Synod on the Edge

Whenever Pope Francis goes into the hospital, the Catholic world goes on edge. I know exactly what’s happening to him because I had the same test a couple of months ago; fortunately, no surgery for me this time, unlike the Pope. Gerald O’Connell has the most complete examination of the Pope’s medical history, and Christopher White keeps us up with what’s happening now. At least the Pope was walking better before the surgery.

Michael Sean Winters put the American Catholic world on edge about the Synod by revealing that the USCCB didn’t deem it worthy of discussion at their June meeting. At least, it’s not on the tentative agenda for a meeting that looks to me more substantive than these resort-based gatherings often are. The bishops will share a “fraternal” session on the first day but then livestream the morning sessions on June 15 and 16. Maybe they will talk among themselves about issues raised in the Synod process.

Not posted yet are the documents for decision-making. Winters characterizes the plan for the ongoing formation of priests as rumored as “a disaster,” so watch for that. The agenda just says it “provides some guidance for priests to continue their personal and priestly formation following ordination to the priesthood.” Calls for better preaching are such a constant in all the Synod documents that I hope refresher courses are made available, but I also hope that theological and scriptural updates are included. Maybe even training in collaborative leadership. Like Synodality.

But I speculate, and why not?

• I’d love to see a Strategic Plan for 2025-2028 that included plans for a new pre-election document calling for more action on the environment.
• I tremble when I read Part Three of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, Sixth Edition, “The Professional-Patient Relationship” because I fear for new transgender policies, but I don’t know what is actually proposed.
• I always hope that whatever is coming about the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) improves some of the current translations.
• Incorporating the energy of the Latin American lay leadership in whatever shoring up operation is proposed would be a good idea.
• Recognizing the disability community as well.

Well, nobody has named me a bishop, so I will just have to wait and see what happens, as do the letter-writers to NCR. I am moderately cheered because I anticipated the concerns in a column by Thomas Reese and in a long article by Brian Fraga about the meeting. I wish I could determine more of the outcomes.

Meanwhile, I’d like to highlight some edgy articles that deal with the bishops and the synods, broadly defined. Both Loup Besmond de Senneville and Christopher Lamb write about appointments. The French journalist interviewed the “Bergoglians,” the Francis cardinals who now have the majority in the college. He finds them united not only by “peripheries” — “Only 15 live in Rome” (out of the new 81) — but by “pastoral experience.” They are not primarily theologians, and they are young. The youngest? Appointed to Mongolia. You get the idea.

Lamb, the British columnist reinforces that Francis has these priorities for bishops as well, and then adds the detail that Francis sometimes finds his own candidates, bypassing some more conventional recommendations from his diplomats: “the Pope wants to ensure the bishops he appoints will help ensure the reforms of this papacy are irreversible.” He’s looking for leaders, so watch who’s speaking out in Orlando next week.

Two foreign watchers at the German Synodal Way write summary articles in La Croix International, a nice gesture towards broadening the relevance of this national effort at synodality. The French observer, layman Jerome Vignon, concisely lays out the objections: “it was not theologically well-founded, therefore bordering on schism; it was the work of elites who were unconcerned with the situation of the poor; it was a concession to the spirit of the times; and it was free from the rules of law that prevail for the universal Church.” He then demolishes each without avoiding some subtle digs at those who criticize and even at the Germans who are ahead of everyone else.

The Australian observer, laywoman Susan Sullivan, is more restrained but equally in awe. She asks: “How has the German Church achieved such a contemporary and cogent perspective on issues facing the Church today? And how has it reached such courageous and pastorally sensitive responses?” She answers: “the long-established status, power and access to bishops of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) is a significant factor. It has been vital in nurturing an educated, confident laity experienced in the ways of the Church.” Oh, American bishops, listen up! We are here!

Three other articles edge back in time by leaving the Synod for a council – Vatican II. Robert Mickens reflects that no pope “served so briefly as Bishop of Rome and yet had such an immense impact on the Catholic Church as John XXIII.” He died sixty years ago and Mickens wonders if both traditionalists and reformers are ignoring all that’s happened since that should have changed their agendas.

Joan Chittister has the edgiest article of them all, a must-read arguing that not much really changed for ordinary Catholics after the Council. Only with synodality has the promise of Vatican II awakened the laity once again – especially women. She’s kinder to Paul VI than I would be. 

Gregory Hillis’ review of George Weigel’s new book on the Council is more predictable in that Weigel finds necessary the rigor of the subsequent Ratizinger-influenced papacies. Hillis appreciates his attention to the Council documents at the same time he concludes that “It is not an exaggeration to state that Weigel writes almost as if the current pontiff did not exist.”

Francis does exist and we pray for his good health. Before there was any hint of his impending operation – trust the Vatican when it comes to secrecy – I noted two articles.

Last week, de Senneville was remembering a conversation with a cardinal about Francis’s speech before the conclave that elected him: “And when this Argentine cardinal took the floor, we suddenly felt a breath of fresh air. When Bergoglio began to speak, those at the podium below suddenly looked very pale. They looked so old.”

Last week, Mickens was writing that Francis is not perfect but “The motivation for everything the 86-year-old pope does and every initiative he takes, indeed for the very way he looks at the world, is based on the Good News; that is, the Gospel. When the pope makes appeals for a more just distribution of the wealth, or throws his support behind environmental activists, or speaks out forcefully against abortion, or badgers nations about the dignity and rights of migrants and refugees, or actively seeks dialogue even with those whom some might see as despicable human beings, he does so out of love for Christ.”

Let us pray.