Effervescent eve of the pope’s trip to Hungary, undoubtedly dominated by the topic of peace in Ukraine. At least this is the clear intention of Francis who at the end of the audience with the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Denys Shmyhal, this morning in the Vatican gave him a bronze sculpture with the inscription “peace is a fragile flower”. It doesn’t take much to make war; making peace is always difficult. The pope is convinced of this and for this very reason every time he speaks in public he recalls the painful situation of the Ukrainian population and asks to pray for peace.
At the same time the Holy See has done everything possible for a peace conference to end the war and design future paths of solidarity, justice and fraternity. “During the cordial talks with the Ukrainian prime minister in the Secretariat of State – reads an official note from the Vatican Press Office at the end of the visit – the various issues connected to the war in Ukraine were highlighted, paying particular attention to the humanitarian aspect and the efforts to restore peace”.
The pope’s trip to Hungary from tomorrow to next Sunday, strongly desired by Francis, overcoming the doubts raised by his recent hospitalization at the Gemelli polyclinic, could perhaps help to open some glimmers in this direction since Hungary borders Ukraine and Prime Minister Orban is a good interlocutor of Putin. On the ecclesiastical front, this eve was enlivened by the official news that 70 lay people, half men and half women and all with the right to vote, will also take part in the next Synod of Bishops. So Francis wanted.
Even the religious who in the past elected 10 superiors for synods in their general bodies, will now have to be content with electing 5: the remaining 5 will be superior general sisters for the first time. All these laymen and women indicated by the competent bodies will have to be confirmed by the pope as well as all the other cardinal members and bishops who will be elected by the respective bodies of the episcopal conferences. The pope also has the task of choosing a suitable representation of the Vatican Dicasteries. These new provisions on the presence of lay men and women, with the right to vote on a par with bishops, was greeted with concern by one part and with satisfaction by another part of Catholics.
They haven’t been missed inevitable talking crickets always critical whatever the decision of Francesco: some critics because there is little innovation; others because it is too much. In reality, in a community of Catholics spread across all continents it is difficult to please everyone in the same way. More important is to foster as much as possible a shared path open to the future of all God’s people. And this requires not only a vision of the future, but also a gradual guiding ability towards the necessary change. Bearing in mind that the Church is not a democracy in the manner of democratic states where the majority of voters have the last word.
In the Church, in addition to the debate that is not lacking, God’s people do not have the last word (including clergymen and laymen in their entirety) but the word of God, i.e. the Gospel, whose interpretation is ultimately reserved to the Pope and the College of Bishops. Therefore, the progress recorded in the ten years of Francis’ pontificate for the promotion of women is already progress: more progress is being made than in all the 50 years that followed the Second Vatican Council. In some way and with other words these concepts are prudential, in the sense that even the high ecclesiastical authorities are aware of not having the last word, but only the last opinion of conformity with the Gospel of the requests and proposals on which they are now freely debating in the Church also on topics that are still divisive (women’s priesthood, obligatory celibacy of priests, full integration of divorced and remarried spouses).
The last word belongs to the magisterium which is required to understand well and study what the Gospel says in today’s life of the people. Before being a power, that of the bishops is not an easy responsibility because they must always keep in mind that their role is one of service and not of power. Speaking of these innovations in the synod next October which will be very special being the first with a very large participation and consultation of the faithful in the various continents, Cardinals Mario Grech secretary of the Synod of Bishops and Jean-Claude Hollerich, rapporteur indicated by the pope clarified that the new arrangement desired by Francis “is not a revolution, but a richness for the Church which will be more complete”. “This decision – explained the General Secretariat of the Synod – reinforces the solidity of the process as a whole, incorporating in the Assembly the living memory of the preparatory phase, through the presence of some of those who were involved in it.
In this way the episcopal specificity of the Synodal Assembly is not affected, but even confirmed”. “We are talking about the 21% of the Assembly which remains plenary an Assembly of bishops, with a certain participation of non-bishops”, Hollerich reiterated again. “Their presence ensures the dialogue between the prophecy of the people of God and the discernment of the pastors, the circularity implemented throughout the synodal process”. Cardinal Hollerich, Jesuit and archbishop of Luxembourg, general rapporteur, explains in an interview with the Vatican media the new composition of the October assembly on synodality. And he underlines how the Church is called to be missionary, with her diversity, putting Christ at the centre. This is not really new, because already in the past there have been members with the right to vote who were not bishops.
There were no female voters, but non-bishop members. It can therefore be said that that small group is now becoming larger. The Synod remains of the bishops. According to Hollerich, this walking together of the Church is also “a response to the disease of our time” characterized by an individualism that is accentuated every day. “And we see – he adds – that with this individualism humanity cannot subsist: we need community elements to survive. Then there is the phenomenon of growing polarization, in society and in the media, even in those who refer to Catholicism. God’s people walking together is a response to these trends. Attention: it is not that we “invented” synodality to respond to these tendencies, but rather it is the Holy Spirit who in this period has aroused again the desire for synodality already experienced by the first Christian communities. And it is a way of responding to the challenges we are facing, because otherwise humanity is in danger”.