Pope Francis and Synod Leaders Defend Event Against Criticism, Say Church Needs ‘Reform’

The Church DOES need 'reform'! It needs reform by the Vicar of Christ and his Modernist Minions™ reverting to the Faith they've betrayed!

From LifeSiteNews

By Michal Haynes

Pope Francis defended the Synod on Synodality against critics at the event’s first meeting this month, while Cardinal Mario Grech hinted at unspecified ‘reform’ resulting from the Synod.

Opening the second Vatican-based session of the Synod on Synodality, Pope Francis defended the Synod from criticisms about its structure and aims, while the Synod’s leading cardinals laid out the style and aims of the event.

“The synodal process is also a learning process, in the course of which the Church comes to know herself better and to identify the forms of pastoral activity best suited to the mission entrusted to her by her Lord.”

So stated Pope Francis this afternoon, addressing the 350 participants of the Synod gathered in the Paul VI Audience Hall for the first meeting of the month.

The opening session – first General Congregation – of this October’s Synod was marked by Francis’ keynote address. But also joining him in delivering lengthy presentations were Cardinals Mario Grech, the General Secretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, and Jean-Claude Hollerich, relator general of the Synod on Synodality.

Papal defense of process

Francis’ speech, continuing themes contained in his homily from the night before at the penitential ceremony, also appeared to be a rebuttal of criticisms made of the Synod.

Referring to the Synod’s “original way” of “walking together” Francis made specific defense of involving lay voters of the Synod for the first time. Their inclusion has been strongly criticized by cardinals and canonists, who have stated that it changes the assembly from a Synod of Bishops into a mere gathering.

“In choosing to convene as full members of this 16th Assembly also a significant number of lay and consecrated persons (men and women), deacons and priests, developing what was already in part envisaged for previous Assemblies, I acted in continuity with the understanding of the exercise of the episcopal ministry set forth by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,” claimed Francis.

He called for “a composition that brings everyone together in service to God’s mercy, according to the different ministries and charisms that the bishop is responsible for recognizing and promoting.”

Francis continued:

The presence at the Assembly of the Synod of Bishops of members who are not bishops does not diminish the “episcopal” dimension of the Assembly. And I say this because of some storm of chatter that has gone from one side to the other. Less still does it place any limitation or derogation on the authority proper to the individual bishop and the College of Bishops. Rather, it signals the form that the exercise of episcopal authority is called to take in a Church aware that it is constitutively relational and therefore synodal. The relationship with Christ and among all in Christ-those who are there and those who are not yet there but who are awaited by the Father-realizes the substance and shapes the form of the Church at all times.

He further added that “different forms of ‘collegial’ and ‘synodal’ exercise of episcopal ministry (in the particular Churches, in groupings of Churches, in the whole Church) must be identified at appropriate times, always respecting the deposit of faith and the living Tradition, always responding to what the Spirit asks of the Churches in this particular time and in the different contexts in which they live.”

Grech hints at ‘reform’

As the general secretary of the Vatican office behind the entire process, Cardinal Grech has long been an ardent promoter of the Synod. Continuing this and mirroring Francis’ language, Grech stated that the month-long event intends to make the Church “a truly synodal Church, a Church in mission, capable of setting out, making herself present in today’s geographical and existential peripheries, and seeking to enter into a relationship with everyone in Jesus Christ, our brother and Lord.”

His language contained a strong undercurrent of impending change and appeared to be almost an implicit defense for such unspecified change, though not calling for any such action outright.

“The Synod is essentially a school of discernment: it is the Church gathered together with Peter to discern together,” he said. “A synodal Church is a proposal to today’s society: discernment is the fruit of a mature exercise of synodality as a style and method.”

Grech also referred directly to reform, and did not rule out any reform but rather encouraged a trust in the process:

Many think that the purpose of the Synod is structural change in the Church, is reform. This is an anxiety, a desire that runs through the whole Church. We all desire it, yet we do not all have the same idea of reform and its priorities.

Identifying a true spirit of reform, said Grech, would come by identifying the group, majority decision of the Church:

The consensus of the Churches was for the early Church a sure criterion of the truth of Christ in the face of any truth claims made by heretics: what the Church believes is true, because the totality of the baptised cannot err in believing, by virtue of the gift of the Spirit. From the very beginning of this synodal process, we have reaffirmed that it founds in this truth the ecclesial discernment, the listening to one another to hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.

Listening to people of God at every stage is “an act of obligation, an application of the principle of circularity that must govern the life of the Church,” he said.

Also echoing themes of the Vatican’s June document which placed the Papacy at the service of synodality, Grech stated that: “the Petrine ministry is the axis of catholic synodality and the synodal process aims to help Peter in his discernment for the whole Church.”

Working groups report

Hollerich presided over an intervention lasting just under two hours, which saw the Synod’s relator general not only impart his own charge to the participants but also provided a platform for interim reports from the 10 study groups Francis has set up to examine questions which have stemmed from the Synod. 

Expanding on Grech’s point about the collective voice of the Church, Hollerich said that a key responsibility of Synod members was “to indicate the direction in which we feel the Spirit is asking the whole Church to proceed, entrusting the Holy Father with guidelines and perspectives for the implementation phase.”

But the chief aim of Hollerich’s was to showcase the work of the 10 study groups, established by the Pope earlier this year.

The 10 groups and themes have been already highlighted by LifeSite, and include some more controversial than others – such as the “female diaconate.” {A more in-depth report on the work done by the study group on this issue will be forthcoming on LifeSite shortly}

“With the establishment of these Groups, the reception and implementation of the directions of our Assembly has already begun,” Hollerich lauded.

Themes in the study groups are not officially supposed to be in the forthcoming discussions, with the Pope having moved those topics to the small groups.

However, ardent activists for certain key issues – not least the “female diaconate” – will no doubt wish to have their say, and thus it remains likely the Synod will nevertheless discuss such topics over the coming weeks.

Full coverage of the synod can be found on LifeSiteNews.com and on the X account of LifeSite’s Vatican correspondent.