Four Synods and clericalism remains intact

I cannot say that I was disappointed by the Synod’s Final Document on Synodality, because disappointment is only possible when there are expectations. But I feel deeply sorry for so many men and women (especially women) who had said to themselves, “This time yes, the Synod will succeed! May God be blessed!” Yes, may Life, the Breath that sustains it in the best depth of hearts, beyond all expectations, be blessed.

But it wasn’t to be this time, either. The Church will remain divided between clergy and laity. The clergy, they alone, will continue to have the last word and the power to decide, the power they insist on calling “sacred”, the power that they alone believe they have received directly from God thanks to the Sacrament (with a capital letter) of the Holy Order, conferred by those who in turn received it from others, goodness knows since when or how. All we know with any certainty is that the prophet Jesus never had in mind any clerical terms, any sacred power, or any hierarchical Church (hierarchy in Greek means “sacred power”).

After 11 and a half years of Pope Francis’ pontificate, after four synods with great fanfare, everything remains as it was, as it was before this synod and the three that preceded it: the Synod on the Family, which failed to clarify whether divorcees who remarried could receive communion and under what conditions… ); the Synod on Youth, which invited gay or lesbian members to be welcomed into the family, but made it very clear that their union is “nowhere near” comparable to that of sacramental heterosexual marriage; and the Synod on the Amazon, which turned a deaf ear to the symphony of its waters; it limited itself to alluding timidly to the possibility of ordaining married men ‘in regions far from the Amazon’ and to the possibility of the ordination –‘not sacramental’, let it be clear– of women as deaconesses; in Pope Francis’ post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation “Dear Amazonia”, even these timid allusions vanish while the Amazon continues to flow and sing.

After the end of the fourth synod, I stress: clericalism remains in place, unmoved by time, insensitive to the Breath. The final Document solemnly affirms that the Church is essentially synodal, i.e. a communion of travellers. Synod in Greek means “to walk together”, but the institution neither walks nor moves forward, and in a world where everything is constantly moving, not moving forward is tantamount to going backwards. Everything continues as before, much to the disappointment of those who had expected much, or at least had hoped for something. But blessed also be the disappointment of this Synodal Document, if it opens our eyes.

The outcome was more than predictable. See how it developed. In the synthesis of the first session of the General Synodal Assembly in October 2023, some of the most recurrent, thorny issues proposed by some of the Bishops’ Conferences across the five continents vanished: the ordination of women as priests, the blessing of homosexual marriages, the recognition of LGTBIQ+ people. The synthesis mentions the ordination of women as deacons, and dispensation from celibacy for priests in special circumstances, but… only to request that these issues should continue to be explored.

So it is understandable that in the Instrumentum laboris or working document for the second session of the Synodal Assembly (October 2024), the wriggle room is even tighter: the ordination of women to the priesthood, the “consecrated diaconate” of women, the dispensation from celibacy for priests, LGTBIQ+ individuals… don’t even get a mention any more. All this was not to be discussed. It certainly denounces clericalism, however it does not question clerical power, but the way it is exercised, the undue appearance of it. And it states unequivocally: “Synodality in no way implies the devaluing of the particular authority and the specific task which Christ himself entrusts to the pastors: the bishops with their presbyters, their collaborators, and the Roman Pontiff as ‘the perpetual and visible principle and foundation of unity of both the Bishops and of the faithful’ (LG 23)” (n. 8); and also: “in a synodal Church, the authority of the Bishop, of the Episcopal College and of the Bishop of Rome in regard to decision-taking is inviolable as it is grounded in the hierarchical structure of the Church established by Christ” (n. 70). With such a clear, forceful principle and foundation, this synod and all the others were superfluous. And so on and so forth.

And so that brings us to the Final Document of the Synod on Synodality, published on 26 October 2024. Once again it denounces clericalism, but this time it also includes the laity in its denunciation, and that just takes the clerical biscuit: “Clericalism, whether fostered by priests themselves or by lay persons, leads to an excision in the ecclesial body that supports and helps to perpetuate many of the evils that we are condemning today” (n. 74). Any concrete way of overcoming the clerical system of sacred, exclusionary, masculine, celibate power? None whatsoever. It praises women again, yes indeed, but in order to subordinate them more effectively: “There is no reason or impediment that should prevent women from carrying out leadership roles in the Church: what comes from the Holy Spirit cannot be stopped”. But it goes on: “The question of women’s access to diaconal ministry remains open. This discernment needs to continue” (n. 60). This could be taken as an appalling final cop-out, but I see it more as a reflection of impotence, of impasse, and of one of its fundamental causes: the misogynist obsession so typical of clericalism throughout history. This is a good topic for another necessary synod, but no longer led by bishops, but by historians, sociologists, psychologists and neuroscientists of the religious phenomenon.

So everything ends up where it was before this Synod and the three preceding Synods began. “It is exhausting,” said Georg Bätzing, President of the German Bishops’ Conference, referring to the endless, fruitless attempts to overcome the blocking to which the Vatican, with the pope at the helm, has subjected the German Synodal Way since it opened in 2019 with all its demands: priestly ordination of women, participation of the laity in episcopal decisions, possibility of marriage for priests, blessing of homosexual unions, reform of Catholic moral doctrine on sexuality. I am in no doubt that Bätzing must have said the same thing to himself countless times in the long, deadlocked sessions of the Synod of Synodality, of which he was an important member.

What is more, I think that this is precisely what Pope Francis, at 86 years of age, must be feeling and thinking: “It’s exhausting”. I am not surprised that on the 26th, at the closing ceremony of the Synod, he announced out of the blue: “I do not intend to publish an apostolic exhortation”. What is the point, he could have added, if we can no longer walk, if we have not moved forward and cannot move forward? What he did add were words that lend themselves to different interpretations: “And now, in the light of what has emerged from the synodal path, there are and will be decisions to be taken”. I understand that the best, most dignified and humane decision would be to resign. That remains to be seen.

What has already been seen is that, after ten and a half years of papacy, after four synods, after multiple Instrumenta laboris, synodal syntheses, post-synodal Apostolic Exhortations, after many hopes or spring dreams, after so many documents, texts and votes, after so many words, words and more words, when autumn reached its zenith, there was nothing to harvest. They did not pluck up the courage to free themselves from the ideas, norms and privileges of the past. They did not allow themselves to be inspired and driven by the Spirit of the ongoing transformation of all things, the Spirit of universal brotherhood-sisterhood, the Spirit of the ‘good news’ (Gospel) announced by Jesus. They failed to sufficiently ponder those words spoken by their prophetic lips, their free, bold tongues: ‘No one who sets his hand to the plough and then looks back is fit for the kingdom of God’ (Lk. 9:62 REB) or the Breath of Life. The plough falters, the earth does not breathe, the springtime, the new bread of the universal Pascha goes to waste.

But no, the sun rises every day, the moon comes out every night, autumn heads towards rest, in the silence of winter the ear of corn will sprout, we will celebrate Pascha. We want to live and we will continue to walk, we will continue to share the road made up of many, diverse paths. And, whenever the synodal Spirit so inspires us, we will disregard immobile, immovable Canon Law, so that life may go on and grow.

Aizarna (Basque Country). 31 October 2024

Translated by Sarah J. Turtle