By Suresh Mathew
New Delhi, Oct 9, 2021: The election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who took the name of Francis of Assisi, as the 266th Pope in 2013, stirred the Catholic Church as never before in its recent history. His speeches, actions, Apostolic Letters and Encyclicals were the beginning of a new era in the Church. He has now stimulated the Church by opening a synod process which has been described a unique initiative for the Church’s renewal.
Inaugurated on October 10, the “Synod on Synodality” with the theme “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission” will offer a roadmap for the Church’s future with each diocese holding a synod – listening to the voice of the faithful from the parish-level — something that has rarely happened.
Traditionally, synod is a gathering of bishops from across the world. But this time around, Pope Francis has projected a synod of the entire Church, an exercise involving everyone in the Church. The result of this long process will give input for a national and continental-wide process.
Finally, in October 2023, which incidentally coincides with the 10th year of Pope Francis assuming charge in the Holy See, the process will culminate with a three-week gathering in Rome. Hence the process starts at the parish level and ends in Vatican during which everyone in the Church will get a chance to speak their mind out.
The emphasis of the Synod is on listening rather than preaching. The Church realizes that there is no alternative to listening. It is aware that unless people are allowed to speak without conditions, control or fear – as was the practice in the early Church – it will lead to a much bigger crisis than it faces now.
In fact, for many centuries in the early Christian period, the Church was run on the basis of deliberation among the faithful and approval from them. The voice of the faithful is the voice of the people of God. Jesus is the model in this regard.
The Gospels speak of several occasions when Jesus wanted to have ‘feedback’ from the people, besides his own disciples. We see Him in conversation with people, keenly listening to them. This is the ‘synodal path’ the Church should follow not only during the coming two years, but beyond that. Listening enriches the listeners with a flow of new thoughts and novel ideas.
Listening to people will be meaningful when every voice is heard. It doesn’t matter whether one speaks what is pleasing to the ear of the authorities or something critical of their actions. The Church should lend an ear to both. There cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach in synodality.
In the end, the whole approach will bear fruits only if those who execute it at the ground level do it honestly and take the feedback truthfully to the higher level. It is easy to say that the Church listens to the voice of the faithful, simultaneously turning a deaf ear to them.
In fact, a ‘synodality approach’ does exist in the Church with the presence of bodies like parish councils, pastoral councils and the like. But the moot point is: How effective are they in communicating the voice of the faithful to the authorities. Hopefully, the unique synod will help the laity, priests and prelates to ‘journey together.’
(Capuchin Father Suresh Mathew is the editor of the Indian Currents weekly published from New Delhi. This article is the editorial in its latest edition.)
Just because Holy Father has invited d entire Church through Synod to listen. Some dioceses r trying to listen not to d real issues with an open ear n heart but with certain precautions n restrictions being exclusive in approach n remaining hard heartened of OT mindset. Hope Holy Spirit will break d walls of indifference, partiality n in d choice of those voices who will continue to beat d drums of hierarchy.
Archbishop Thomas D’Souza’s (Archbishop of Calcutta) letter RCAC/Cir-011/2021 dated 2nd October 2021 addressed to the four Deans of the Archdiocese of Calcutta, is contrary to the Synodal Spirit of `LISTENING TO ALL WITHOUT PREACHING’ as lucidly expressed by Fr Suresh Mathew in the above report. Excerpts from the Archbishop’s Circular reads:
“The Diocesan Level preparation of Synod 2023 will be from Sunday 17th October 2021 till April 2022. The Archdiocese of Calcutta has decided to hold four Deanery level meetings , in order to prepare our priests, religious Brothers and Sisters and THROUGH THEM the Lay Faithful, to discuss the process of the Synod. A team consisting of the Archbishop, Vicar General, Fr Michael Biswas, Fr Franklin Menezes, Fr Gilbert Choondal and Mr Farrell Shah will visit and meet (1) all the parish priests Assistants in the Deanery (2) Religious sisters and brothers, Major Superiors and Superiors (1 person) of each Community in the Deanery.
You are kindly requested to invite the Priests and Religious (and NOT LAY PEOPLE AT THIS STAGE) of your Deanery so that the awareness about the Synod and its process and goal may be clearly understood.” Dates and venues of the Deanery meetings were specified by the Archbishop.
The tone and tenor of the Archbishop’s above Circular is very objectionable. Contrary to the Synodal Spirit he has decided to leave out the Laity (the sum and substance of Synod 2023) from the preliminary discussions. His attitude proves he is very allergic to the Vatican’s approach of “Listening to people will be meaningful when every voice is heard. It doesn’t matter whether one speaks what is pleasing to the ear of the authorities or something critical of their actions. The Church should lend an ear to both. There cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach in synodality.”
Are members of the Laity of the Archdiocese so naive that they need to be bottle-fed THROUGH THEM (priests, religious Brothers and Sisters) on the Synod documents? In fact, the whole approach should be the other way round. The Synodal documents should be made available, in vernaculars, to the Laity of each parish. Let them go through the documents and take the call instead of being fed on diluted versions by the Church Hierarchy. Today’s Laity is, without an iota of doubt, much more well-informed than all members of the Church Hierarchy taken together, including the Archbishop. The Vatican II documents on Laity unambiguously say so.
The Archbishop should not meddle in the deliberations and should wait for feedback from the Laity before he forms any committees. His utterances make it crystal-clear that he has taken the typical Top-down approach instead of following Horizontal approach being propagated by the Pope.
In the end, to ensure Laity Feedback and their participation, the Pope should adopt internationally accepted Google Forms Questionnaire. Members of the Laity can directly fill these to register their feedback, without going through Bishops/Parish Priests at parish/diocese level. This will also save on intermediary intervention (read: DILUTION of feedback), wastage of tons of paper and also make summary at the local Diocese level and courier expenses redundant.
The Archbishop has also deliberately excluded Catholic Association of Bengal, the oldest 110-year-old Catholic Lay Organisation in India (established in 1911), and the most visible Lay Association in West Bengal, in this initiative. The reason is the Association does not toe the dotted lines set by him. He even eyes the Association’s funds.
True and in most parish it’s authoritarian.
Unfortunately this editor is not allowed to publish even constructive criticism of the church in his magazine. So where is the listening and speaking out fearlessly? It is a sham, hypocrisy at the highest level.