Excommunicated Synod supporter wants the Church to be run entirely by the laity

Church reformers: Too few lay people represented at World Synod

Around 375 members were invited, including 275 bishops, around 50 priests and religious and around 45 lay women and men

The merger of the four best-known church reform groups in Austria - "We are Church", "Pastors' Initiative", "Laymen's Initiative" and "Priests without Office" - welcomes Pope Francis' decision at the meetings the Synod of Bishops in Rome in autumn 2023 and 2024 for the first time to give lay people voting rights. The list of synod participants published on Friday shows that around 95 of the 375 members will be non-bishops, namely around 50 priests and religious and around 45 lay people. A total of one seventh - 56 of all participants - will be female.

"The goal is far from being reached, but the approximate direction seems to be right," was the conclusion of Martha Heizer, chairwoman of "We are Church Austria" in a broadcast on Sunday. And further: "It would be nice if the 'Bishops' Synod' could finally become a 'Church Synod'", said the chairperson.

Cathcon: This is the same Martha Heizer who was excommunicated for attempting to celebrate Mass.....

Since the majority of the participants still came from the clergy, the question arose for the church reformers "whether it will really be possible to deal appropriately with urgent church issues such as co-determination, equal rights, compulsory celibacy and the priesthood".

Even if the Synod leadership emphasizes that the Synod of Bishops in the autumn should primarily be a Synod on Synodality and Synodal action in the church, "the urgent issues of today's church should not be neglected," the groups demanded. If Synodality means listening to one another and making decisions together, the synod must also hear people's concerns, discuss with them and decide with them.

"We are Church" also appealed in the broadcast not to forget the voice of young people at the synod and to bring them to the fore. "The average age of the Synod participants is far from young. It is all the more important to make sure that young people can also feel represented by the assembly," it said literally.

Community, Mission, Participation

From Austria, Archbishop Franz Lackner, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn and Klara Antonia Csiszar, pastoral theologian at the Catholic Private University Linz, will take part in the synod. The latter takes part in the World Synod as an invited "expert", but has no voting rights.

In a World Synod proclaimed by Pope Francis, the Catholic Church has been dealing in detail since autumn 2021 with the question of how to make its decisions and what forms of co-determination there should be. The global synodal process is guided by the motto "One synodal church: community, mission, participation" and takes place in three phases, first at the level of the dioceses, then at the continent level and now at the universal church. In two assemblies from October 4 to 29, 2023 and in 2024 in Rome, the World Synod of Bishops will discuss the results of the worldwide consultation and consultation process. For the first time at a synod, non-bishops and non-priests will have voting rights on a large scale. According to canon law, it is nevertheless a "bishop synod".

On June 20, the Vatican published the final working paper as the basis for the deliberations of the Synod of Bishops. On 71 pages, the "Instrumentum Laboris" first presents in two sections the characteristics and distinguishing features of a synodal church and develops three priority questions that have crystallized most strongly on all continents in the worldwide synodal phase and "submitted to the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for differentiation". should be. This is followed by 15 worksheets with specific questions that the members of the Synod should work on.

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Cathcon: A politicised, democratised church is no longer Catholic.  It is a debating club that would shatter into a thousand fragments.

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