Synod, October 16: pushback against devolution of doctrinal authority to episcopal conferences?

October 17, 2024

On October 16, 347 of the 365 participants in the second and final session of the synod on synodality gathered in Paul VI Audience Hall for the second day devoted to the session’s fourth module, “Places” (synod agenda). Attendance was up significantly from the previous afternoon, when only 328 were in attendance.

“Places” is the title of the third part of the session’s instrumentum laboris, or working document (pp. 35-46). It has four sections:

• Areas of shared journeying
• Local Churches in the one and unique Catholic Church
• The bonds that shape the unity of the Church
• The service to unity of the Bishop of Rome

Cardinal Aguiar: The Holy Spirit helps us correct those who hinder synodality

In the afternoon, Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes of Mexico City celebrated Mass for synod participants in St. Peter’s Basilica and—strikingly—linked the fruits of the Holy Spirit to the correction of those who hinder synodality.

“By getting to know Jesus Christ and bearing, as a good disciple, the testimony of his life and teachings,” he preached, “we will obtain the fruits of the Holy Spirit.”

He continued:

On this path, we will undoubtedly acquire, as Jesus puts it in the Gospel, the freedom to intervene and correct those who have gone astray, the misguided, or the pretentious, who hold themselves up as models for others or make requirements that they themselves do not uphold. It is opportune, before this Word of God, to strengthen our confidence in the divine help so that we may face with hope the different presences and behaviors, that both inside and outside the Church, criticize and hinder the application of the synodal life in our ecclesial communities.

This spiritual experience of seeing divine assistance in the performance of our daily responsibilities will enable us to recognize the benefits of the Holy Spirit in others, and to encourage the members of our communities, in the face of the usual difficulties, as good disciples, not to lose heart along the way. Thus, we will also gain the spiritual freedom to intervene through fraternal correction, solidarity, and earnest help for our neighbors in need.

In the evening, synod participants had the opportunity to attend one of two theological pastoral forums scheduled for the same time: The Mutual Relationship Local Church-Universal Church and The Exercise of the Primacy and the Synod of Bishops.

Press briefing: pushback against devolution of doctrinal authority to episcopal conferences?

With the exception of the texts of the spiritual assistants and leading synod officials, 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). The daily press briefing thus offers an impressionistic, if filtered, view of the synod proceedings.

The presenters at the October 16 press briefing (video), the Holy See Press Office noted, were

• Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Dicastery for Communication and chair of the synod’s Commission for Information
• Sheila Leocádia Pires, communications officer of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference and secretary of the synod’s Commission for Information
• Father Dario Vitali (Italy) coordinator of the synod session’s theological experts
• three theological experts: Professor Klára Antonia Csiszár (Romania), Father Ormond Rush (Australia), and Father José San José Prisco (Spain)

In discussing “Places,” synod participants reflected on the proposed “recognition of Episcopal Conferences as ecclesial subjects endowed with doctrinal authority, assuming socio-cultural diversity within the framework of a multifaceted Church, and favoring the appreciation of liturgical, disciplinary, theological, and spiritual expressions appropriate to different socio-cultural contexts” (Instrumentum laboris, p. 44). Ruffini and Pires hinted that some synod participants expressed concern.

“The issue of whether or not it is appropriate to devolve doctrinal competences to the episcopal conferences and the importance of discovering the beauty of different cultures that are not sufficient in themselves was addressed,” said Ruffini, according to a Vatican newspaper report. Some speakers were in agreement in warning against “the excesses of bureaucratization and in highlighting the importance of preserving the unity of the Church.”

Pires likewise said that “among the issues most discussed in the Hall the need to preserve the unity of the Church and the possibility of attributing doctrinal competences to the episcopal conferences,” “with a reflection on the role of the Successor of Peter, precisely in reference to unity.”

“The ministry of the Pope in the time of globalization was discussed,” added Ruffini—“the Pope as a service to the unity not only of the Catholic Church, but also with respect to other Christians and as the highest moral and spiritual authority.”

