Synod, October 3: Working groups discuss ‘Foundations’; ‘nothing new,’ says Cardinal Hollerich

October 04, 2024

On October 3—the second day of the second and final session of the synod on synodality—356 out of the 365 participants gathered in Paul VI Audience Hall to discuss “Foundations,” a section of the session’s instrumentum laboris, or working document (synod agenda).

“Foundations,” found on pp. 1-10 of the instrumentum laboris, has five sections:

• The Church, People of God, sacrament of unity
• The shared meaning of synodality
• Unity as harmony in diversity
• Sisters and brothers in Christ: a renewed reciprocity
• Call to conversion and reform

The last section states, “For a synodal Church, the first conversion is to listening, the rediscovery of which has been one of the greatest fruits of the journey to date. This is, first of all, listening to the Holy Spirit, the real protagonist of the Synod, and then listening to each other as a fundamental disposition for mission” (n. 19).

Cardinal Hollerich: “Nothing new”

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, SJ, of Luxembourg, the session’s relator general, delivered a brief address to the participants in which—remarkably—he downplayed the importance of the module.

If after reading this Section of the Instrumentum laboris, you have thought, “Nothing new,” you have hit the nail on the head. Even in our work during the first Module, it is good to bear this fact in mind.

Indeed, it is not a question of reopening the debate on what we approved last year, but to take the time necessary to reappropriate it and to situate ourselves within a horizon. In the exchange, new insights may emerge, or perhaps ideas for a better formulation of the content. These are welcome and will represent a contribution to the drafting of the final Document.

This first Module will also offer us the opportunity to retune with the working method in the groups and in the plenary sessions.

Opacity

The General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, led by Cardinal Mario Grech, has imposed tight secrecy on synod participants (Regulations, Article 24), binding them to confidentiality, even with respect to their own contributions, and even after the session concludes.

The regulations make it difficult, if not impossible, for a Synod participant to supplement, correct, or refute the Vatican communication team’s narrative about the Synod—even if the participant believes that the communications team has distorted his or her own words. The regulations stand in marked contrast to the relative transparency of the Synod of Bishops under St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, during which the Vatican routinely published the Synod fathers’ interventions (speeches).

Consistent with this opacity, the Vatican newspaper reported that each working group elected a relator to speak on its behalf—but without reporting their names.

Participating in the day’s press conference (video) were

• Father Giacomo Costa, SJ, special secretary of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops
• Msgr. Riccardo Battocchio, also Synod special secretary
• Sister Maria de los Dolores Palencia Gómez of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, one of the presidents-delegate who preside in the absence of Pope Francis
• Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, another president-delegate
• Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication and Chair of the Commission for Information of the Synod Assembly

These participants “highlighted the key themes of peace, forgiveness, the role of women, as well as the working methods of the Study Groups,” Vatican News, the news agency of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, reported.

Local perspectives “are not ‘enemies of the truth,’ but allow the Church that disciplined and patient listening that allows us to have a broad picture of the face of Christ in the world in which we live,” said Bishop Flores, according to the Vatican newspaper.

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Earlier coverage

• Synod retreat, day 1: ‘Stripping ourselves before the other and before God’ (CWN, 10/1)
• Synod retreat touches on homosexuality, ‘new ministries’; culminates in penitential vigil (CWN, 10/2)
• Opening Synod session, Pope stresses listening (CWN, 10/2)
• Synod, October 2: Pope defends inclusion of non-bishops; Cardinal Fernández: ‘no’ to women deacons (CWN, 10/3)

 

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