Rome Newsroom, Sep 16, 2024 / 16:15 pm (CNA).
Before the second session of the Synod on Synodality kicks off in Rome at the beginning of October, participants will gather in retreat to pray together and ask forgiveness for sins in a penitential prayer vigil led by Pope Francis.
In addition, four new forums will be conducted on two dates alongside the monthlong assembly and will provide a public platform for reflection and debate on theological topics being discussed during the synod.
These and other changes to the second part of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops Oct. 2–27 were highlighted by synod organizers on Monday.
Penitential vigil
The day before the synod begins, a prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 1 will mark the conclusion of a two-day retreat at the Vatican for synod members. At the public vigil, “some of the sins that cause the most pain and shame will be called by name, invoking God’s mercy,” synod secretary Cardinal Mario Grech said at a press conference Sept. 16.
During the prayer service, three people will speak about their experiences of being harmed by sexual abuse, war, and indifference toward migrants, and there will be a “confession of various types of sins,” Grech said. “It will not be about denouncing the sin of others but about recognizing ourselves as part of those who, by action or at least omission, become the cause of the suffering suffered by the innocent and helpless.”
The event has been organized by the synod secretariat in collaboration with the Diocese of Rome, the Union of Major Superiors, and the International Union of Major Superiors.
According to a press release, attendees will request forgiveness “in the name of all the baptized” for “sin against peace, sin against creation, against Indigenous populations, against migrants; sin of abuse; sin against women, family, youth; sin of using doctrine as stones to be hurled; sin against poverty; sin against synodality/lack of listening, communion, and participation of all.”
The Synod on Synodality will then have its official start with an opening Mass in St. Peter’s Square on Oct. 2.
Participants and methodology
Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the relator general for the Synod on Synodality, said Sept. 16 that there have been “no great changes” to the 368 voting members and 96 nonvoting participants in the second session of the assembly.
To date, only 25 changes have been recorded, mostly replacements for people who are no longer able to attend, he explained, including several for health reasons.
The number of fraternal delegates, representatives of non-Catholic Christian faiths, has increased from 12 to 16 at the request of Pope Francis. The new additions are representatives of the Patriarchate of Alexandria and all of Africa, the Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, the Lutheran World Federation, and the World Mennonite Conference.
The overall format for the nearly monthlong meeting remains very similar to the prior year’s gathering — including daily prayer, theological reflections, and “conversation in the Spirit” in small working groups divided by language.
But organizers noted Monday that there will be fewer plenaries (when members have the opportunity to address the entire assembly) in 2024, and instead, representatives of each of the working groups will meet among themselves to share what emerged during conversations.
There will also be “more pauses for prayer and reflection,” according to Sheila Pires, who is on the synod’s communication team.
One of these pauses will be another retreat day on Oct. 21, according to Father Giacomo Costa, SJ, a synod special secretary. He explained that this retreat will allow members to spiritually prepare for the presentation of the draft of the synod’s final document, which they will be called to provide feedback for before voting on the document’s final content.
There will also be voting during the synod to determine what topics will be concretely discussed, he said.
Theological-pastoral forums
Organizers insist that hot-button topics discussed during the first session will not be on the program in October, which will focus on “how the synodal Church is on mission.”
This year, however, the theological and pastoral underpinnings of the synodal discussions will be open to the public to learn about during four forums on Oct. 9 and Oct. 16 in Rome.
The forums will be on “The People of God, Subject of the Mission,” “The Role and Authority of the Bishop in a Synodal Church,” “The Mutual Relationship Between the Local Church and the Universal Church,” and “The Exercise of Primacy in the Synod of Bishops.”
In each forum, four or five theologians, canonists, and bishops will introduce “the principle questions, focusing on the different perspective from which these issues can be viewed,” Father Riccardo Battocchio, a special secretary of the synod, said Sept. 16.
Afterward, the floor will open up for questions and responses from those present.
According to a press release, the forums are intended for all participants in the Assembly (members, special guests, fraternal delegates, experts). Journalists accredited to the Holy See Press Office are also invited and members of the public may attend according to available space. Registration will be required for anyone who wants to participate, with details on how to register to be released at a later date.
These four forums, Battocchio said, “intend to offer a further contribution of reflections … to those who will participate in the second session … but also to other people interested in the themes of the synod.”
They will tackle, he continued, themes connected to several sections in the Instrumentum Laboris.
The forums’ speakers have not yet been published.
The October assembly of the Synod on Synodality will mark the end of the discernment phase of the Church’s synodal process, which Pope Francis opened in 2021.
The third phase of the synod — after “the consultation of the people of God” and “the discernment of the pastors” — will be “implementation,” according to organizers.
