The Catholic Church must take concrete steps to promote women to decision-making positions and to strive for the “radical inclusion” of people who identify themselves by their sexual preferences or assumed gender, according to the blueprint for the forthcoming “Synod on Synodality”.
<a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2023/06/20/0456/01015.html#en"><strong><em>The Instrumentum Laboris, or working document, </em></strong></a>was published by the Vatican ahead of the opening of the first of two sessions of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October.
A synthesis of responses from worldwide consultations on possible responses by the Church to contemporary challenges discovered a “unanimous” and “crucial” demand for women to be allowed to access positions of responsibility and governance, again raising the question of whether women will be admitted to the Catholic diaconate.
The document also recommended that the Church did more to reach out and accept marginalised people.
It departs from other official Catholic documentation by using the preferred language of the global sexual and reproductive rights movement, specifically the term “LGBTQ+” (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer).
Traditionally, the Church has refused to define people principally by their sexual preferences or orientations and spoke of homosexuals, for example, as people who experience “same-sex attraction”.
The document asks: “How can we create spaces where those who feel hurt by the Church and unwelcomed by the community feel recognized, received, free to ask questions, and not judged?
“In the light of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation <em>Amoris Laetitia</em>, what concrete steps are needed to welcome those who feel excluded from the Church because of their status or sexuality (for example, remarried divorcees, people in polygamous marriages, LGBTQ+ people, etc.)?”
The working document has also repeated a controversial proposal made in 2019 for the ordination of married men as a response to a shortage of clergy in some parts of the world, such as in the Amazon Basin of South America.
“As some continents propose, could a reflection be opened concerning the discipline on access to the priesthood for married men, at least in some areas?” the document asks.
It also recommended swingeing structural, canonical and institutional reforms to the way authority is exercised by bishops in the Church.
It advocates the introduction of an open-ended “synodal” process that entails ongoing dialogue and discernment and rolling change, as well as outlining “conversation in the Spirit” as a “synodal method” of seeking the guidance from the Holy Spirit in responding to “the signs of the times”.
The 60-page document was written by a committee of 22 people in April and May and has been approved by Pope Francis.
It states that it does not represent the teaching of the Magisterium but merely highlights the “priorities that emerged from listening to the People of God” so far in the process.
Invariably, however, embarrassingly few Catholics in any country have been motivated to take part in the consultation process since it began in 2021.
Jesuit Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the Relator General of the Synod, said at a press conference: "We do not speak about the Church's teaching. That is not our task and not our mission."
He later told Vatican News that the document was simply “a text which should inspire” further reflection and final discernment.
“The working sheets give us concrete questions which have emerged in the different levels of the Synodal journey and it is the Synod of Bishops and the participants of the Synod of Bishops who have now to finish this discernment process,” he said.
“The real finish is the Holy Father when (his decision) is given the result of the Synod. So we put questions. We do not give answers. The answers have to be given by the Synod.”
He continued: “We have to reflect on how women can fully participate in the Church's life and this is not a question of ordination of women.
“It's much deeper and much more important. It goes to the dignity of baptism. The dignity of baptism is not lesser for women than for men … do they just have to make tea for the men? No.”
He added: “I think that the Church needs to respect differences. In a world Church, it is nearly impossible to have exactly the same opinion. You have to share the same faith in Jesus Christ. We have to live and testify to Jesus Christ.
“We have to keep up the teaching of the Church and we have to live the Gospel. But that will be done with different colours and different tastes, and that's fine for me.”
For the first time, more than a fifth of the voting delegates at the synod will not be bishops but will be selected by Pope Francis from among a list of 140 lay people, consecrated women, priest and deacons.
<em>(Photo: CNS)</em>
