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VATICAN CITY (RNS) – The World Summit of Catholic Bishops that took place on Saturday, October 27, launched a powerful call for the inclusion of women in decision-making positions in the church "At all levels" and sought to welcome and engage homosexuals. church to a historic change on the fight against sexual abuse of the clergy.
But in the far-reaching final document, approved Saturday night as a result of a series of votes of 248 cardinals and bishops, the synod for young people did not open the door to the ordination of women.
The document, based on the deliberations of bishops and young Catholics over the past four weeks, has used unusual language in defending women's rights, asserting that the full integration of women into the Catholic Church was "a duty of justice".
Women, says the paper, play "an irreplaceable role in Christian communities," but are often excluded from "decision making." The Church must become aware of "the urgency of an inevitable change".
He added that the Church's view of the inherent difference between men and women can give rise to "forms of domination, exclusion and discrimination that society and the Church must free themselves from".
The bishops said the discourse on women's issues was partly due to the passionate advocacy of more than 30 young adults invited to attend the meeting – a dynamic that made this synod very different from others.
"I want to thank the young people for the music they brought to the synod," Pope Francis said in an impromptu speech closing the debate in a Vatican conference room.
"And music," he joked, "is the diplomatic word for noise!"
On the crisis of sexual abuse committed by the clergy, the bishops of the English-speaking countries, in particular, fought to include a strong language in the final document. Many bishops in developing countries insisted that the issue not be over emphasized. They feared that this would be at the expense of the life and death problems young people face in their country.
According to a report by the National Catholic Reporter, a call for "zero tolerance" against perpetrators of aggression in a previous draft had been deleted in the final version as part of a compromise.
In the end, the bishops denounced abuses of all kinds but called "clericalism" the main culprit in the scandals of the clergy. Clericalism, according to the document, is a phenomenon born of an "elitist and exclusive" vision of priesthood that allows clergy to exercise power over vulnerable people rather than serve them.
The document underscored Pope Francis' promised efforts to use all the necessary "actions and sanctions" against clergy abuse and said that this effort "could truly be a reform of historical significance." The next major step in the Vatican's anti-abuse campaign will be a February meeting of the world's greatest bishops that the pope wants to use to promote the political goals to be achieved by all.
Another reference to the pleadings of the young participants, who were able to express themselves but were not able to vote at the meeting, the final document also found a way to reach homosexuals, albeit in a roundabout way. It was clearly necessary to pass.
Even with the diluted phrasing, the section on homosexuals reached the threshold with only two votes, the narrowest margin of any vote on the 167 proposals and reflections covering 55 pages.
The bishops of Africa and some of their conservative allies in North America, as well as the conservative Catholic media, have lobbied hard to eliminate any language that might be perceived as affirming homosexual identity – such as the LGBT acronym or the The word "gay" The progressives and some American and European bishops wanted a more explicit opening to homosexuals.
Conservatives were worried about this language that greeted homosexuals and thus undermined Catholic education against homosexuality.
The final language seemed to please neither side, while giving bishops more leeway to accommodate LGBT people if they wished and using the wording they preferred.
However, the document does not use LGBT or gay terms.
But he reiterated "that God loves every person and the Church too," and reiterated the Church's position against "all sexual discrimination and violence".
All in all, the document appears above all as an obvious victory for Francis in that he approves of his strongly contested efforts to push the Catholic Church towards a more collaborative and inclusive form of governance that gives local bishops greater flexibility in the management of their dioceses and ministries. .
"We recognize in this experience a fruit of the Holy Spirit that continually renews the church," the document says. He called on bishops to practice "synodality" – as this collective discernment is called – "as a way of being and acting, encouraging the participation of all the baptized and all the men of good will ".
This is an extremely broad mandate – and it is a wording that has also faced a relatively high number of negative votes – that confirms Francis' vision of a "listening" church, as he likes to to say it.
But this may trigger conservatives who are worried that this indicates a shift to "democratizing" or "protestantizing" Catholicism.
Indeed, an obvious and immediate effect of this more inclusive style of synod has been the presence of young adults, as well as some forty other lay people, nuns and representatives of other churches.
The young people had a decisive impact on the meeting by addressing the assembly behind closed doors and cheering on speeches they liked or reacting with polite applause to those they did not like.
Formerly called "listeners", the youth also took part in small group discussions and most of the bishops here praised their contributions, obvious contributions throughout the final document.
During the synod which officially ends with a mass in St. Peter's Basilica on Sunday, the bishops regularly marveled at the almost revolutionary dynamism that the youths gave to a process that under the ancient popes had been carefully control. a.
The sense of good will, however, was eclipsed throughout the synod – as throughout Francis's five-year pontificate – by reticence and conservative criticism.
In previous synods, the question of the possibility of communion for divorced and remarried couples, for example, had been the focus of concern. In this synod, a major concern was the synodal process itself, or "synodality," which was perceived to be on the verge of turning the church into a "society to debate" that would lead to constant change and change. an inevitable erosion of tradition and orthodoxy.
"The synod is not a parliament," said Francis in his speech Saturday night, in an effort to repel critics. "It's a protected space where the Holy Spirit can work." And he added, "It was the Holy Spirit working here."
(David Gibson, former National Reporter for Religion News Service, is Director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University.)
