Synod retreat touches on homosexuality, ‘new ministries’; culminates in penitential vigil

October 02, 2024

On the eve of the second and final session of the Synod on synodality, participants concluded a two-day retreat on October 1 (video) with a penitential vigil in St. Peter’s Basilica (video).

During the retreat:

• Mother Maria Ignazia Angelini, OSB, delivered a reflection during Lauds: “‘To you, silence is praise’: Gentleness and severity of the synodal path“
• Father Timothy Radcliffe, OP, former Master of the Order of Preachers, offered two meditations: “Resurrection Fishing“ (John 20:1-14) and “Resurrection and Breakfast Conversation“ (John 20:15-25)

Mother Angelini

Reflecting on Psalm 64, Mother Angelini said that “the silence that praises God is the precious silence of those who know how to remove themselves from the stage, and live a kind of fruitful solitude open to otherness, listening to the word of God, the cry of the poor and the groans of creation.” Turning her attention to the day’s Gospel reading at Mass (Luke 9:51-56), she said:

And now that unique, beloved, longingly scrutinized face—that face to which angels are sent before—is misunderstood by the disciples themselves: it becomes a cause of stumbling ... I think it concerns this Synodal Assembly embedded in an epochal turning point in history and in the Church, the contours of which we confusingly sense but do not see clearly. Jesus does not give in to the disciples’ incomprehension, he patiently, lovingly pushes them forward. And a silence of conversion is preparing in them for the irruption of the paschal novelty that follows.

Father Radcliffe

In his first meditation, Father Radcliffe emphasized the importance of mutual cultural appreciation:

When I came to the Synod last year, I thought the great challenge was to overcome the poisonous opposition between traditionalists and progressives. How can we heal that polarisation that is so alien to Catholicism? But as I listened, there seemed to be an even more fundamental challenge: How can the Church embrace all of the diverse cultures of our world? How can we haul in the net with its fish from every culture of the world? How can the net not be broken? ...

May God bless this synod with such loving cultural encounters, in which the two become one but remain distinct. No culture can dominate. But we need to be acutely aware of how power imbalance is at play in our conversations ... We may live in a post Western world, but the banking system is still controlled by the West. Imperialism is not over, and still seeks to impose its values on others.

Though Father Radcliffe did not mention homosexuality in his meditation, his emphasis on mutual cultural appreciation evoked an address he delivered in May, in which he called upon African bishops to learn from Western culture’s acceptance of homosexuality, which he described as a “Gospel challenge” to the African bishops. (“Every culture offers gifts and is challenged,” Father Radcliffe said at the time. “The Gospel is to be inculturated in every culture but it challenges every culture. So some people, like Cardinal Ambongo, will argue that homosexuality is foreign to African cultures and so cannot be welcomed. I would say that here the gospel offers a challenge.”)

In his second meditation, however, Father Radcliffe did speak briefly on homosexuality. Referring to Fiducia Supplicans, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s December 2023 declaration on the pastoral meaning of blessings, he said:

It is no secret that Fiducia Supplicans provoked distress and anger among many bishops around the world. Some members of this Synod felt betrayed. But the Church will only become a trustworthy community if we take the risk, like the Lord, of trusting each other, even though we have been hurt. The Lord entrusts himself into our hands again and again, at every Eucharist, even though we betray him again and again. The sexual abuse crisis has taught us painfully that this cannot be an irresponsible trust which puts others at risk, especially minors. But a trust that embraces our own risk of getting hurt.

“Ultimately everything is founded on trust in God who entrusts himself to us,” Father Radcliffe continued. “We trust that with the grace of God, this Synod will bear fruit, even though we cannot anticipate what this will be and it may not be what we want.”

Father Radcliffe then quoted from a poem on the slow pace of progress—a poem written by the Jesuit Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), whose “legacy of eugenics and racism cannot be ignored,” in the words of a 2018 article. Following lengthy reflections on trust, transparency, and accountability, Father Radcliffe concluded:

So in this Synod may we discern each other’s authority and defer to it. What new ministries are needed for the Church to recognise their authority and commission them to exercise it? The gospel sheds light on so many who acted with authority in that time. May we do so today. For today is the only day we have. Carpe Diem!

Penitential vigil

During the penitential vigil, held on the evening of October 1 in St. Peter’s Basilica, “seven cardinals expressed shame and asked forgiveness ‘on behalf of all in the Church’ for sins against peace, against the environment, against the dignity of women, and against the poor; for sins of abuse and for using doctrine as a “stone to hurl” at others; and for sins against synodality,” reported Vatican News, the news agency of the Dicastery for Communication.

“We are here as beggars of the Father’s mercy, asking for forgiveness,” Pope Francis said in his reflection. “The Church is always the Church of the poor in spirit and sinners seeking forgiveness. It is not only a Church of the righteous and saints, but rather of the righteous and saints who recognize that they are poor sinners.”

“I wanted to write down the requests for forgiveness that were read by some of the Cardinals, because it was necessary to call our principal sins for what they are,” he continued. “We hide them or say them with too many polite words. Sin is always a wound in relationships: the relationship with God and the relationship with our brothers and sisters. Sisters and brothers, no one is saved alone, but it is equally true that the sin of one affects many others. Just as everything is connected in the good, it is also connected in evil.”

Contrasting the publican and the Pharisee in the parable (Luke 18:9-14), the Pope said:

What does he [the Pharisee] expect from God? A reward for his merits. In this way, he deprives himself of the surprise of the gratuitousness of salvation, fashioning for himself a god who could do nothing more than sign a certificate of presumed perfection. A man closed to surprise, closed to all surprises. He is completely closed in on himself, closed to the great surprise of mercy. His own “I” leaves no room for anything or anyone, not even God.

How many times in the Church do we behave this way? How many times have we also taken up all the space, with our words, our judgments, our titles, our belief that only we are deserving? ... We are all like the publican today, we have or want to have our eyes downcast and we want to feel shame for our sins. Like him, we stand back, clearing the space occupied by presumption, hypocrisy and pride. Let us bishops, priests, consecrated women and men say it too: clearing the space occupied by presumption, hypocrisy and pride. We could not invoke God’s name without asking for forgiveness from our brothers and sisters, the Earth and all creatures.

“On the eve of the beginning of the Synod Assembly, confessing our sins is an opportunity to restore trust in the Church, a trust broken by our mistakes and sins, and to begin to heal the wounds that do not stop bleeding, breaking ‘the bonds of injustice’” (Isaiah 58:6), the Pope said toward the conclusion of his reflection, adding:

We would not want this burden to slow down the progress of the Kingdom of God in history. We have tried to do our part, although we have made mistakes. We continue in the mission as we are able, but now we turn to you young people who are waiting for us to pass on our witness, asking forgiveness from you too if we have not been credible witnesses.

 

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