Our session began as always with an opening prayer. Helena shared the synodal experiences she has been involved. She is a theologian who has worked for a Catholic development organization. Before joining them, she worked as a program officer for the Philippines, in various parishes, and for the Catholic Youth movement. Through her work, she was in contact with people from Latin America who were involved in organizing the Amazonian Synod. She had the opportunity to be in Rome outside during the Amazonian Synod. Her role was to provide support for those who were inside. She was appointed to be a delegate to the European Continental Synod held in Prague. Their report from Switzerland was quite progressive with all the taboos and hot topics included. The Catholic Church is in crisis dealing with cries not to allow women to be ordained as priests or deacons. A renewal process was called for, but the bishops blocked it. Pope Francis then announced that there would be a Synod on Synodality. Because of her involvement in all these synods, she thinks that is why she has now been invited to be a delegate to the Synod in Rome this October.
There is a call for decentralization and more localization of the Church. For our preparation in October, the synod office made no suggestion for what we should do with the Instrumentum Laboris. So we decided to consult with various groups and write short summaries. The Vatican office got wind of this and invited her to participate in the press conference on the Synod in Rome. At this event, she reported how the lay people and the bishops were negotiating the finances and the pastoral priorities.
Helena reported that it is normal in the German portions of Switzerland to have women organize the parish and preach at Mass. In Germany women are still not allowed to preach. She feels that in many ways they are progressive in Switzerland – but it is not enough. There must be a system of checks and balances in the Church. The German Church with their Synodal Pathway have much to teach the rest of us. A progressive group from Poland reported that almost nothing is being done there. The bishops alone wrote their report. The European Bishops seem to be doing little to prepare whereas the Latin American Bishops Conference is preparing very well, introducing their people to one another so they can be in dialogue.
The plan for this Synod is not to discern hot topics like the ordination of women. Rather they seem to be more interested in structural questions, such as: how to organize a parish so that it is really synodal and how pastoral councils are involved in decision-making. There is no follow-up with the European Continental Synod yet there is much continued dialogue needed. The process of the Synod is already changing. Francis has them sitting around a table together in small groups to promote dialogue.
Questions and comments from participants
Clyde Christofferson (U.S.) quoted Helena having said: “Something has to happen in Rome, or we do it ourselves.” He asked her to comment on the tension between those who are waiting for Rome to fix it vs. those who are ready to do it themselves.
Helena said she supposed some parishes are just doing it. For example, parish coordinators can get a special permit from the bishop to be able to baptize. Perhaps we should focus on doing both – some things need Rome and others we should just do ourselves.
Joe Boyle (U.S.) said this is a pivotal point. We can’t depend on the bishops, especially here in the U.S. to lead the Church forward. We need to come together ourselves to force this issue.
Betty Anne Donnelly (U.S.), co-founder of Catholic Women Preach, reached out to Helena and others present to propose women preachers from around the world: www.CatholicWomenPreach.org. She then asked what kind of instruction they were given to prepare for the October Synod.
Helena said very little: be present for the entire month and read the Instrumentum Laboris.
Joe Healey (Kenya and U.S.) said, getting back to the decentralization of the Church, several African bishops have written articles about the Church still being a Euro-centric Church and not a global Church.
Helena said this is the question. She wonders whether a global Church might be deciding certain issues, like appointing women deacons, by one national Bishops Conference and not another. At the Amazonian Synod, given the majority agreement that appointing married men to the priesthood was needed, the bishops had the opportunity to ask Pope Francis if they could proceed with this. She still wonders why no one did.
Betty Anne pointed out that the group known as Discerning Deacons are working closely with women in the Amazon to promote this. She then asked if seminary formation is going to be a subject at the Rome Synod?
Helena said in the working document, this topic is taken up very well. But she has no idea how these topics will be processed. She hopes soon we will know more. In the Asian synod, they are in groups of ten around a table.
Rene (U.S.) said there was extensive discussion about the Amazonian Synod, and many felt that Francis kyboshed the idea of just doing it when he said he felt the synod was more parliamentarian and less a presence of the Holy Spirit.
Helena said she’d heard that but from her personal involvement, she said many Amazonian women had said to her: “It is clear: the Holy Spirit is speaking to us.” She was sure at the time that women deacons would push through.
Anne Martin (U.S.) said isn’t the fundamental problem that we place too much emphasis on what Rome says and on canon law? There was nothing that came out of the Vatican Council that afterwards didn’t take place somewhere in the world. Listening to the Gospel takes precedence over listening to Rome.
Wayne thought that perhaps what happened in the Amazon was that whoever was pleading with Francis fell back into a hierarchical way of thinking like “Give us permission” rather than just doing it like “We’re going to ordain women as deacons.” This is risky but they’re intent is to see what falls out. To move forward, there needs to be some caution but also some boldness.
