Pope pushes ‘radical’ culture of respectful listening

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This article was published 27/01/2024 (619 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The “Jesuit disrupter” — that’s what Michael Higgins says about Pope Francis and the Synod of Synodality.

Higgins is the distinguished professor of Catholic Thought Emeritus at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, past-president of three Canadian Catholic universities and a regular commentator about the Roman Catholic Church for various media outlets — and he is writing a book about the pope. So he knows a thing or two about the Roman Catholic Church and what’s happening inside it now.

The synod — from the Greek word synodus, meaning to walk together — is a multi-year project created by the pope to reshape and revitalize the Roman Catholic Church so it is better able to engage the 21st century world.

“It is a church-shaping event, the most ambitious expression to date of Francis’s pastoral outreach,” said Higgins, adding that some see it being as important as the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

What makes it different from past gatherings is how the pope has structured it: as an exercise in listening. This is a change from how the church has operated in the past, Higgins said, noting the Roman Catholic Church is not generally seen as a body that is open to dialogue.

“It is a radical departure from the traditional ecclesiology of the church,” he said, adding Francis’s goal is to change the way information flows. “He sees it as an inverted pyramid, with the pope at the bottom, not the top, as a servant of the church,” he said.

The synod, which met last October in Rome, was set up in a way that clearly illustrated that point. In typical gatherings, the pope and church officials speak from a podium and all the bishops and cardinals are seated in rows at the front.

At October’s gathering, however, the 364 lay people and clergy from around the world, including 54 women, sat around tables for discussion. That included the pope, who also sat with delegates.

“His goal was to create a culture of respectful listening to each other,” Higgins said. “He crafted the synod as an inclusive, free and view-sharing environment wherein delegates are to speak their minds, without fear of a punitive response from the senior Vatican authorities when they go off script.”

And that, said Higgins, worries his detractors. They see him as too eager to let people explore issues like married priests, ordaining women and welcoming LGBTTQ+ Catholics.

Reflecting on the gathering, which he attended as a reporter, Higgins noted that not all in the church hierarchy are on board with the process.

“Some bishops are pro-Francis, others are opposed,” he said. “There is a resistance.”

Some of those in opposition hope it is “a passing fancy that will disappear when this pope dies and things can go back to the way they used to be,” Higgins said.

At the same time, some bishops who came to the synod with suspicion have changed their minds. “The level of buy-in was strong,” he said.

Among the issues that emerged was opening a door for married priests — something Canadian bishops raised as far back as 1971, and then again in 2011, as a way to deal with the shortage of clergy in Canada’s North.

There isn’t sufficient consensus on that yet, Higgins said, noting that while the pope is open to it, he is moving slowly so as not to divide the church. “He will wait until there is what he believes is genuine consensus,” he said.

As for women as priests, there is no appetite for that right now, he said, adding delegates discussed ordaining women to be deacons in the church. “There isn’t consensus on that, either,” Higgins explained.

As for the more contentious issue of LGBTTQ+ welcome and affirmation, that is going nowhere at this time, he said. “The pope knows this is controversial, so he’s not going to push it,” he said, noting African bishops, in particular, are opposed.

At the same time, he made sure to let members of the LGBTTQ+ Catholic community know he hasn’t forgotten them; he invited some of their key leaders for a personal meeting and then had a photo taken with them that was released by the Vatican.

“No other advocacy group at the synod got this kind of recognition,” Higgins said. “He recognized them in a way that hadn’t been done before. That was his strategic move. He told them they might be on the periphery now, but they are in the tent, they matter greatly to him.”

As for the impact of the synod in Canada, Higgins said he’s “not persuaded the Canadian bishops have fully bought into the process… I don’t know if their hearts are in it.”

This might be because they are consumed by the challenge of dealing with the church’s residential school legacy and raising money for the healing fund, he said. Whatever the reason, “it doesn’t seem like a priority for the Canadian church right now,” he added.

The next time the church gathers will be in October, for the second meeting of this Synod on Synodality. That’s when the results and recommendations will be announced. Higgins doesn’t expect that to be an easy meeting for some to accept. But, he said, “the alternative is decay and decline.”

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