By Sister Barbara Valuckas, SSND
Author's Note: I recently was asked to share excerpts from a Synod-related talk I gave to our parish Catholic Women’s group last November. I hope you find it helpful! I am planning to give a follow-up talk this November, and will share that with you, too. It's a hopeful time for us all!
What is a Synod?
Traditionally Synods have been assemblies of bishops meeting to resolve questions and issues facing the Church.
How is this Synod of 2023-2024 Different from Previous Synods?
Although the composition of the Synod is still primarily made up of Bishops and Cardinals, this Synod has added men and women religious and lay men and women, across age groups.
The main criterion for each participant's selection was the extent of their involvement in the preparation for the Synod.
There was a long preparation period in which every Catholic was invited to send in their concerns, questions, issues and hopes for the Church. Every Diocese was encouraged to gather its people to discuss what was on their minds or in their hearts. The notes from these meetings were sent to a central office in each country where they were synthesized into a report from the country.
Country reports were then given to a committee of people from a particular Continent. And so the feedback from the grassroots was synthesized into a Continental Report.
The Continental Reports were then synthesized with the common themes that surfaced across the world flowing into the Synod agenda.
The three themes were: Communion, Participation, and Mission.
Communion
Communion in this context asks how we Catholics can be concrete signs of union with God, but also of union with each other in our shared humanity.
We are becoming more and more conscious of how divided people are becoming. Groups of all kinds are breaking down.
How can we Catholics foster unity within our families and local communities - let alone our national and world communities - when so much around us is moving toward mistrust and division?
Participation
This theme has to do with involving more Catholics in outreach to the Church and the world.
Can we open more possibilities for participation in areas that have formerly been closed to diversity?
How, for example, can we give women more opportunities to share their gifts with the Church and the World? How can we give young people more opportunities to share their gifts? How can we give persons from various ethnic groups more opportunities to share theirs?
Mission
This refers to a greater awareness of the mission of Jesus, who prayed “that all may be one.”
How can we become more involved in this mission of “making one” wherever we are, and in whatever roles we play, not only in the Church but in society?
We can see these divisions everywhere. The faces of our divisions are in our daily news.
How can Church structures be created or modified to allow the Church to carry the mission of Jesus forward into the future?
The Process
The process was as unique to this Synod as was the content. The process - “Communal Discernment” - is very different from a debate. It assumes several realities about and requirements from participants:
*It assumes that each person in the process has a prayer life and has developed some capacity to listen to the inner movements of the Holy Spirit within them
*It assumes that each person also makes every effort to gather the needed knowledge about the topic being discerned
*It requires a stance of deep listening both to the questions and to the discussions around each topic
*It requires a period of silence, in which participants absorb what they have heard, and pray to learn what God may be asking of them and of the group.
*It requires a time of sharing, openly and honestly, what has arisen in them as they reflected on what was shared in their group.
The whole purpose of communal discernment is focused around the question, “What can we say together about this issue?”
Often, groups find that there is some common ground, although it may not be total common ground.
At the Synod, each of the small groups had a trained facilitator who made sure that everyone had a chance to speak after the silence. The facilitator helped the group to name where they discovered common ground and where differences surfaced. The report of that experience was then given to a committee of persons who prepared a synthesis of what was emerging from across all of the groups.
This process was not easy for some people. News reports from this session said that at some tables, someone would get up and leave the group altogether. There were not many people who did this but the ones who did leave the group tended to be Cardinals or Bishops. One of the reasons for this seemed to be that they were accustomed to being the center of any discussion and the last word regarding what the conclusion would be.
They were not accustomed to listening or to being considered an equal partner in the dialogue; they were used to being that last word.
This might be a good place to pause and invite your own wisdom about what you have learned in your religious, married or single life about the different ways that women and men communicate.
The discernment resulted in discovery of some shared wisdom about the core questions of the Synod along with the expression of differences.
There was some disappointment in the press because reporters were not allowed to listen in on the table discussions and the participants were asked to hold what was shared in confidence. The reason for this was so the participants would feel totally free to express what was in their own hearts and heads without having to think about what would be quoted or misquoted in the press.
