Catholic Synod Retreat Concludes with Calls for Inclusivity and Understanding
Catholic Synod Retreat Concludes with Calls for Inclusivity and Understanding
By Sr. Henriette Anne, FSSA
At the end of the three-day retreat that preceded the Synod Assembly, the participants were encouraged to listen to one another and to come together despite the different understandings of the Church.
“We may be divided by different hopes, but if we listen to the Lord and to each other, seeking to understand his will for the Church and the world, we shall be united in a hope that transcends all our disagreements”, Fr. Timothy Radcliffe said in a retreat meditation on Oct. 1.
In a live-streamed retreat meditation at Sacrofano Retreat Center, Fr. Radcliffe urged the Synod delegates to embrace their differences, express their doubts, and cast away fears.
The Dominican preacher began the retreat by acknowledging his limitation saying, “I’m deeply aware of my personal limitation. I’m old, white, western, and a man. And I don’t know which is worse. All these aspects of my identity limit my understanding, so I ask for your forgiveness for the inadequacy of my words”.
He further reminded the delegates to “journey towards a Church” where people who “do not yet feel at home in the Church”.
“Our lives are nourished by beloved traditions and devotions. If they are lost, we grieve. But also, we remember those who do not yet feel at home in the Church: women who feel that they are unrecognized in a patriarchy of old white men like me! People who feel that the Church is too Western, too Latin, too colonial. We must journey towards a Church in which they are no longer at the margin but at the center,” Fr. Radcliffe explained.
Reflecting on the sources of divisions in the Catholic Church, he said, “Different understandings of the Church as home tear us apart today. For some it is defined by its ancient traditions and devotions, its inherited structures and language, the Church we have grown up with and love. It gives us a clear Christian identity. For others, the present Church does not seem to be a safe home. It is experienced as exclusive, marginalizing many people, including women: the divorced and remarried. For some, it is too Western, too Eurocentric”.
He also highlighted what Instrumentum Laboris, the document guiding the Synod Assembly says about the gay people and the people in polygamous marriages, “They long for a renewed Church in which they will feel fully at home, recognized, affirmed, and safe. For some the idea of a universal welcome, in which everyone is accepted regardless of who they are, is felt as destructive of the Church’s identity. … They believe that identity demands boundaries. But for others, it is the very heart of the Church’s identity to be open. Pope Francis said, ‘The Church is called on to be the house of the Father, with doors always wide open”
For the priests, the preacher noted that they need a strong sense of identity, an esprit de corps. But who shall we be in this Church which is liberated from clericalism? How can the clergy embrace an identity which is not clerical? This is a great challenge for a renewed Church. Let us embrace it without fear, a new fraternal understanding of ministerial priesthood!”
The three-day retreat ended on Tuesday, 3rd October ushering the participants into the next phase of the journey which is a twenty-five-day synod gathering at Aula Paul VI at the Vatican, from October 4 - 25, 2023.
