03 September 2024, The Tablet

Mary McAleese accuses Pope Francis of undermining Synod on Synodality

by Sarah Mac Donald

Mary McAleese
PA/Alamy

Former Irish head of state Professor Mary McAleese has accused Pope Francis of undermining the Synod on Synodality by removing from the table issues such as involvement of women in ecclesial decision-making and the ban on the ordination of women to the priesthood and diaconate.

In her address to Root and Branch’s reform gathering in Leeds, which had an overall theme, “Empowering Ourselves: Flourish and Thrive”, McAleese said the Synod on Synodality “was and remains” a Synod of Bishops. 

What came out at the diocesan and continental stages of the synod showed the energy was still there among the people of God, she said, but this was then “robbed” when it got to Rome.

The move by Pope Francis on the hot button issues had “shattered the illusion of inclusion and the illusion of freedom of speech and an open agenda”, she added, criticising the “strident papal interventions” both before and during the Synod, on which the final curtain falls in October.

The 72-year-old retired professor of law also took issue with Cardinal Jean Claude Hollerich’s warning against lobby groups on hot button issues. She said the process had “led us a merry three-year synodal dance back to papal and magisterial autocracy”. She added, “We reserve the right and will use the right to form lobby groups to say so”.

Benedictine nun Sr Joan Chittister said the response to synodality was being delayed by a few bishops who are fearful of losing their power. Warning that passive congregations dampen the spirit of the Church and put out the Pentecost fire, she said Vatican II gave the laity the responsibility to “bring the Church to life again”.

Another speaker at the gathering, Redemptorist Fr Tony Flannery warned that if the synod did not bring about some move forward on the issue of women it would be “very hard for any of us to take it seriously”.

Separately, Bishop of Elphin Kevin Doran has said being a synodal Church is not limited to what happens in the Church building.

In a statement he said a synodal church is about “how we share responsibility for continuing the mission of Jesus in the world. Our prayer sends us out together to build community, to serve one another with generosity and integrity in our professional lives”.