation, priesthood, serving the marginalised and global governance. It has the potential to reshape the Church forever.
This is the first podcast series on “synodality” and will tell the story of the reform process. It is presented by Christopher Lamb, a journalist and author who specialises in the Vatican. He is Rome Correspondent for The Tablet and researching a PhD in the Church’s synodal reforms.
The podcast is sponsored by the Centre for Catholic Studies, at the University of Durham, in partnership with The Tablet.
Listen to the podcast via Apple and SoundCloud
Mike Lewis is the founding managing editor of Where Peter Is. He and Jeannie Gaffigan co-host Field Hospital, a U.S. Catholic podcast.
With thanks to Where Peter Is and Mike Lewis, where this article originally appeared.
Christopher Lamb will be speaking at the Novotel Parramatta in the Diocese of Parramatta on 5 July 2022 at 7.30pm on “The Outsider Pope: Where is Francis leading our Church?”. To RSVP to this free event email mark.oconnor@parracatholic.org by 2 July.
