In 2014 the Vatican’s International Theological Commission published Sensus Fidei: In the Life of the Church. It addressed the belief that “the faithful have an instinct for the truth of the Gospel, which enables them to recognise and endorse authentic Christian doctrine and practice, and to reject what is false”.
Sensus Fidei translates from Latin as “sense of the faithful”. That Vatican document said it allowed the faithful “not only to recognise what is in accordance with the Gospel and to reject what is contrary to it, but also to sense what Pope Francis has called ‘new ways for the journey’ in faith of the whole pilgrim people.”
Following months of consultation with many thousands of practicing Catholics in Ireland, there is no doubt what the sense of the faithful on this island is telling the Church. Overwhelmingly, they want “new ways.” They want equality for women in the Church, at all levels including ministry; they want LBGTQI+ people to be accepted and respected as companions in faith, and they want similar accommodation extended to divorced Catholics, remarried Catholics, cohabiting couples, and single parents. They want a greater role for laity in Church decision-making.
They made this clear in reports of their views from the 26 Catholic dioceses on this island as well as in three separate submissions from the Association of Catholic Priests, the Association of Catholics of Ireland, and the We Are Church Ireland group, all of which were collated at a national assembly in Athlone on Saturday. This synthesis will be sent to Rome in August for consideration at the Synod on Synodality called by Pope Francis for October 2023. Similar reports are being prepared throughout the Catholic world.
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Unsurprisingly, many of those who took part in these Irish consultations expressed fears that, no matter what they think, “the opinions of the laity will be watered down at the higher levels of the Church in Ireland so as to reflect the views of the hierarchy and the direction in which the bishops wish to take the Church,” as said in one diocesan report. That would defeat this entire process.