The Instrumentum Laboris for the final part of the Synod on Synodality, published July 9, focused on how to implement certain of the synod’s aims while laying aside some of the more hot-button topics from the October 2023 gathering, such as women deacons, priestly celibacy, and LGBTQ outreach.
These more controversial subjects and others have been delegated to the competency of 15 study groups formed starting late last year.
The 2024 guiding document instead offered concrete proposals for instituting a listening and accompaniment ministry, greater lay involvement in parish economics and finances, and more powerful parish councils.
“Without tangible changes, the vision of a synodal Church will not be credible,” the Instrumentum Laboris, or “working tool,” said.
The 15 study groups will continue to meet through June 2025 but will provide an update on their progress at the beginning of the second session in October.
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I was briefly enthusiastic when I heard about the communal penance that will begin the new Synodal round. “That sounds like a good baseline from which to start,” I thought. Starting off by recognizing that we are all sinners, and asking for God’s forgiveness may remind participants of the truth of the Gospel. Then I read the list of sins to be repented, includng these new “sins.”
The “sin against women” (I am a woman and don’t know what this sin consists of. Sounds like it is wide open for interpretation.”
The “sin of using doctrine as stones to be hurled”. (Usually a matter of perception.)
The “sin against synodality/lack of listening, communion, and participation of all.” (No idea.)
Given my general comments about the Synod of Synodality, if there’s a “sin against synodality” I am probably guilty as charged in the eyes of those who have discerned the existence of this sin. Only I don’t know what the charges consist of. Ai some point, one should draw a distinction about dislikeable attitudes and behavior, versus sins in the eyes of God. Drifting off while someone else is talking during a roundtable discussion is annoying and perhaps rude, but it is not ordinarily a sin that needs to be confessed. Unless “listening” is now a moral obligation.
I want to say that now I’ve heard it all. But I’m sure I haven’t.
I’m sure we haven’t heard it all. Much more synodal bullfeathers to come.
“Bullfeathers”?
Freemason synodality = tumblebug theology.
The synod “will focus on how the Church is on mission.”
“How the Church is on Mission.” That’s planning babble, it doesn’t even pretend to be a question.
Are readers expected to “appreciate” that “Mission” means “what matters to Jesuit apostates such as relator-general “Eminence” Hollerich?
I certainly “appreciate that” about “the syn-oodle.” That’s all there is really, for the “cult-for-a-decapitated-church.”
Starting to read this, I was pleasantly shocked to discover that today’s Vatican actually recognizes the concept of sin requiring remorse. It’s been a long time. Then it came: “It will not be about denouncing the sin of others….” Clearly we can expect the Ten Commandments not to show up.
Then we find the predictable catalog of leftist, suitably undefined, ideas of sins. “sin against peace, sin against creation, against Indigenous populations, against migrants; sin of abuse; sin against women, family, youth; sin of using doctrine as stones to be hurled; sin against poverty; sin against synodality/lack of listening, communion, and participation of all.” Actually some of these are coverned within the implications of a mature understanding of the seven deadly sins. To this day, I wonder if the Vatican considers me sinful for believing that the Indigenous practice of burying children alive is a rather evil thing to do.
And they have to resort to their own sins of Bergoglian strawman characterizations that coherent, dare I say traditional, expressions of God given moral principles, fortified by the Sermon on the Mount no less, constitutes “stones to be hurled.”
“According to a press release, attendees will request forgiveness “in the name of all the baptized” for “sin against peace, sin against creation, against Indigenous populations, against migrants; sin of abuse; sin against women, family, youth; sin of using doctrine as stones to be hurled; sin against poverty; sin against synodality/lack of listening, communion, and participation of all.”
I thought sin requires personal participation. One cannot repent “sin against women”; one can repent his sin against a particular human being (which happened to be a woman).
Psychologically, it is very easy to confess such impersonal generalizations – and feel very good about themselves.
“sin against synodality/lack of listening, communion, and participation of all.”
No dudes, you should confess the sin of enabling the abuse in the Church instead.
Touché Anna.
Lord, spare us from the sin of Church leaders who deny your salvific redemption on the cross.
We read: “In addition, four new forums will be conducted on two dates alongside the monthlong assembly and will provide a public platform for reflection and debate on theological topics being discussed during the synod.”
Since one of the synodal reflections is on “sins against women,” how about a forum for Julian of Norwich, the first woman to write/dictate a book in Old English? Here’s a “baseline” reflection closely related to Eucharistic Adoration, as “walking together”—or maybe kneeling (!)—on the periphery of the navel-gazing Synodality.
