Synod, October 2: Pope defends inclusion of non-bishops; Cardinal Fernández: ‘no’ to women deacons

October 03, 2024

The second and final session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops opened on October 2 with Mass in St. Peter’s Square (video).

The synod’s official theme is “For a synodal Church: communion, participation and mission”; colloquially, it is known as the synod on synodality. The synod began in 2021, with consultation with the faithful in the dioceses of the world. The synod’s first session took place in October 2023.

In his homily—preached before an estimated 25,000 people—the Pope insisted on the importance of listening to all viewpoints and invited everyone to pray and fast for peace on October 7. The Mass concluded with the Marian invocation Sub tuum praesidium.

Pope Francis

The synod’s first general congregation took place later in the day from 4:30 to 7:30 in the Paul VI Audience Hall (video). In his address, Pope Francis said that the assembly “aims to help bring about a synodal Church, a Church in mission, capable of setting out, making herself present in today’s geographical and existential peripheries, and seeking to enter into a relationship with everyone in Jesus Christ, our brother and Lord.”

“The Church—semper reformanda [always to be reformed]—cannot pursue her journey and let herself be renewed without the Holy Spirit and his surprises,” he continued. “Without letting herself be shaped by the hands of God the Creator, his Son Jesus Christ and his Holy Spirit.”

The Pope also emphasized the importance of God’s mercy:

Let us not forget that we have been shown mercy. We know both the beauty of that journey and the fatigue that it entails ... We are making it, convinced of the “relational” nature of the Church and seeking to ensure that the relationships given to us and entrusted to our responsible creativity will always be a sign of the gratuitousness of mercy. A so-called Christian who does not enter into the gratuitousness and mercy of God is simply an atheist dressed as a Christian. The mercy of God enables us to be trustworthy and responsible.

During the second half of his address, the Pope defended the changes he has made to the Synod of Bishops, allowing for the participation of non-bishops as full members, and making the synod assembly, in the Pope’s words, “a process and not just an event.” The Pope said:

In choosing to convene as full members of this 16th Assembly also a significant number of lay and consecrated persons (men and women), deacons and priests, developing what was already in part envisaged for previous Assemblies, I acted in continuity with the understanding of the exercise of the episcopal ministry set forth by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. The Bishop, the principle and visible foundation of unity of each particular Church, cannot carry out his ministry except within the People of God and with the People of God, preceding, standing in the midst of, and following that portion of God’s People entrusted to his care.

“Just as no one is saved alone, the proclamation of salvation needs everyone, and requires that everyone to be heard,” he continued. “The presence in the Assembly of the Synod of Bishops of members who are not Bishops does not diminish the ‘episcopal; dimension of the Assembly ... Still less does it place any limitation on, or derogate from, the authority proper to individual Bishops and the College of Bishops. Rather, it points to the form that the exercise of episcopal authority is called to take in a Church that is conscious of being essentially relational and therefore synodal.”

The Pope concluded with a call for “differing forms” of the exercise of the ministry of bishops, in a manner consistent with the deposit of faith:

Differing forms of a “collegial” and “synodal” exercise of the episcopal ministry (within the particular Churches, in groupings of Churches and in the Church as a whole) need to be identified in due course. They must always respect the deposit of faith and the living Tradition, and always respond to what the Spirit asks of the Churches at this particular time and in the different contexts in which they live. Let us not forget that the Spirit is harmony.

Cardinal Grech: discernment

In his own opening address, Cardinal Mario Grech, the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, said that “the Synod is essentially a school of discernment: it is the Church gathered together with Peter to discern together. A synodal Church is a proposal to today’s society: discernment is the fruit of a mature exercise of synodality as a style and method.”

“A synodal Church largely depends on a synodal Bishop. His first and fundamental task is to be the teacher and guarantor of ecclesial discernment,” he continued, explaining:

This task applies first and foremost in his Church, where he performs his ministry of leadership. But it is no less valid when he exercises it together with the other bishops in the bodies that manifest the groupings of Churches. Thus, the bishop who initiated the consultation in his Church and activated the participation bodies as subjects of ecclesial discernment, continues this discernment in the Bishops’ Conference and in the Continental Assemblies, which the synod process has handed over to us as a significant ‘place’ of listening to the Churches of a continent. We will have to continue to reflect on this aspect on the theological, canonical and pastoral level.

“The Petrine ministry, which emerges more and more as the service to the unity of the Church and in the Church, greatly benefits from this ordered process,” he continued, as he spoke again about the “synodal Church, which has also rediscovered, with the Spirit speaking to the Church, the power of ecclesial discernment as the fruit of listening to the Spirit through the mutual listening of all in the Church. The Petrine ministry is the axis of catholic synodality and the synodal process aims to help Peter in his discernment for the whole Church.”

Cardinal Fernández: qualified ‘no’ to women deacons

During the first general congregation, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, revealed that his dicastery is preparing a document on women and ministry.

“Based on the analysis conducted so far,” he said, “the Dicastery judges that there is still no room for a positive decision by the Magisterium regarding the access of women to the diaconate, understood as a degree of the Sacrament of Holy Orders. The Holy Father recently confirmed this consideration publicly. In any event, the Dicastery judges that the opportunity to continue the work of in-depth study remains open.”

He added:

Even so, the study conducted so far by the Dicastery has set out a particularly interesting way forward: to analyze in depth the lives of some women who—in both the early and recent history of the Church—have exercised genuine authority and power in support of the Church’s mission. This authority or power was not tied to sacramental consecration, as would be in the case, at least today, with diaconal ordination.

Cardinal Fernández cited several examples, from medieval figures such as St. Hildegard of Bingen and St. Catherine of Siena, to twentieth-century figures such as Maria Montessori and Dorothy Day.

 

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