04 October 2023, The Tablet
Synod and Laudate Deum – live blog from Rome
Live blog with Christopher Lamb on the Synod assembly and the release of Laudate Deum.
Synod delegates process into the Synod Hall, Rome.
Pic by Christopher Lamb
A busy day in Rome. We will post links and updates as they come in.
Time 12:30
Pope Francis has released Laudate Deum, a call for global action to tackle climate change. It’s a follow-up to his landmark 2015 environment encyclical, Laudato si’.
Here are the key points:
The Pope explains that he felt compelled to write the follow-up document because, in the eight years since Laudato si’, “I have realised that our responses have not been adequate, while the world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point.”
Francis reminds Catholics they are responsible for caring for God’s creation and doing what they can to protect the planet. He encourages a change in lifestyles, pointing out that emissions per individual in the United States are two times greater than those in China.
He criticises climate-change deniers and sceptics
and says the climate crisis does not interest “the great economic
powers, whose concern is with the greatest profit possible at minimal
cost and in the shortest amount of time”. Francis says he felt
compelled to emphasise the climate emergency “because of certain
dismissive and scarcely reasonable opinions that I encounter, even
within the Catholic Church”.
The Pope is calling for more decisive co-ordinated action
between governments and for international agreements on protecting the
environment to be implemented. Francis says that COP28 in Dubai later
this year needs to begin a “new process marked by three requirements:
that it be drastic, intense and count on the commitment of all”.
Time 11:00
Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the Holy See's former doctrine prefect,
arrives for the synod assembly. The German cardinal has been highly
critical of the synod, even describing it as a "hostile takeover" of the
Church.
The Tablet has learnt, however, that the cardinal did not
attend the pre-synod retreat for participants, which Fr Timothy
Radcliffe OP, the English former Master of Dominicans, led.
Several synod participants were absent from the retreat, including, I am told, the Polish bishops.
Pope Francis has repeatedly stressed that the synod is about
spiritual discernment, so he decided that a three-day retreat should
precede the synod assembly discussions.
Time 10:45
Following the Mass in St Peter’s, Synod participants arrive in the
Vatican’s Pope Paul VI hall. There are 464 taking part, of which 81 are
women; 365 are voting delegates (including women). This morning, they
will be given procedural information about how the synod works, and this
afternoon, Pope Francis, Cardinal Mario Grech (synod secretary-general)
and Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich (the synod co-ordinator) will
address the gathering. Outside the hall, I saw some of the delegates
from England and Wales – Archbishop John Wilson and Fr Jan Nowotnik –
entering the hall. Participants were greeted by a salute from two Swiss
guards as they entered.
Synod delegates process into the Synod Hall, Rome. Picture: Christopher Lamb.
To read more about the gathering, here is my pre-synod lookahead article.
Synod delegates process into the Synod Hall, Rome. Picture: Christopher Lamb.Time 09:20
I suppose we should have guessed it. It seems there may be an
additional attendee at the Synod in Rome – the “father of lies” – making
his usual mischief. At least, that is, according to America magazine. Read Fr Louis Camelo of Chicago, author of The Devil You Don’t Know: Recognizing and Resisting Evil in Everyday Life.
Time 09:17
Christopher Lamb comments:
Francis' quote from John XIII in his homily this morning is
significant: the synod has been described as an event with the potential
to be as transformative as Vatican II and which seeks to implement the
council's vision. The ecclesiology of the council, with its focus on the
Church as the People of God, is the underlying vision of the synod. The
church's hierarchy is both a part of and in service to the people.
During his homily, the Pope also referenced his namesake St Francis
of Assisi, and cited the commission given to the Franciscan order
founder to “go and repair my church”. The Pope said that the synod shows
the church is always in need of purification and of being “repaired”.
He pointed out that St Francis lived “in a time of great struggles
and divisions, between temporal and religious powers, between the
institutional Church and heretical currents, between Christians and
other believers, did not criticise or lash out at anyone”. But the Pope
said St Francis “took up only the weapons of the Gospel: humility and
unity, prayer and charity”. He called on the Church today to do the
same.
Time 09:07
Today, Pope Francis publishes a new document calling all to urgent
action on our planetary crisis. The pope’s clear moral leadership should
inspire the government of Prime Minister Sunak to do better. The new
papal document, Laudato Deum, stands on more than 30 years of
Catholic teaching on climate change and ecology. Catholic interest in
climate change is not a fad, but rather a long-standing concern rooted
in core values. While Pope Francis is often painted as a left-of-centre
leader, within the Church this is not an issue of left or right.
Time 08:50
In his homily to open the synod Pope Francis said the gathering is
not a “polarised parliament” or place for political battles. The aim, he
says, is to listen to the Holy Spirit, who “often shatters our
expectations to create something new”. He said: “Here we do not need a
purely natural vision, made up of human strategies, political
calculations or ideological battles. We are not here to carry out a
parliamentary meeting or a plan of reformation. No. We are here to walk
together with the gaze of Jesus, who blesses the Father and welcomes
those who are weary and oppressed.”
He also quoted John XXIII's opening speech at the Second Vatican Council: “It is necessary first of all that the Church should never depart from the sacred patrimony of truth received from the Fathers. But at the same time she must ever look to the present, to the new conditions and new forms of life introduced into the modern world which have opened new avenues to the Catholic apostolate.”
Time 08:30
Good morning from the Vatican. It’s a busy day ahead with the
opening of the synod assembly and the release of Pope Francis’ document
on the environment, “Laudate Deum”. This live blog will bring you
updates as they happen.
Pope Francis celebrates Mass in St Peter's Square, along with the
new cardinals he created at a consistory on 30 September, to open the
16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. The synod
delegates and participants – which include lay women and men – processed
in to St Peter’s at the start of the Mass.
St Peter’s Square, Rome preparing for the opening of the Synod on Synodality and the launch of Laudate Deum. Photo by Christopher Lamb.
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