Resistance to synodality

Synodality is not “my” cause, as Fr Gregory O’Brien (Letters, 18 July) claims, but the Church’s, agreed in the Final Document voted on by the world’s bishops in October 2024, whose implementation has been urged by Pope Francis and – even more emphatically – by Pope Leo.

As for “lecturing” the bishops, that’s not my style, just as it is foreign to me, as a journalist, not to tell the truth: that the implementation has so far been ignored at the level of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, and in most dioceses.

Why? In my article I did not speculate, but indignant letters such as Fr O’Brien’s illustrates a reason I have been given by bishops, namely the resistance of a minority of clergy locked in a downward spiral of desolation, who feel “worn out and weary trying to keep the Church alive, with few priests”, in his own revealing phrase.

When you believe that the life of the Church hinges on you as the priest, and all is shrinking and declining around you, it is understandable that the invitation to a more ancient understanding of the Church as a discerning community of missionary disciples is one you’ll try to block out.

Still, he cannot be allowed the breath taking claim that Leo is not behind synodality because he did not mention it in his homily on SS Peter and Paul. Leo hardly needed to, given his exhaustive mentions of both in his opening and closing speeches to the consistory in the previous two days.

Perhaps he could look up some of the dozen addresses at synod.va under the title “Pope Leo, the Synod and Synodality”. He is in for a big surprise.

AUSTEN IVEREIGH, HEREFORD

Get Instant Access

Continue Reading

Register for free to read this article in full

REGISTER

Subscribe for unlimited access

SUBSCRIBE NOW

From just £37.50 quarterly

  Print copy of The Tablet delivered directly to your door.
  Complete access to all Tablet website content including all premium content.
  Access to the weekly digital copy of The Tablet.
  Full access to The Tablet’s archive – over 180 years of back issues.

Already a subscriber? Login