Synod, October 7: Cardinal Hollerich calls for suggestions to make Church less ‘pyramidal’; women’s ministry discussion resurfaces
October 08, 2024
On October 7, 351 of the 365 participants in the second and final session of the synod on synodality gathered in Paul VI Audience Hall to begin their four-day consideration of the session’s second module, “Relations.”
“Relations” is the title of the first part of the session’s instrumentum laboris, or working document (synod agenda).
Following the introduction, “Relations” is the working document’s first part and is found on pages 11-22. It has the following sections:
- In Christ and in the Spirit: Christian initiation
- For the People of God: charisms and ministries
- With ordained ministers: at the service of harmony
- Between the Churches and in the world: the concreteness of communion
L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, reported that the session began with the singing of the Ave Maria by a soprano. Sister Caroline Jarjis, a Daughter of the Sacred Heart who serves in Baghdad, read Luke 10:25-37 (the Gospel reading of the day) in Arabic.
The newspaper noted that Pope Francis had invited the faithful to pray and fast for peace on October 7. Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity, organized a collection from synod participants for the parish in Gaza.
Mother Angelini: the Good Samaritan’s visceral compassion calls for rediscovery of ministries of women
Mother Maria Ignazia Angelini, OSB, one of the synod session’s two spiritual assistants (along with Cardinal-designate Timothy Radcliffe), offered a three-page reflection on the Gospel reading, the parable of the Good Samaritan. At present, the Synod of Bishops has made the text available only in Italian and German.
The parable, she said, is an implicit map of the synodal journey in which seeing—“the basis of synodal spirituality”—precedes doing. On this journey—also, she said, a model for all missionary journeys—some see the wounded man but “move on, distancing themselves on the other side.”
The Samaritan, she continued, reacted viscerally to the wounded man’s suffering: “a maternal, visceral dimension transforms the distant into the near.” Mission entails conversion to mercy.
“Mission is a question of the eyes and the viscera,” she added. “For this reason, more or less confusedly, we perceive that it is important to rediscover, in the synodal church, the ministries of women.”
The Samaritan “leads others, entrusts, creates a network of relationships, weaves a culture of generosity,” and thus depicts the Church as “a place where everyone is welcomed. A place of free care. We are thus challenged to be in truth a synodal church.”
She added:
Our human nature is rooted in relationships. Therefore, sooner or later, there comes a moment in the life of each of us, in which we must choose whether to stop or move on. And—by stopping—choose whether and how to redesign the world and culture. Starting from free relationships.
Cardinal Hollerich: The People of God expect concrete suggestions to make the Church less “pyramidal”
Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, SJ, of Luxembourg, the synod session’s relator general, then delivered a three-page address to introduce the second module. At present, the Synod of Bishops has made Cardinal Hollerich’s text available only in Italian; Vatican News, the news agency of the Dicastery of Communication, has offered a summary in English.
After offering an overview of the sections of “Relations,” Cardinal Hollerich called on the synod participants to offer concrete suggestions to make the Church less “pyramidal”—and stated that the People of God expect it:
It would be simple to stay on a general level and limit ourselves to reiterating the importance of relationships for the development of people and communities. Christian anthropology offers us infinite suggestions in this regard. But I fear that it would risk being unfruitful.
The People of God expect from us indications and suggestions on how it is possible to make that vision experienceable concretely: “What does the Holy Spirit invite us to do to make relationships within our Churches more transparent and more harmonious, so that our testimony is more credible?”. Or, with a more concrete example and one that is close to the text we are considering: “What is the Holy Spirit inviting us to do to move “from a pyramidal way of exercising authority to a synodal way” (IL2, n. 36)?”
Cardinal Hollerich then made the striking claim that the “ecclesiological perspective” of the Second Vatican Council (found in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium) has not been implemented in the six decades since its promulgation.
“As I think you are intuiting, by addressing the Section of ‘Relations,’ we are looking for steps to make the ecclesiological perspective outlined by the Council operational today,” he said.
Father Costa: absent text
Cardinal Hollerich said that immediately after his talk, Father Giacomo Costa, SJ, one of the synod session’s two special secretaries, would deliver an address to “help us refocus the dynamics of the Module.”
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 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 Synod of Bishops has not published the text of Father Costa’s speech. The Vatican newspaper reported that Father Costa “explained in detail the working method” for subsequent days.
Press briefing: study groups and changing the Church’s “position” on women’s “participation”
At the day’s press briefing (video), participants discussed the synod’s agenda for the upcoming days, the synodal journey in Asia, the day of prayer and fasting for peace, and women’s leadership (Vatican News, L’Osservatore Romano).
Sheila Pires, secretary of the Information Commission, said that on October 8, synod participants would elect members of the committee to draft the final document. Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, India, highlighted the importance of interculturality, while Lithuanian Archbishop Gintaras Grušas, president of the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe, emphasized the importance of dialogue in the face of conflicts in the Holy Land and Ukraine.
“Having a dialogue is our mission,” he said.
In February, Pope Francis created ten study groups to explore some of the issues raised during the October 2023 synod session. The study groups are expected to finish their work by June 2025. On October 2, the synod session’s opening day, representatives of study groups updated synod participants on their work. In this context, 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.
Synod participants voted to give up a free afternoon on October 18 to have a dialogue with leaders of the study groups. At the October 7 press conference, Sister Mary Barron, president of the International Union of Superiors General, said that the October 2 study group reports were “very short, and we wanted to know about what is actually happening.”
“I find that there are as many men convinced of the need to change the position in the Church with regards to the participation of women,” as there are women, she said.
Cardinal Gracias “said he was asked repeatedly—sometimes with ‘alarm’—over the past several months about the study groups and specifically about the group on women’s ministry and whether the Pope set up the groups because he wanted to avoid having the synod discuss the question,” Catholic News Service reported. “I said, ‘No, we don’t want to avoid that; we’ve entrusted it into a particular group, but we do not want to focus on that.”
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)
- Synod, October 3: Working groups discuss ‘Foundations’; ‘nothing new,’ says Cardinal Hollerich (CWN, 10/4)
- Cardinal Grech: Every Catholic is invited to weigh in on synod study groups’ deliberations (CWN, 10/4)
- Synod study group calls for ‘paradigm shift’ on controversial moral issues (CWN, 10/4)
- African bishops preparing document on polygamy (CWN, 10/4)
- Synod, October 4: leading African cardinal criticized for inadequate consultation in rejecting same-sex blessings (CWN, 10/5)
- Synod, October 5: work on ‘Foundations’ concludes; Lebanese, Haitian prelates recount suffering (CWN, 10/7)
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