Sir, – Breda O’Brien’s column “Church is not a democracy so forget about radical change” (Opinion & Analysis, August 20th) is wholly predictable in its attempt to undermine the creation of a People’s Church, a central objective of the Second Vatican Council, through a synodal pathway being led from the front by Pope Francis.
Breda O’Brien sets up a series of straw men and proceeds to knock them down one by one. The church is not a democracy. (Who is seriously saying that it is?) Synodality is not a version of a parliamentary voting system where doctrine is changed through consensus-finding. (Who has ever seriously suggested that?) Schism is being openly discussed. (Fear-mongering?) Raising hopes that will be dashed could lead to people, who participated in the synodal pathway, walking away from the church. (Crocodile tears?)
Synodality is about creating a platform that respects and allows a voice to all the members of the church – all the baptised, not just the ordained. It’s about listening to all voices and allowing God’s Spirit to inspire us. That requires conservative Catholics who believe they are right listening to liberal Catholics. And liberal Catholics who believe they are right listening to conservative Catholics.
Since Vatican II (1962-1965), despite the documents of that council being overwhelmingly voted through by the highest teaching authority in the church – the bishops of the world gathered in general council – efforts to neutralise them and restore aspects of the pre-Vatican II church were evident in the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
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Pope Francis, responding to the many challenges the church is facing, relaunched the Vatican II reforms. Conservative forces, after a long ascendency, believed that their writ would run and rule forever and seemed to presume that Vatican II reforms were thereby superfluous.
Now that they have reappeared, an effective campaign – shameful in its disloyalty and its presumption that “their church” is the only possible church – has been launched to undermine and oppose Pope Francis and synodality.
The truth synodality represents is that the church is always changing, always in need of reform (ecclesia semper reformanda) and doctrine continues to develop, despite those who say (against all the evidence of history) that church teaching never, ever changes. (It has and it will.)
The church’s teaching in relation to “hot-button issues” the ordination of women, LGBT+ teaching, married priests – won’t be changed at the synod in Rome next year but that doesn’t mean that they won’t be, despite the infallible presentation of a version of the Tridentine Church by a conservative minority clearly out of sync with the priorities of Irish Catholics as evidenced in the report sent to Rome.
Becoming a synodal church means that we’re all in this together and no group, conservative or liberal, can dictate to God’s Spirit what he (or she) can or cannot do. – Yours, etc,
Fr BRENDAN HOBAN,
Ballina,
Co Mayo.
Sir, – The Catholic Church is a patriarchal monarchy who have built themselves a canon law fortress which is far removed from the gospel message of Jesus Christ. Women were central to the ministry of Jesus. Yet patriarchal greed for power and privileges have relegated them to less than second-class status.
Pope Francis has called for an inverted pyramid structure for our church with synodal structures where all the people of God are involved in decision-making. Hopefully in October 2023 some 300 men and one woman will vote to take a step toward this radical change to bring our church back to Christ. – Yours, etc,
COLM HOLMES,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Breda O’Brien’s views on the report that emanated from the synodal process in the Irish Catholic Church could be interpreted as signalling a degree of fear that the synodal process may actually lead to some changes in our church.
The columnist relies heavily on the Nicene Creed to argue for the status quo. This creed makes no mention of homosexual love, of a celibate clergy, of an exclusively male priesthood.
Catholic faith is not an assent to a set of doctrines, it is a personal commitment to the life of Christ within each one of us.
Breda O’Brien quotes selectively from the letter of Pope Francis to German Catholics in 2019. Promoting the ordination of women, optional celibacy and personal rights for homosexual people does not necessarily equate with “the great sin of worldliness”.
Some people who express fear of a fragmented church often want unity as long as it does not demand any change in their mindsets. – Yours, etc,
MARGARET LEE,
Newport,
Co Tipperary.
Sir, – Has Breda O’Brien forgotten that the development of doctrine is a core tenet of Catholicism? Church history is replete with developments that at the time seemed surprising and radical. One thinks, for example, of the correction of teaching about the subordination of woman to man in marriage, a seemingly settled doctrinal position in the church down through the centuries until at least the 1940s.
Or, indeed, of the much more recent change of teaching about access to the Eucharist for divorced and remarried people under certain circumstances, a development introduced by Pope Francis in response to a synodal process. Change is a human reality, and, if wisely discerned, as the synodal process facilitates, it need not be feared. – Yours, etc,
GERRY O’HANLON, SJ
Cherry Orchard,
Dublin 10.