Clyde added that we need to just do it . . . following the guidance of the Spirit.
Wayne said he heard Helena say that the women said they felt they Spirit moving them in this direction. The Spirit moves us but with some caution.
Bride Counihan (Ireland) shared her experience when she was working in Brazil with the diocesan structures that were in place at that time. There she found that the sisters were doing the baptisms and the weddings. Every year, during the Bishops Conference, they met for four days and the people were invited to discern together three priorities for their diocese while the bishops sat in the back of the room and listened. Then they came back together the following year to determine what had happened with those priorities. They ranged from spiritual issues like liturgy to practical issues like water and land, and social issues like youth. The bishops again all sat in the back of the room for the four days and listened to the people only speaking at the end of the gathering. The sad part is that when that bishop died, the process died as well.
Joe Boyle said he believes that as we learn to listen to the Spirit, we’re not sure what to do when the Spirit encourages us. It goes back to the separation of powers. We’re not trying to eliminate the bishops but rather to work side by side in equality with the bishops. Both bishops and people are still learning how to do this.
Anne McIntyre (Canada) pointed out that some time back suddenly altar girls appeared serving at Mass. Sometime later, Pope Francis changed canon law to allow it. Some things do happen from the ground up.
Helena referred to there being permanent deacons in the U.S. Betty Anne added that some of their wives are required to be present for his training but at the end, he becomes a deacon and she does not. Helena added that it is not just the people, but many bishops want change. Clyde said we shouldn’t ask permission unless we’re willing to accept direction. Just do it and ask forgiveness if necessary.
Rene reminded the group that we’re staying in close touch with an Amazonian woman, Roselei Bertoldo, whom CCRI honored for her work fighting sex trafficking in the Amazon. Roselei said that many things are quietly moving forward in the Amazon. They are just doing it and not broadcasting it. One of the impressions she got from two previous speakers, Myriam Wijlens and Rafael Luciani, is that one of the issues almost certain to move forward is mandatory parish and diocesan councils with lay people having a decisive voice in their governance. As a canon lawyer, Myriam’s role is to draft new canons for c.536.2, where they are presently not mandatory, and to make them mandatory at this Synod.
Helena said this is already happening in some places. When pastoral planning is done by the people in the parish, the bishop has to listen. And when a new bishop comes in, he cannot overturn everything that had already been in the plans. She senses this is the direction the Church is moving toward. Canon law has to be changed.
Bride pointed out that this is what happened in Brazil and it is simply wrong.
Clyde added that if the people are following the Spirit, what they say is what ought to happen.
Helena said in Switzerland, things are being developed. There are already working groups quietly underway about expanding the Bishops Conference to include religious and laity to become a decision-making body for the country. The Germans are also working on this.
Rene asked if Helena saw Small Christian Communities becoming an official part of the structure of the Church.
Helena said she thought so. There is a woman named Salah Padilla (sp?) who is a member of the Rome Synod and an expert on SCCs. Joe Healey said he’s worked with Padilla for many years and, in her dissertation, she has compared SCCs in the Philippines, Africa, and Latin America (the Global South).
Bill Weiskopf said one of the major structural changes in recent history is the resignation of a Pope. And what a wonderful outcome this has been for the Church. The distinction that has to be made is the teaching that there is an ontological change that makes priests above everyone else. Francis has said priests are here to serve. The idea of an ontological change is the root cause of clericalism and must be addressed.
Speaking as a former Vincentian priest Joe Pepe Sannino (U.S.) doesn’t know where “ontological change” came into the Church, but we need to disconnect from this concept.
Kevin Clarke (UK) said that in the Church of England (the Anglican Church), there are three houses in the Church: the bishops, the clergy, and the people. It is all run on a parliamentarian majority rules system, which works but has many flaws. On the other hand, Francis is encouraging a system that strives for consensus, i.e., for finding common ground.
Bill Weiskopf said perhaps the term that needs to be recognized is “term limits.”
Betty Anne referred to a book called Priests for the 21st Century by Donald J. Dietrich which stresses the concept of servant leadership. She supports Bill’s concept of term limits also for bishops. Many bishops would accept being bishop for a time but the idea of being a bishop for life is not necessary.
Helena wonders how long it will take for the principle of subsidiarity to take hold in the Church. Francis is trying to steer the Curia away from making pronouncements applicable to the whole Church and rather to allow decisions to be made at the local level that is in keeping with their culture and needs.
Rene thanked Helena for stimulating such meaningful discussion and assured her our prayers will be with her at the Synod. She feels that Helena will be there not just as a delegate for Europe but so much of what she’s said today assures us that you will be our delegate as well.
As always, the session closed with a prayer.
Respectfully submitted,
Rene Reid
CCRI director