Synod failing to respond to Catholic calls for renewal and reform
“Progress seems to be measured against Vatican II which is already 60 years in the past.”
Expectations for the Synod on Synodality “are low”, according to the lay reform group We Are Church International.
Speakers at a briefing organised by the group called for “strong proposals” for the full equality of women and allowing local churches the freedom to reform.
“Progress seems to be measured against Vatican II which is already 60 years in the past,” said Kevin Liston, co-chair of the Australasian Catholic Coalition for Church Reform.
“What began as an invitation to all Catholics to participate in the renewal of Catholicism has become a conference of insiders discussing among themselves how they are to keep the ship afloat, inhibited by outdated structures and intellectual positions. Meanwhile ordinary Catholics are disengaging in droves or barely hanging on by their fingernails.”
He said the focus of synod discussions was now on Church organisation and processes rather than responding to the cries of Catholics for reasonable reform and renewal.
“My assessment of the synod is that it is, in a limited way, helpful and affirmative of the positive elements in the Church. It is on a progressive path in much of its work. But it is too hesitant and tied to structures and positions that are no longer valid or helpful.”
Another of the six speakers from six continents calling for reform was Kate McElwee, executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference.
She likened the experience of those seeking the ordination of women to the diaconate and priesthood as “a prolonged Advent, wandering and waiting in the wilderness for the in-breaking of the newness of Christ into our Church”.
“For most, the time of waiting is clouded by a hierarchy whose individual whims and preferences lead us to an uneven local experience of synodality,” she said.
Virginia Saldanha, a theologian and journalist based in Mumbai, and former executive secretary of the Office of Laity and Family of the Asian Catholic Bishops’ Forum, said, women had little or no hope since the topic of women’s inclusion in the diaconate had been removed from the table.
“The Jesus model of Church includes everyone, with leaders chosen by the people, patterned on the Early Christian Community. This was the model of Church proposed by the Asian bishops in 1991,” she said.
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