The Synod represents nothing and no-one, least of all the Holy Spirit
Does the low participation in the synod on synodality hide a problem of method?
Before the Synod on Synodality, which will take place in October 2023, Pope Francis wanted the meeting of bishops to be preceded by a major consultation of Catholics throughout the world, in keeping with the chosen theme. Is the low relative participation, at least in France, the result of a problem of method?
Jean admits it, almost without shame: a committed Catholic, he "snubbed" the synodal meetings in his Paris parish. The word is not chosen at random. Why should he give his opinion on the Church? What is the point of having an awkward discussion with a group of parishioners that you have never seen before to work out grievances with them? As for Bénédicte, she decided to participate as one would make a sacrifice: so that the ideas that were beginning to emerge - ordination of women and loss of transcendence etc. - and which were not her own, would not appear to be representative.
Like Jean and Benedicte, many French Catholics did not take part in the consultation or did so almost reluctantly. In order to speak about synodality during the synod of October 2023, Pope Francis considered that it was good, and coherent, that all the faithful should be able to express themselves, to have a word about the Church, inspired by the Holy Spirit. A way of honouring the etymology of "synod", which in Greek means "to walk together".
A process embodied by small teams
To enable as many people as possible to participate, each diocese has provided parishes and communities with tools to organise sharing groups. Most often, the synodal process took the form of small teams, made up of volunteer parishioners, responsible for praying, discussing and listening to each other, and producing a small synthesis. With proposals and regrets but also with the joys of Church life and the fruits of this new mode of parish relations.
In France, more than 150,000 people were mobilised. An honourable figure, but one that only corresponds to about 10% of practising Catholics...in particular, the great absentees from the contributions were young people, up to the age of 40. Many regretted this, as did Archbishop Ulrich in an interview with KTO on 1 July. According to the new Archbishop of Paris, "many did not like the method [...] which is far from the concerns of young people".
A method of expression far removed from young people?
For young parents, the difficulty of organising quickly took precedence over the approach, whose stakes did not seem vital. For a student, meeting in a group with people the same age as their parents or grandparents on a Sunday afternoon is not always natural. Not to mention that the language used and the way of expressing oneself were perhaps not designed for young people. Nor the communication: was the synod promoted on social networks and in the chaplaincies?
The awareness of this absence has, admittedly belatedly, found a response. Influential priests, such as the Dominican, Paul-Adrien d'Hardemare and Father Gaspard Craplet, were called to the rescue by the Dicastery for Communication in Rome, to submit the younger generations to a questionnaire devised by Spaniards who were anxious to involve the "digital continent" in the synod.
Father Craplet
The absence of 25-40 year-olds can also be explained by a different vision of the Church. Without exaggerating the generational differences, today's young Catholics have a more mystical vision of the Church, at the risk of not investing themselves in a social life that is far removed from the Gospel. Their elders, on the other hand, who have experienced the conciliar period, are more used to seeing Christ as a source of emancipation and the Church as a place for dialogue with society, to which it is necessary to adapt so as not to deprive themselves of the possibility of announcing the Good News to it.
Vagueness about the final fate of the contributions
More fundamentally, if many people, young or not, have not participated in the synodal process, it is because they do not understand what is at stake: vagueness about the final fate of the contributions, fear of the procedural dissolution of synthesis after synthesis, from the group to Rome, passing through the diocese, the episcopal conference and the continent, and for a purpose that is hardly perceptible.
So what specific effect could the word of a simple member of the faithful have? Especially since the information was not always well relayed and explained: did the organisers succeed in presenting the event not as a sum of demands but as an opportunity to live Christian fraternity in a specific way where one lives one's faith? With the help of the Holy Spirit and not by listening to one's own frustrations and resentments, we should be able
Cathcon: In many nations, a small group of people from the pseudo-clerical lay elites have been chosen to produce synthesis reports of the conclusions which then will be entered into the Synod on Synodality (Rome) to produce the pre-ordained results.
Unbelievable but true there is a committee on methodology to prepare for the Synod on Synodality.
Not a great movement of the Holy Spirit, far from it.
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