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The Irish Catholic editorial: The Synod that forgot to save the Church – The Irish Synodal Pathway process is a serious undertaking by serious people. But who is it for?
May 30 2026
Joe O'Leary
Sean, congrats on getting a discussion of Evangelii gaudium going. At one time papal encyclicals were on sale cheaply at the back of churches. However, the genre has a reputation of being long and wordy and of referring incestuously to other papal utterances. If one must discuss Vatican documents, there are more interesting ones produced by the International Theological Commission, such as "Sensus Fidei in the Life of the Church" (2014), highly regarded is "The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church" (Biblical Commission, 1993), "Dialogue and Proclamation"' (Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, 1991), in which the ill-starred Jacques Dupuis, SJ, had a leading role. The documents in the Catholic-Jewish dialogue would be interesting. But the leaden potted history of Catholic Social Teaching that takes up the first 89 paragraphs of Magnifica humanitas (which is not graceful Latin) is not calculated to stimulate discussion. Maybe the bits about AI and technocracy could be siphoned out and made a topic of discussion. (Sorry, I do not know what *ICBC is. Let's save the church from acronyms as much as possible -- they are as bad as digitilization.) *ICBC = Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference - Ed
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The Irish Catholic editorial: The Synod that forgot to save the Church – The Irish Synodal Pathway process is a serious undertaking by serious people. But who is it for?
May 30 2026
Sean O'Conaill
"Do dioceses organize discussions of papal documents?" I can speak only of my own (possibly fallible) experience of my own diocese, which is that the encyclicals of Pope Francis (with the possible exception of Laudato Si') did not spark a highly visible, diocese-wide discussion process. I initiated a discussion of Evangelii Gaudium in my own parish - with the support of the PP. My strong impression is that this was untypical of the diocese as a whole. If the dioceses now blank Magnifica Humanitas my fear would be that all energy will drain out of the synodal process as well. The Kilkenny Pre-assembly of October 2025 revealed not just difference but polarised opposition of the reform-minded and those who see all talk of reform as dangerous to core faith. Despite the rumour of synodality, discussion is never sustained in Ireland to make sure of finding some vital, unifying common ground at parish level, and this jeopardises the entire project of mission here. Donal Dorr is absolutely right to stress the importance of 'looking outward' at all of the societal challenges, and Magnifica Humanitas presents a brilliant opportunity to do just that. All eyes now on the summer conference of the ICBC, to see if there is any kindling there for this spark to ignite.
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The Irish Catholic editorial: The Synod that forgot to save the Church – The Irish Synodal Pathway process is a serious undertaking by serious people. But who is it for?
May 30 2026
Joe O'Leary
Do dioceses organize discussions of papal documents? Do they even organize discussions of Scripture? The choice of documents to be discussed needs to be discerning: they should be documents that really inspire action and change. Too many Vatican documents can just clutter the field of Catholic thinking. Last year we had an incredible amount of discussions of the document of documents, the Nicene Creed -- I am left wondering if all that effort distracted theologians and bishops from the burning questions of our world today. The fetishization of documents is a sign of defective vitality on the plane of spiritual life and social action.
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Vatican News: Consistory: Focus on global situation, Magnifica Humanitas, Synod
June 4 2026
Joe O'Leary
What a bonanza! The Oxford Handbook of Vatican II (ed. Paul Avis, 2018) can be read online (if one's eyes can bear it) in its entirely: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL38815185M/Oxford_Handbook_of_Vatican_II The magnificent Oxford Handbook of Vatican II (ed. Catherine Clifford and Massimo Faggioli, 2022) should become available in due course. Maybe we need to go back to the lucid writings of Yves Congar and Hans Küng who brought the church into focus at the time of Vatican II and in a way that linked ecclesiology to the broader concerns of Vatican II (as Leo XIV is also doing). The one moment when the church seemed effectively to link up with the concerns of the world was Vatican II, because the church was sharing its wisdom as a community, enacting collegiality and subsidiarity, and not talking down to the human race. Paul VI wrote in "the spirit of the Council" (a phrase he used more than 100 times) and so did Francis. Is synodality a genuine kairos, a moment of great lucidity? Remembering Mary McAleese's Quo Vadis? (how canon law thwarted collegiality) and the many complaints about Vatican repression of the authority of episcopal conferences, I suspect that synodality is an effort to climb out of an ecclesiological slump. (Did John Paul II or Benedict XVI write a luminous ecclesiological document?)
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Most Recent Comments

The Irish Catholic editorial: The Synod that forgot to save the Church – The Irish Synodal Pathway process is a serious undertaking by serious people. But who is it for?

The Irish Catholic editorial: The Synod that forgot to save the Church – The Irish Synodal Pathway process is a serious undertaking by serious people. But who is it for?

The Irish Catholic editorial: The Synod that forgot to save the Church – The Irish Synodal Pathway process is a serious undertaking by serious people. But who is it for?

Vatican News: Consistory: Focus on global situation, Magnifica Humanitas, Synod