Charles Collins

Despite its novelty – 50 years is nothing in Church time – the Synod, too, can fall into the same “functionalism” against which Pope Francis warned the Dicastery for Communication earlier this week.

The events in Ireland and Quebec are easily explained away as the Church just getting caught up in laws that are aimed at the general population. But another factor is at work: Ireland and Quebec are both flexing their muscles as post-Catholic societies.