Something about the mystery uncreated love and created love:
“This it is necessary to speak of uncreated Love paradoxically, as both hidden and known. Julian therefore describes two kinds of truths, or ‘secrets’, so to speak, in God. One of these is the being of God himself, the indwelling Love of the Trinity which is really beyond our idea of ‘being’ or of ‘love’ (the apophatic Trinity [above + talk about]). The other ‘secret’ is the being of God toward man—the Love which is the Son of God made man, making known the Trinity to us. One is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit so living in one another that they are perfectly one; the other is the Son of God born into creation, yet still living in the Father, in the Holy Spirit, that they are perfectly one. The latter is the ‘created charity’ which we can embrace, because it is the embracement of man by God [….]
“It is important here to grasp the full implications of what Julian is saying about the revelation of God to man in Christ: To know God is not to know ‘about’ the Trinity, but to know the Trinity personally—that is, to experience uncreated love. The Love of God towards us is the same Love as that within the Trinity, according to God’s desire for us to know it. Therefore to experience God’s Love is to experience God himself.
“Humanity is created for the Son of God: we share in that humanity in our own creation; and the moment of our own creation is to be understood as the moment of the Incarnation—the same moment in which humanity itself is created. All these events take place at the same time and are, for God, a single act of divine love.”
(Brad Pelphrey, “The Theology and Mysticism of Julian of Norwich: Love was his Meaning,” Institut fur Anglistik und Amerikanistik, University of Salzburg, Austria, 1982, pp. 122, 124, 165).
SUMMARY: Instead of “time is greater than space,” or vice versa, the true God is both above and indwells time and space. NOT the so-called “sin of using doctrine as stones to be hurled.”
Wonder if they will serve Wagyu beef and Dungeness crab?
Hilarious.
But they could attain to “full virtue” in the eyes of their colleagues in the EU and the World Council of Churches if they ate insects throughout the “performance.”
If they do, the crickets will likely be imported from Japan. I remember having them some 30 years ago. Not bad actually. Had some kind of BBQ-tasting sauce on them. Not sure if they are best served with Espresso or green tea, however.
This strikes me as nothing more than virtue-signaling at the very highest level, and that is so sad, because it is just what we DON’T need, and at the worst possible time.
Maybe it’s just me, but I detect a hint of resentment at the lack of widespread enthusiasm for the Synod on Synodality. E.g. the “sin against synodality/lack of listening, communion, and participation of all.” If that is supposed to make people feel guilty for being uninterested in the Synod and synodality, I doubt it will work.
Your comment brought to my mind some kind of sophisticated abuse ex cathedra (or is it pulpit?) which I witnessed. A priest (who later was prohibited to serve) could not accept that a couple of people in the parish refused to deal with him i.e. to speak to him outside of Mass because of his emotional abuse. The priest then began speaking about those two people during his homilies, not naming them but describing so it was quite clear who they were. He called them “the ugly people in our midst” and so on. I knew that a person with a narcissistic personality cannot stand it when the other refused to have anything to do with him. Inevitably he will start acting out in a gross way and this is what I witnessed.
And so, the proclamation of the synodal organizers, the lack of interest in their activity to be a sin is very much in line with the reaction of a described priest. He was offended because others said “no, we do not want to deal with you because you are an abuser” and so he lashed, condemning that people – just the same, the organizers are offended and now lashing those who do not wish to participate. The organizers do not say “we regret many are not interested”, they do to try (it is very important) to consider why it is so but instead they remove the results of the survey re: interest in ‘Synod of Synodality’ and use very heavy cannon, defining it as “SIN (against synodality)”.
It is not theological at all, it is psychological. It is all about “how dare you to reject ME” covered by “us”.
Everyone commenting is appalled, all of us likely guilty of at least one of the new sins cataloged by the new Synodal Church of Christ without Christ.
All the newly created sins address negative attitudes toward New Age social justice concerns. They’re encapsulated by “the sin of using doctrine as stones to be hurled”. The suggested solution is to bracket doctrine and ‘move on’ [the now famous epithet of the VP presidential candidate].
Further, what would the Synod on Synodality be if it didn’t accent the horrible sin against synodality/lack of listening. That sin cuts an enormously large swath through the population since most pay little attention. Which means an expected long range effort at inculturation of the masses to the ideology of the enlightened few. Although there’s no urgency here since most Catholics – except for the recalcitrants, today are amenable to the list of sins of the Gospel according to Francis I.
For those of us who question the motivation of the major tenet of the Church of Make Nice, Don’t throw stones, “sin of using doctrine as stones to be hurled”, the tenet goes back ages [the current 11 years seem remarkably longer] to the first council on the family 2014. That’s when Francis I in his best messianic form chastised the body of bishops for throwing stones at the faithful living in sin.