The first week of the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon is in the books. By the time this edition reaches newsstands, week two will be well underway, and the gathering of senior churchmen in Rome from October 6 to October 27 will have just passed the halfway mark. What have we seen thus far, and what ought we expect in the bottom half?
The central ecclesiastical issue within the synod hall emerged as the one that everyone knew it would be: a disciplinary question regarding mandatory celibacy for secular (roughly, “diocesan”) priests. Several senior prelates, some of whom had been high-ranking members of the steering committee that organised the meeting, are in favour of relaxing the rule currently in force in the Latin Church.
