Two weeks from today, October 17, what I believe is the culmination of five years of the Synodality Process comes to a conclusion at a day long meeting in Meath, attended by representatives of all the various groups and institutions in the Church. I was a delegate of the ACP at the two previous meetings, in Athlone and Kilkenny, but I have withdrawn from this one, and will be replaced by another ACP member. My decision not to attend the forthcoming gathering has partly to do with my age, but more to the fact that I am generally fairly pessimistic about the process. The Athlone meeting, at an early stage of the process, was full of energy and gave promise of real change. Everything seemed to be on the table. But Kilkenny changed all that. Anything remotely challenging or controversial had been removed from the agenda, leaving only what I regarded as a fairly standard wish list about prayer, youth, family, and many of the other usual topics that have been preached from pulpits for years without much effect. I am not sure what brought about that change, but there did seem to be a very different group of people there than those who attended in Athlone.
I must say that I have great regard for Julianne Moran and her committee, who are leading the process, and who are clearly doing their very best, and I hope that they will be successful in keeping the process alive, and show up my pessimism as unnecessary.
There is another reason why I am not hopeful. From what I see, hear and read, there seems to be very little happening on the ground in parishes and dioceses. Many people have told me that they haven’t heard one word about synodality in their church at any stage of the process. I am slow to blame the priests. By and large, they are old, overworked, and just about having enough energy to provide the basic services.
My problem is with the top level of leadership in our Church, the bishops. My belief is that many of the middle ranked bishops don’t really believe in a synodal church, so they are saying and doing as little as they can. I am disappointed by some of the younger bishops, who in their previous life in parishes were very open to involving the people, but now as bishops they don’t seem to be taking any leadership role in public. Even more striking is the lack of leadership from the men in senior positions in the episcopacy. None of them, as far as I am aware, is out there pushing the synodal agenda.
Pope Leo’s visit to France has created quite a stir, massive crowds, great enthusiasm, and excitement among the young who seemed to respond to him in a big way. Putting that together with a significant increase in adult baptisms in France, there is a feeling going around that the tide is turning, and that people are coming back to the faith. The danger here is that our unenthusiastic bishops, seeing what happened in France, will say to themselves that things will work themselves out and the people will come back, so there is no need for any dramatic change.
I am impressed by a lot of what Leo is saying and doing, and I think it is providential that an American is pope in the time of Trump. But I would be slow to draw too many conclusions from what happened in France. We had a similar experience here in Ireland with John Paul II in 1979. The young people flocked to Galway, they sang, they danced and they clapped. I was there. The Irish bishops at the time responded by saying that the young people were back, and that there were good times ahead. No need to worry, or change anything. We know how wrong that was. Only time will tell if France will be any different. My fear is that many of the people who came to be baptised will flock out next year and vote for Le Pen, just as droves of U.S. catholics voted for Trump in two elections, and are enamoured at the version of Catholicism portrayed by J.D. Vance and others of Trumps cabinet.
In the end, I believe the question of equality for women is going to be crucial. If no serious move is made in this area I’m afraid synodality is going nowhere. It would appear that the ‘powers that be’ in the Vatican have taken the question of women becoming priests off the agenda. What are they thinking of? If you invite people to speak openly, with the promise that they will be listened to, but then decree that they can only speak on certain subjects, you are undermining the whole affair. It would appear that is exactly what is happening.
So I will stay at home this day two weeks, but I will hope for the best, maybe even say a prayer.
