2012-10-09 07:29:39

Synod: hopes and expectations


(Vatican Radio) Philippa Hitchen of Vatican Radio is spending time inside XIII Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the New Evangelization, providing special reporting and in-depth interviews with participants. She is also sharing her impressions of the sessions as they unfold, in short essays after the manner of blog posts. Below is Philippa's first "log entry".

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As I hurried up to the synod hall on the opening morning, I was somewhat surprised to see workmen busy putting up scafolding in front of St Peter’s Basilica – I assume in preparation for the big Mass marking half a century since the opening of the Second Vatican Council.
The Council, of course, which marked such a turning point in the modern history of the Catholic Church: its liturgy, its language, its engagement with peoples of all faiths and none.
The Council also looms large over this synod, with its emphasis on how to recapture the energy and enthusiasm that the Church felt under the enlightened leadership of Pope John XXIII. A Church that was encouraged to open the windows wide, to find new ways of bringing justice and peace to a world on the brink of war, to act like “a loving mother to all mankind, gentle, patient and full of tenderness for her separated children.” (That speech from the opening of the Council really is well worth reading again if you haven’t done so recently).
So what will these synod fathers and experts, gathered for the next three weeks inside the Vatican, come up with to meet the challenges of the 21st century? It’s the largest encounter of its kind, since Pope Paul VI started the practise of calling bishops from across the world to debate some of the most pressing issues of the day. 262 church leaders, plus almost a hundred other experts, men and women, religious and lay, as well as a handful of special guests and delegates from other Christian churches. For the first time ever, they include a woman bishop, from Texas Sarah Davis, representing the World Methodist Council. An African American, known for her hands-on approach to empowerment of the poor through education, she cuts an elegant figure with her cropped hair, discreet make-up and clerical collar. What on earth, I wondered during the opening session, did she make of all these lengthy speeches in Latin with endless references to the Instrumentum Laboris or working document that the Catholic bishops have been preparing for the past couple of years? At the coffee break, I caught up with her to find out and was slightly taken aback by her enthusiastic response. “I am so struck, she said, by the similar challenges that we face within the Methodist family and I simply can’t wait to hear more ideas about how the Catholic Church is hoping to tackle this.”
I look forward too to hearing her address to the synod on October 16th - a far cry from the opening session of Vatican II, when not a single woman was invited to share her views on such an historic event in the life of the Church.







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