Synod briefing – Day 7: The diaconate, Christian initiation, and aid to poorer Churches
By Alessandro Di Bussolo and Giampaolo Mattei
The most applauded testimony in Paul VI Hall, among the tables of participants in the Synod on synodality, came from a mother who expressed grave concern that not enough is being said about Christian initiation for the youngest children – so much so that she asked for words of help in raising them in the Christian faith.
Women continue to feature prominently in the proceedings, and there was also a call for their greater involvement in diplomatic roles in the context of the wars being waged around the world.
The prefect of the Dicastery for Communication and president of the Synod’s Commission for Information, Dr Paolo Ruffini, along with Sheila Pires, the Commission’s secretary, reported on the work of the Fifth and Sixth General Congregations during the daily press conference at the Holy See Press Office.
The indispensable role of the laity
The “free” interventions by synod participants, they noted, were “all focused on the theme of ecclesial discernment, thus subjects and criteria, different levels of responsibility, and the role of ordained ministers.”
Pires noted that there were 35 speeches delivered Tuesday afternoon and 21 more on Wednesday morning.
The role of the laity, their collaboration with bishops and priests, and their involvement in decision-making processes, were among the themes that emerged most in the various public interventions.
“The importance of encouraging collaboration between priests and laity was stressed,” Pires clarified, “as well as the need for greater participation of laity-men and women-in leadership roles.”
In particular, speakers noted that “the presence of the laity is indispensable; they cooperate for the good of the Church.”
In addition, in one speech, a proposal was made to consult the People of God on the suitability of candidates for the priesthood and episcopate: “The bishop decides, but in a synodal Church the People of God must feel responsible in the choice” and also know “the requirements of the human and spiritual profile that candidates must have.”
Women and the ministry of listening
Another proposal, Pires said, concerned the importance of “deepening reflection on the role of the laity in pastoral exercise in parishes, because many priests do not have the vocation to be parish priests; instead many lay people who live a serene marriage and family life can carry out functions in communities.”
Regarding women, Pires noted, highlighted calls to avoid “any kind of sexual discrimination in the acolytate,” to recognize women’s contributions, also in decision-making processes” and to “think of listening as a predominantly female ministry, complementary to that of the parish priest, deacon, catechist.”
“Women know how to listen, they listen in a different way,” it was said in the Synod Hall, “and they could perform it as a service, totally different from confession.”
A proposal was also made “to involve women more in diplomacy in a divided and warring world.”
Entrusting young people with a digital youth ministry
Ruffini then pointed out that Synod participants indicated “the need to connect with the new generations through digital pastoral care.”
The example was then given of the many young people in Africa who “go to church, have talent, energy and faith” and therefore “must be part of ecclesial discernment.”
A proposal was made to entrust youth ministry precisely to young people, rather than to adults, “so as to place [young people] themselves in dialogue with peers trapped in ‘new age’ or nihilistic ideologies.”
One speech noted “the dramatic situations that so many children experience in the world,” Ruffini said, giving the examples of children forced into marriage when young for family reasons; girls forced into prostitution; minor victims of human trafficking. He also noted concerns raised about “seminarians who come from non-Christian families, or who are forced into the priesthood by honour, and about people who have to come to terms with their homosexuality.”
A mother speaks about the co-responsibility of parents
The prefect of the Dicastery for Communication pointed out that speakers recalled the Pope's that the Synod is not meant to produce documents, but to inspire action.
It was reiterated that it will not be enough just to listen to Christian and parish voices, but also to courageous voices from outside, “so as to create safe spaces for people to come forward.”
He then recalled the testimony of the mother who asked, “What does the assembly say about the role of parents, grandparents, Christian godparents in contributing to synodality on listening and discernment from childhood? We need to raise children so that when they grow up, they will go to Christ.”
She asked that the Final Document “encourage the co-responsibility roles of parents.”
Accompanying victims of abuse
Speakers also highlighted “the need to accompany victims of abuse within the Church. It was emphasized that the Church must draw near to the vulnerable; and that power must be a service and never clericalism.”
Likewise, Ruffini reported, “there was a call to give greater centrality back to the poor, including in the formation of clergy.” In particular, “the poor are closer to the heart of God, they have authority,” it was said, “and we see them as objects of ministry and mission but never as ministers.”
In the Hall, he continued, “there was talk about priests, in particular about their loneliness, also due to task overload. In this sense, it was stressed that a certain distance of priests from synodality might stem from the fact that many of them have heavy burdens, manage several communities, and have imposing administrative burdens.”
The synod should work to revive their vocations, and thus the proposal was made “to endow each parish with economic councils and possibly also structures involving several parishes to help parish priests in their service.”
Getting in the game
There was likewise an “invitation to dialogue, among the Churches and in the Church.”
And, Ruffini reported, “Chinese Bishop Joseph Yang spoke, bringing his greetings, praising the benefits resulting from the 2018 Agreement between the Holy See and China.”
Finally, one intervention suggested that the assembly focus more on reality, including in the drafting of the Final Document. Using a football metaphor, Ruffini concluded, it was said that it seems that the Church, was more focused on practicing than on getting into the game.