Ruffini said that the following topics were also discussed:

• “it was said that the Church from the beginning has referred to the city, to the places in which it lived, guided by the bishop in a close relationship with the territory”
• “the Church must inhabit the digital world, looking at the dangers that exist”
• “the groups highlighted the attention to parishes as a place of encounter, and the role they still have”
• “also the need to create, to be creative and to imagine, to expand the places of our Church in other areas, for example the digital one”
• “the need to identify and strengthen the synodal structures already in place, in an exchange of gifts between the local Churches and the continental Churches”
• the need for a “better definition of the status” of episcopal conferences
• “the possibilities of the continental episcopal conferences as the right place to weave synodality at a continental level”
• “how to enhance the episcopal conferences as intermediate levels of collegiality”
• “the interiority of the human heart as the first of the ‘places’ was discussed”
• “how to reconfigure participation in a missionary key in a context of epochal change, in the face of the phenomena of human mobility, in culture and in the digital environment”
• “how to keep together synodality, collegiality and primacy; the role of the Roman Curia in the light of the Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium; the universal synod, continental ecclesial assemblies, particular synods and councils”

Pires added that other discussion topics included

• “the evangelization of the world of culture”
• “acknowledging that we are all in missionary territory”
• “the role of small base communities that can make parishes more vital”

Theological experts emphasize consensus, with continued discussion of controversial issues

Father Vitali emphasized that the synod’s theological experts are seeking consensus.

The experts, he said, are rereading “the proposals of the Assembly by identifying the emerging elements of consensus” and seek to “recognize the type of consensus that matures in the assembly, so that the text is consistent with what has been shared among the participants and with what the Spirit is indicating to the Church.”

Father Prisco said that the synod’s canonical mission is examining modifications to the Code of Canon Law in light of the synod.

Csiszàr said that theology did not receive much attention in the October 2023 synod session.

“It is evident today that theology is learning its role in the synodal Church and contributing to the synodal style,” she said, adding that theologians wish to “support the birth of a synodal Church.”

Father Rush said that in the synod’s second session, participants are seeking to “actualize the message of the Gospel.”

Reading the signs of the times, he added, “is fundamental for a new understanding of God’s vision regarding human life today. New responses are needed to allow the Church to announce the Gospel convincingly in the new contexts in which it lives.”

Addressing a question about the doctrinal competence of episcopal conferences, Father Vitali said that “while they cannot create dogmas, bishops can address all that concerns doctrine, always ensuring they act in communion with the Pope.”

A lack of consensus on controversial issues, added Father Rush, does not mean that debate is closed.

“What we must always look at is the ability to find a consensus,” he said. “Where there is none on certain matters, it means that the discussion must continue, not necessarily that it is closed forever.”

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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)
• 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)
• No synod meetings on Sunday, October 6
• Synod, October 7: Cardinal Hollerich calls for suggestions to make Church less ‘pyramidal’; women’s ministry discussion resurfaces (CWN, 10/8)
• Jesuits hold outsized influence at Synod on Synodality (CWN, 10/8)
• Synod, October 8: final document commission members chosen; leading Latin American prelate raises prospect of married priests (CWN, 10/9)
• Synod names commission to prepare final document (CWN, 10/9)
• Synod, October 9: Cardinal Fernández invites synod participants to weigh in on forthcoming document on women and ministry (CWN, 10//10)
• Synod, October 10: New synod guidelines announced, but not made public, as discussion of transparency begins (CWN, 10/11)
• Synod, October 11: opacity shrouds discussion of transparency, accountability in the Church (CWN, 10/14)
• Papal address: Christian unity is an unexpected gift, a journey, harmony, and for the sake of mission (CWN, 10/14)
• Synod, October 12: participants pray for migrants on synod’s least transparent day (CWN, 10/15)
• No synod meetings on Sunday, October 13
• Cardinal-designate Radcliffe links African bishops’ opposition to homosexuality to pressure from evangelicals, Moscow, and Muslims (CWN, 10/15)
• Synod, October 14: abuse of nuns, need for women in seminary formation discussed (CWN, 10/15)
• How ‘Special Interest Advocacy’ works at the Synod on Synodality (CWN, 10/15)
• Cardinal Hollerich introduces final ‘module’ of Synod working document (CWN, 10/15)
• Synod, October 15: Cardinal Hollerich calls for diffusion of synod’s ‘dynamism’; Cardinal Steiner calls for female diaconate (CWN, 10/16)

 

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