By Ruth Peacock
The Synod of Bishops in Rome next week is no decision-making body, but that isn’t stopping synod-watchers in Britain from believing that it will produce ground-breaking change on the role of women in the church.
After an hour of highly informed debate during a Religion Media Centre briefing, the panel was asked to suggest the likely headline at the end of the synod’s three-week meeting.
The answers were: “Synod opens the door to women deacons?”; “Women can no longer be silenced”; “Women in the church, the great debate”.
Christopher Lamb, Rome correspondent of The Tablet, emphasised that the synod was a consultative, not deliberative, body. What it agrees on is submitted to the Pope, who has the final vote.
But the point of this “synod on synodality”, which will give women the vote for the first time and which includes lay members, is that it creates a spirit of solidarity where all are listened to. “Synods are going to be the signature of this Pope and one that is likely to outlast him,” he said.
The role of women is just one of many topics that emerged from synod consultations with Catholics across the globe leading up to this moment and driving the agenda.
The gathering will also discuss clericalism, the abuse of power, migration and climate change. There will be a vote on a document summarising the discussion, and then it will all be discussed again at the same time next year with another vote.
The panel’s host, Rosie Dawson, said the force for change indicated in the global consultation had led some people to suggest this synod heralded another reformation, pointing the future direction of Christianity.
Certainly, Christopher Lamb said, there was clearly a need for reform and renewal in the Catholic church, with recurring stories of sex abuse devastating Catholics. “The church can’t simply continue as business as usual. And I think that is what is behind a lot of the synodal renewal. That is what is driving Francis.”
For Anna Rowlands, professor of Catholic social thought and practice at Durham University, now working with the general secretariat of the synod, its value is in the process of listening and what had come back from all corners of the world was a desire for a vibrant participatory church.
There was no detectable binary split between traditionalists in the global south and progressives in the north. At grassroots level, there were common concerns around liturgy and people feeling they had a place and belonged in the church.
Martin Prendergast, chairman of the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics Theology Committee, was seeking change to the church teaching on sexual orientation and gender identity, which many find unacceptable. He was disappointed there was no self-affirming LGBTQI+ person given a vote at the synod and appalled that a Pentecostal church leader from Ghana known for opposition to decriminalising homosexuality, had been invited as an ecumenical participant.
Miriam Duignan, representing the lay alternative synod “Sprit Unbounded”, hoped their meeting in Rome and Bristol would bring marginalised voices to the bishops at their meeting. She was encouraged to think that there was no foregone conclusion as to where the discussions would go.
“Everyone is talking about women’s ministry, either the diaconate priesthood or all ministries. We know that it is a question that can no longer be ignored. The question of women’s equal involvement is like toothpaste out of a tube and it’s not going back in,” she said.
But Sister Professor Gill Goulding, a member of the international theological commission for the Rome synod, said the synod process was not about lobbying for an agenda. The primary focus of the Pope was not a change in doctrine but to “raise up the fact that the people of God all have a voice”.
The briefing was told that the prospect of progressive change has caused some anxiety and fear among Catholics in the pew. James Somerville-Meikle, deputy director of the Catholic Union, said the synod process had “undoubtedly deepened fears and heightened hopes” and the fact that the debate would go on for a year with a synod planned for October 2024, “just allows another year of expectations and fears to drift”.
The panel considered how fear, at its extreme, had given rise to deep and vocal anger from a well-organised and funded group of traditionalists who were active on social media, where the anti-Francis and anti-synod agendas come together. This had the potential to poison the church.
Catherine Pepinster, a journalist and author, described the Pope as a Marmite figure, attracting huge loyal support among people who adored him while others have even described him as a force for evil.
Christopher Lamb said Pope Francis did split opinion, but the vociferous critics were in a minority and he believed the majority of Catholics were supportive of the Pope, who is 86. His age made it inevitable that the bishops would discuss his likely successor during their conversations.
Professor Rowlands said the disagreement was not the focus of the synod, which would conduct its own process while “as much as possible, quietening what is very often a very unhelpful and skewed conversation”. She said the faultlines of the Catholic church would be present at the synod with some opponents in the hall. But she believed attention to the strident voices on both sides of the debate overlooked the middle ground who “didn’t take part as much as they might have done”.
There is a touch of déjà vu about this synod. Professor Rowlands observed that the issues for discussion had come up many times before over decades, which implied that there were real issues for the church over the reception of previous synods, their materials, the teaching and the effectiveness of putting plans into action.
She felt the outcome was one “we don’t yet know and cannot anticipate”. Professor Goulding shared her reluctance to predict the likely result. This was because she regarded the synod process as a spiritual phenomenon. The “protagonist of the central process is the Holy Spirit”, she said, and listening and reflecting would lead people to declare what had been “made manifest to them in their heart”.
View the briefing on our YouTube channel here
