To the chagrin of headline writers everywhere, Pope Francis turned the focus of the synod heavily toward process in his letter to Cardinal Mario Grech, general secretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod. He announced the creation of 10 study groups to look at specific theologically complicated issues. The list emphasized reforming the institution, not the hot-button issues that dominated news coverage of last year’s synod.
Those who want the synod to enact sweeping reforms will be disappointed that the pope cited his “Chirograph” issued on Feb. 16, which stated, in relevant part, “The Dicasteries of the Roman Curia shall cooperate, ‘according to their respective specific competencies, in the work of the General Secretariat of the Synod’ by setting up Study Groups that will initiate, with a synodal method, the in-depth study of some of the themes that emerged in the First Session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.”
The actual list of 10 subject areas is also as much inward- as outward-looking. Studying “some aspects of the relationship between the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Latin Church” is needed, as last year’s synodal synthesis stated, but that was not what caught the headlines. The same for studying “some theological and canonical matters regarding specific ministerial forms.” That could be explosive and it could be pedestrian.
The church must always consider what it does and does not teach, but that teaching is not a museum piece, set on the mantel, to be dusted every once in a while. What Francis has insisted is that the church, its leaders no less than the people in the pews, ask themselves how that teaching is perceived, how it is received or not.
The church can no more abandon its teachings than it can abandon a sacrament, but how a teaching is presented, how it is inculturated in different local churches, how one teaching relates to another, how the church’s teaching in a particular instance assists or hinders the salvation of souls, all these issues are the stuff of pastoral theology.
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With thanks to the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) and Michael Sean Winters, where this article originally appeared.