Statement of the Study Group on Women in the Church
Finally, Ruffini reported that Cardinal Secretary General Mario Grech read a communiqué from Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, specifying that the topic of Study Group No. 5 – on “Some theological and canonistic questions around specific ministerial forms,” particularly the participation of women in the life and leadership of the Church – had already been entrusted to the aforementioned Dicastery prior to the Synod’s request.
Therefore, the prefect’s statement said, the work must follow the Dicasterial procedures established in its own regulations, with a view to the publication of an appropriate Document. After hearing bishops and cardinals in the regular meeting of the Dicastery, the topic is now in the consultative phase: the consultors who provide the basis for the document have already been consulted.
The consultation is also expected to include women who are not consultors.
All members and theologians of the synod can send opinions and aids in the coming months. On the 18th, two theologians from the dicastery will be available to receive proposals on the topic in writing or orally.
The interventions of the three guests
The role of permanent deacons in the Church and their participation in the Synod; Christian initiation; young people abandoning the Church; and synodal spirituality leading to a ‘purification’ of human relations in the Church and with society; as well as a request for help from the Church in Mozambique, were among the topics touched on by the three guests in the Holy See Press Office, representatives of three continents, Africa, America and Europe.
Following his prepared remarks, Deacon Geert De Cubber – a witness to the synodal process, theologian, former journalist, permanent deacon of the diocese of Ghent (Belgium), episcopal delegate for catechesis and youth and family pastoral work, as well as husband and father, received the most questions. Deacon De Cubber is the only permanent deacon from the Latin Church taking part in the Synod; two other deacons, one from the Syriac Church and a transitional deacon from the Melkite Church, are also present in the Assembly.
De Cubber: A post-synodal encounter for deacons?
Deacon De Cubber repeated what he had said in the Synod hall: the deacon is a ‘bridge-builder’ in the family, with other families, in the community, and also with wider society. This, he said, “can be really useful in a secularised society” like Belgium, which the Pope visited at the end of September after a brief stop in Luxembourg.
The deacon’s task, De Cubber added, is to go out and “go where the Church does not go, to those who have no voice and are marginalised by the Church itself and by society, and bring them back into the Church.”
In a Church where the faithful are often tired and elderly, and where “if we do not walk in a synodal way the Church will not survive,” the Belgian deacon sought to bring synodality to the youth, uniting the youth ministries of all the Flemish-speaking dioceses in the effort.
Prompted by a journalist’s question, he admitted that deacons could have been better represented at the synod, and that he knows that deacons in the US, for instance, “where the ministry is very strong,” are “not very happy that we are so few.”
He thus proposed a post-synodal meeting of deacons in the future, as was done this year with parish priests.
“Being a deacon,” De Cubber concluded, “is not for me at all a preparation for the priesthood, I do not have this vocation. Ours is a ministry exclusively of service.”
Chile and the richness of the permanent diaconate
The Archbishop of Puerto Montt, Chile, Luis Fernando Ramos Pérez, was asked about the experience of the permanent diaconate in his country, which has seen many permanent deacons ordained in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. Today, he said, permanent deacons outnumber priests and religious, and their contribution – including collaborating with pastors in the administration of parishes – is “extraordinary and appreciated.”
At the same time, the Archbishop emphasized that deacons are not “miniature priests.”
For his part, Archbishop Inácio Saure, Archbishop of Nampula, Mozambique – the president of his country’s Episcopal Conference and a member of the Missionaries of the Consolata – explained that there are no deacons in his particular Church at the moment, because limited resources are already being used in the formation of priest. He noted, however, that in the future, if the opportunity arises, permanent deacons would certainly be ordained.
At the same time, he highlighted the need to prepare the parish communities, helping understand the difference between deacons and priests.
Mozambique still needs help
Responding to another question, Archbishop Saure called on the Synod to make known the dramatic situation in his country, devastated by the war that began in 2017 and has left 5,000 people dead and one million displaced.
Although fighting has stopped for the moment, and much aid has come in the past, the Archbishop said today his people are still suffering, and have been left on their own.
So, he said, “more can be done,” in terms of an exchange of material gifts “between the Churches that have much and those that are in misery.”
In his opening remarks, Archbishop Saure touched on the importance of Christian initiation as a personal encounter with Christ, pointing out that “even in our country, young people who have finished initiation drift away from the Church,” so it is necessary to improve their formation.
He explained that over the past six years, in dealing with youth pastoral work, he has tried to do so “with the young, for the young and by the young,” and that the canonisation, during the Synod, on 20 October, of the founder of the Consolata Missionaries, Blessed Giuseppe Allamano, who said “first saints then missionaries,” could also provide a stimulus for greater pastoral care.
Archbishop Pérez: Purifying relationships in the Church and with society
Archbishop Ramos Pérez also spoke of a synodal spirituality that would transform the structures of the Church, reporting that the Synod had spoken of “a personal spirituality that would drive individual and community pastoral conversion.”
Finally, he spoke of a need for a “purification” of human relationships within the Church and with society, because today some relationships make one grow and others “can destroy.”
The way forward, he said, is to live charity by taking example from Christ.
Archbishop Ramos Pérez concluded by emphasising that those with responsibility in the Church must exercise it with the “criteria of synodality, making decisions” by consulting the grassroots.
In this, he said, “synodal discernment is needed, which also involves lay men and women, not just ordained ministers.”
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