There was some disappointment that there were no strong conclusions coming from this session of the Synod. But there are reasons for this as well.
One is that this first session was considered more of a practice for the year’s sessions because so many of the participants (except for the Sisters present) had never participated in communal discernment before. Catholic Sisters have been practicing it ever since the great Ecumenical Council, Vatican II, from 1962-65.
But the clergy and laity never quite got into it. So, Pope Francis wanted to give all of the participants some practice in using communal discernment around some real issues in our Church and world.
The participants went back home with some tools to share with others. The idea was that they would return this fall more prepared to take up the issues of Communion, Participation and Mission in an even deeper way, and able to offer recommendations to Pope Francis.
What will be the Ultimate Fruit of the Second Session?
You may have seen the reference to voting on the part of the participants and that, indeed, happened. But the voting in a Synod is not the final action.
What the participants in a Synod have done in the past and now is to work toward agreement on what they want to forward to the Pope for his final decision. This is significant because the Pope’s final decision is what becomes part of Church teaching, which affects us all directly.
It's important to have some awareness of the different kinds of Church teaching. Not everything that a Pope asserts has the same weight.
Church Teachings
* Some teachings are fundamental to our religion. Teachings that have the greatest weight have to do with the divinity of Christ and the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Richard Gaillardetz, a professor of theology at Boston College who had written a book about the nature of authority and change in the Church, says that it is hard to call yourself a Catholic Christian if you don’t believe in these. When we pray the Creed, we are naming many of the things that are foundational to Catholic belief. This means that, if you don’t believe them, it would be hard to call yourself a Catholic.
* Some teachings can evolve, and have. These are teachings that Catholics in good conscience might struggle with and still be authentic Catholics. Here are some examples:
Slavery: There was a time in the Catholic Church when slavery was approved of and you could be a slave owner and a Catholic in good standing at the same time. In fact, the Jesuit University in Georgetown was built from funds raised by the sale of enslaved persons. The Jesuits have recently acknowledged this part of their history and have begun a practice of reparations. They located the descendants of the slaves the Jesuits had sold and offered them free tuition at Georgetown University as an expression of their change. But the Jesuits were following Catholic teaching and practice at the time.
Homosexuality: The Catechism of the Catholic Church (2357) describes homosexuality as “acts of grave depravity." It goes on to say that “Catholic tradition has always declared that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered. That they are contrary to natural law. The reason is that they close the sexual act to the gift of life ... under no circumstances can they be approved." But then in the next paragraph, the Catechism says that such persons must be treated with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Do you notice a little disconnect here?
In the past 29 years since that statement was put into print, there has been a lot more scientific data and nuance introduced into the discussion. A new awareness about genetics is resulting in new questions and different attitudes regarding sexual orientation. The issue came up at the Synod (at least one gay person shared a personal testimony at the Synod and it left the delegates in tears). It may reappear in the 2024 Synod. Will it result in a change in Catholic Teaching? We don’t know yet; this is an issue that is still very new in some parts of the world. But, it is a good example of an issue that might be seen in a different light after more dialogue and prayer.
Birth Control: Questions about birth issues surfaced around the time of Vatican Council II. The Church has taught that every act of intercourse needs to be open to new life/procreation. In other words, no form of birth control of any kind is condoned. Remember that this teaching was coming from a group of older, unmarried men!
This teaching has caused a lot of consternation in actual married couples who could not reconcile it with the economic and psychological realities they were experiencing regarding the number of children they had.
Pope John XXIII was succeeded by Paul VI, who gathered a commission that included lay men and women who were married, to offer a recommendation regarding birth control. The commission returned a strong recommendation that the Church should approve some forms of birth control to respond to the realities that parents were facing. In the end, Paul VI chose to ignore the recommendation of his own commission and, in his encyclical on human life entitled Humanae Vitae, he reaffirmed the stand of his predecessors. No birth control.
