October 17: The Meaning of Conversion
We are now in the third week of the third year of the Synod. Delegates have concluded the first three discussion modules, and the fourth, based on the “Places” section of the Instrumentum Laboris, was introduced on Tuesday morning. Interim reports from the 10 study groups commissioned by Pope Francis to examine issues pertinent to the synodal church have been released, and delegates will have opportunities to provide reflections and feedback in the coming days.
In the midst of all of this activity, there were also two “theological-pastoral” forums on Wednesday evening: one on “The Exercise of the Primacy and the Synod of Bishops” and another on “The Mutual Relationship between the Local Church and the Universal Church.”
Presenting at the forum on the exercise of papal primacy, theologian and delegate from North America Catherine Clifford noted that the Catholic Church has historically emphasized the “personal authority” of the ministry of the Bishop of Rome, also known as the pope. This has given rise to “an overly monarchical model of leadership at the expense of the collegial and communal dimensions of this office,” she said.
She continued with an observation that seemed to get at the heart of what the Synod is hoping to accomplish: “If the Second Vatican Council began to restore a balance in its effort to revive more collegial patterns of church governance, the more comprehensive understanding of synodality is helping us today to recover the indispensable participation of all the faithful by virtue of their baptism in processes of discernment and decision-making.”
At the briefing today, Sister Samuela Maria Rigon, SSM, a delegate and the superior general of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, said that she has been struck by “the experience of the universality of the church” during this second session of the Synod as compared to last year.
“Here we can truly get in touch with realities of the world that nobody speaks about,” she said, noting that “the church is much broader than the institutional church.”
The Synod is “per se a great step in the journey of the church,” she said. Synodality “brings us back to the centrality of relations” and “back to the sources, the roots of the church.” Jesus built his ministry on relationships, she said, and all forms of church renewal must begin with this fact of the gospels.
Sr. Rigon also spoke of a decentralization process within the church, saying that it “is necessary to delve deeper into the cultures of every place and every reality.”
“History constantly changes,” she said, and the church is called “to read events in light of God.” Just as Jesus “reached out to people,” so Christians must go out to others where they live and suffer, she said.
In his remarks, Mons. Pedro Carlos Cipollini, Bishop of the Diocese of Santo André in Brazil, focused on the idea of conversion and “expanding the places of evangelization.”
Conversion of the church’s structures is “a great challenge,” he said, one that requires seeing the kingdom of God as a “reference horizon.”
Mons. Cipollini emphasized that spiritual and synodal conversion is not simply a rational process, but also an emotional one. “Jesus is our reference point,” he said, “our starting and our end point.” He compared spirituality to the sap that keeps a tree alive and blooming. “We need to welcome what is new,” he said.
For Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, SDB, Archbishop of Yangon in Myanmar and president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC), synodality in Asia has “increased awareness of the Holy Spirit’s role” as well as the importance of “baptismal dignity and charism.”
Cardinal Bo named challenges to the implementation of synodality in Asia. These include a lack of clarity on the concept of synodality itself due to difficulties inherent in translating the term and communicating its essence.
Formation is another challenge, as “there is a need for more trained facilitators” to help develop synodal practices in local churches, he said.
Cardinal Bo also referenced the obstacle of clericalism, as some priests may fear loss of authority or privilege in a more synodal mode of church.
Joining Cardinal Bo was Cardinal Gérald Cyprien Lacroix, Archbishop of Québec. Cardinal Lacroix said that “the great gift of the Synod is the Conversation in the Spirit” and affirmed that “we are already reaping the fruits of this.”
The synodal process that begin in 2021 “concerns the entire church” that was “placed in a position of listening,” he said. It has “prepar[ed] us to be men and women capable of listening to others [and] those who think differently from us.”
Cardinal Lacroix spoke of “making an experience of synodality” that might “give the world a witness: the witness that it is possible to listen, to discern, to make good choices.”
Such a witness is evident in the fact that 350 delegates from all over the world have convened for peaceful dialogue and “to discover the reality of the other,” he said.
“We are looking for holiness,” he continued. “We are not looking for results” in the traditional, efficiency-based sense but rather “the fruit of the kingdom of God.”
“I think we are on the right way,” he said.
After working groups submit their reports on the current module tomorrow morning, delegates will prepare for a weekend retreat before taking up the work of reviewing and amending the draft of the final document next week.
Tomorrow afternoon, over 100 undergraduate and graduate students from 15 Catholic campuses across the US will engage in a conversation with Synod leadership from the floor of Paul VI Hall. Students will dialogue with Cardinals Jean-Claude Hollerich and Mario Grech, Sr. Nathalie Becquart, XMJC, and Bishop Daniel Flores about the significance of synodality. ♦
Michael Centore
Editor, Today’s American Catholic
I so deeply wish that “listening” provoked action and not just more talk. In a world in so much crisis with war, economic injustice, and environmental crisis, we need worker priests and worker nuns and worker young people sharing the authority of the church and the pastoral labors that Christ taught us in the Sermon on the Mount. Will the 350 delegates recommend that action?