Synod: “I feel like I’m watching an enormous live news broadcast”

By Mikael Corre, 21 October 2024
Second Session of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (October 2024). Image: Vatican News

 

After 15 days of work, participants at the second session of the Synod of Bishops on synodality being held at the Vatican share their insights into contexts marked by forgotten wars. Pope Francis’ call to “de-Westernize” the Church appears to have been heard.

Cambodia is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world. This reality, far removed from Rome, is one of those that “struck” Brother Alois Löser, former prior of the Taizé Community, during the discussions of the last 15 days at the Vatican.

Around the Synod tables, “we hear powerful testimonies of Gospel living,” the religious, who came to Rome from Cuba where he moved earlier this year, told La Croix. “I’m thinking of the bishop from Cambodia, where Christians are a minority, who set up a center to help people wounded by landmines, a workshop where they make wheelchairs.”

A member of the Synod, Spanish Jesuit Enrique Figaredo Alvargonzalez, Apostolic Prefect of Battambang in northwestern Cambodia, described how he works with the kingdom’s authorities and various NGOs to implement social programs. Millions of landmines were laid in this Southeast Asian country between 1978 and 1998, during and after the ousting of the Khmer Rouge. “As we talk about a ‘synodal Church in mission,’ I find that this workshop is a striking example,” said Brother Alois.

Like him, several members of this long two-part Synod (October 2023 and October 2024) say they are discovering “church realities” they were previously unaware of. “Last year, we didn’t know each other yet; this year, the exchanges are deeper,” explained one participant, who was “deeply moved” by an experience shared by Italian Cardinal Giorgio Marengo from Mongolia, where there are 1,400 Catholics. Pope Francis’ emphasis on wanting to “de-Westernize” the church seems to be giving priority to contexts previously considered minor.

Iran, Nicaragua, Haiti…

Sometimes shared during coffee breaks, the discreet testimonies of the Archbishop Dominique Mathieu of Tehran, soon to be made a cardinal, or of Bishop Rolando Alvarez of Matagalpa, expelled from Nicaragua after being imprisoned for opposing Daniel Ortega’s dictatorship, have resonated deeply, according to two sources.

Open to current events, “the Assembly (of the Synod) was marked by the showing of a video from the parish in Gaza (on October 8),” recounted a participant, who said, “I’m realizing how much the Church is involved with people who are suffering.” “At the Synod, I sometimes feel like I’m watching a massive live news broadcast,” added this participant, who requested anonymity. “I’ve never had so much information about conflicts we hear little about, like Haiti.” The Caribbean country is represented in Rome by Archbishop Launay Saturné of Cap-Haïtien.

Like him, one in five Synod participants live in a country where armed conflict is ongoing, according to a count by La Croix. Beyond the difficult geopolitical contexts, the diversity of organizational models within the church is also being highlighted. “The universality of the Assembly is certainly one of the keys to its fruitfulness,” said Bishop Matthieu Rougé of Nanterre, one of the French members of the Synod. “It would be hard for me to single out a particular event, given the variety of local experiences shared with bishops and nuns from Africa, the East, Oceania, North and South America, not to mention Asians and Europeans. It’s so enriching!”

At the Vatican, the goal until October 27, when the Synod concludes, is to formalize a concluding document for this Synod, and to harmonize expectations. But is that even possible? “This Synod helps us socialize our experiences, it makes us listen to the good practices of others,” said Archbishop Cristobal Lopez Romero of Rabat, Morocco. “Afterward, there will still be differences. A catechist, for example, is not the same in Europe as in Africa. In Africa, the catechist is often a married man who leads the community, prepares the sacraments… He’s almost like a lay priest.”

This is hard to imagine in Western countries, where permanent deacons are a familiar figure, to the point that some wish for the diaconate to be open to women. But how could this idea not appear Western-centric in Africa or Asia? According to the 2024 Pontifical Yearbook, 97% of the 50,159 permanent deacons worldwide serve in Europe or the Americas. This raises a core question of the Synod: Should Rome still be making decisions for the whole world?

“It’s likely that there will be no consensus from the entire church”

Father Ormond Rush, Australian theologian and Synod expert, at a Vatican press conference on October 16:

“What we always have to look at is the ability to reach a consensus. If there’s no consensus on certain issues, that means the discussion must continue, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s closed forever… It’s certain that the notion of synodality is being resisted (by some), and because of that, during the last session of the Synod and this year, some people spoke about issues (the role of women, gender, inclusion of homosexual persons…) that made others in the Synod feel uncomfortable. And it’s likely that, after two sessions, there will still be no consensus from the whole church. It’s a cultural question.”

Reproduced with permission from La Croix International.

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