Cardinal explains how synodality brings together key dimensions of Vatican II
Cardinal Mario Grech in St Mary's Dominican Priory in Tallaght, Dublin with Julianne Moran, General Secretary of the Irish Synodal Pathway and Fr John Harris OP, Provincial of the Dominicans in Ireland.
Sarah Mac Donald
Pope Francis’ vision of synodality is “essential” for today’s “polarised world of culture wars and populist politics”, the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, Cardinal Mario Grech, has said.
In a public lecture to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Dominican priest Fr Austin Flannery (1925-2008), translator into English of the documents of Vatican Council II, the Maltese prelate warned that this divisive world is affecting communion within the Church.
“If we in the Catholic Church are truly open to all our baptised brothers and sisters, then we may well be a prophetic sign to the world,” he told the gathering in St Mary’s Priory in Tallaght, including Archbishop Dermot Farrell of Dublin and Archbishop Michael Jackson of the Church of Ireland.
In his talk, “From Vatican Council II to a Synodal Church”, he underlined that for the Church to be a light on the hill to nations “each one of us” needs to be embrace ongoing synodal conversion.
Synodality “is not a zero-sum game where one side wins and the other loses”. Rather, it is a process of encounter, respect, listening and discernment in the Spirit.
“It proceeds on the conviction that the person with a different perception of the Gospel may also be guided by the same Holy Spirit.”
According to Cardinal Grech, a synodal church is a listening church. “It is a mutual listening in which everyone has something to learn – the faithful, the bishops, the Pope.” The Council “recognised that the Magisterium is not above the Word of God, but its servant”.
“Sometimes, I hear or read of people speaking about synodality as if it were an invention of Pope Francis. Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said.
Synodality, he said, brings together many of the theological, ecclesial and spiritual dimensions of Vatican II.
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