This caused strong resistance among both married Catholics and clergy in many parts of the world, which is a sign that such a teaching is not infallible but still evolving.
In the reports I have read about this recent Synod, I didn’t see any specific references to birth control being addressed. Does this mean there may be a recognition that the Catholic people, especially married Catholic people, are doing what they need to do in following their consciences? We may not know yet.
Just War: Another example of development in Catholic teaching has to do with the question of What is a just war?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (2309) teaches that the evaluation of conditions for moral legitimacy belongs to the prudential judgment of those who have responsibility for the common good. The Catechism 2307-2317 conceives of war as a means of legitimate societal self-defense. (We see this concept of war in Ukraine and in Israel today.)
But the Second Vatican Council revisited this classical account by putting a much greater emphasis on the avoidance of war and offering a very forceful condemnation of the use of contemporary weapons of mass destruction. Gaudium et Spes 80, 2314, teaches that the cause must be just, and war must be the last resort. It offers the principle of public authority, with all evil intentions excluded, and the principle of rightful intention, which addresses the wrongness of the intent to kill.
We have been seeing both of these visions of war being played out now in Israel and Gaza.
There was initial sympathy for Israel as it suffered the effects of the attack on its citizens, but there is also sympathy for the Palestinian people who are suffering the punishment being meted out on innocent civilians and children. This seems to touch that very principle of the need for the rightful intention which addresses the wrongness of the intent to kill for both Hamas and Israel.
The issue of the attack on Jerusalem affected the Synod in a very personal way because the Patriarch of Jerusalem was a participant in the Synod and had to leave it in order to return to support his people.
* Some teachings are more about what Professor Gaillardetz calls “church discipline.” He offered the example of whether you stand or kneel during the Eucharist prayer.
Another example might be choosing to wear a veil in Church. If you disagree with some of these details, it is not going to threaten your faith.
It is important to keep some perspective on the smaller rules and rituals that are not central to our faith. Some Catholics express a preference for the way things “were always done,” but one of the writers at the Synod posed the possibility that those things never actually existed. In other words, "always done" most commonly refers to a person's own experience in 2nd grade.
A good example of the “always done mentality” is the male priesthood. Pope Francis has said that this is not in that first category of infallible truth that will never change. He has allowed it to be one of the topics under discussion, in contrast to previous Popes who forbade any talk about alternatives to the male priesthood. But that didn’t make the male priesthood an example of infallilble dogma.
Sister Grazia Angelina, OSB, a Biblical scholar and a woman in her 80’s raised the question, noting the first persons to proclaim Jesus were Mary at his birth and Mary Magdalen at his Resurrection. Only women were present at both the beginning and the end of the life of Jesus. She invited the members of the Synod to contemplate the implications of this for the future.
Sister Grazia also referenced how the early Church arrived in Philippi, which meant how it arrived in Europe. (Saint Paul's epistle to the Philippians)
And so, the Church arrives in Europe, and it does so in a surprising, new form: starting from the margins, from the banks of the river, just outside a wealthy Roman city. Women had gathered there for prayer. Strangely, Paul was welcomed by a liturgy outside the ritual, among women, in the open air. The apostle did not proceed, as was his custom, to the synagogue, but inserted himself into a “nonritual” female liturgy, breaking into it with the word of the Gospel.
As on Easter morning, so too this beginning/threshold is without men. The apostle is preceded, and welcomed, by the unusual koinonia of women praying, under the open sky. Here Paul approaches, with his passion for the Gospel.
Thus began the course of the Gospel in Europe. In Philippi, mission emerged from a well-defined territory, and found new spaces. New languages inaugurated by women, whom Paul does not disdain, whom he rather gathered as a kairos: he preached to them, entered into dialogue. Lydia, humble worshipper of God and a seller of purple cloth, would become the first believer in the land of Europe.
Conclusion
The Synod is central to the life of the Church. It is a continuation of the work of the Vatican Council over 50 years ago, as well as a response to the new awarenesses and the needs of the world today.
The second session will begin October 2 and conclude October 27, 2024. I'll share my thoughts on it in November.
