- Written by: Chris McDonnell
Hour by hour
countless
munitions fall
in an exchange
of fearsome fire.
Smoke erupts
from shattered
Buildings hanging
through the orange
glow of flame.
- Written by: Alex Walker
- Written by: Frank Callus
We have just completed the Synod on Synodality in Rome. The attention of the world has started to focus on the key issues that the Church will grapple with in the years ahead. Some emphasis has been laid on the scale of the event – four hundred bishops; some on the breaks with tradition- the role of women and the fact that some have voting rights. Following years of press coverage on the issue of clerical sexual abuse, this relatively positive interest in the Catholic Church is welcome.
The holding of the Synod marks a key point in the process. It represents the culmination of discussions that led to diocesan syntheses, to a national synthesis and to a Continental Stage held in the Spring. In the months ahead we will learn more of the discussions in Rome and something of the preparations for the follow-up Synod in October 2024. It is certainly becoming easier to think of synodality as a characteristic of the nature of the Universal Church, a process for determining its structures and systemic realities. To be sure, there will be decisions made that are applicable to the whole Church, ways of acting out the Gospel that will be influenced by the global conversations and deliberations. Pope Francis, himself, has defined the Church through this synodal process – the Church is synodal by and in its very nature.
- Written by: Chris McDonnell
Chris McDonnell 28 October 2023
When someone is elected to high office, we often talk of their having “a honeymoon period”, a time to settle in before judgements are made on performance, a time to get to know how to exercise responsibility, a time of patience with the occasional mistake. Only later does the scrutiny become more incisive and the edges sharper in argument.