Synodal Pathway: Irish Bishops at the Synod in Rome – Report from Bishops Brendan Leahy and Alan McGuckian
Report from Bishops Brendan and Alan
Bishops Brendan Leahy (Limerick Diocese) Alan McGuckian (Raphoe Diocese) “women involved in decision-making is an area for exploration and action…”
Bishops Alan McGuckian and Brendan Leahy were the Episcopal Nominees of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference who attended the first session of the Synodal Assembly from 4 – 29 October in Rome on the theme ‘For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission’.
You can read the report of their experience in full:
“With heartfelt gratitude, we share this letter to the People of God…”
Have you seen or read the Letter to the People of God from those who participated in the first session of the Assembly of the Synod?
“Is there a danger that the teaching authority of the bishops both individually and as a College could be undermined?” (i.e. by synodality)
There is a cartoon awaiting a cartoonist here, of mitred bishops sitting amidst the ruins of the building they themselves have blown up – scratching their heads … and then asking one another if this building might be even further demolished if they call on anyone else – and especially women – to help rebuild it!
Bishops and teaching authority? The only teaching authority the church has left is down to those who care and serve at ground level, and we all know that most of them are women.
That it is again those who serve who are readiest for mission, without knowing it, is left unsaid in this report, as is the obvious fact that it is the church’s top-heavy structure that is the greatest obstacle to mission.
This report is again the verbal church verbalising in its own defence, and telling us all about a remarkable ‘process’. Meanwhile, we in Ireland are still waiting for the promise of synodality to be realised in front of us.
Do Irish bishops have enough authority left to make that happen? We need an answer to that now, not in Advent 2024.
“There is a cartoon awaiting a cartoonist here, of mitred bishops sitting amidst the ruins of the building they themselves have blown up – scratching their heads … and then asking one another if this building might be even further demolished if they call on anyone else – and especially women – to help rebuild it!”
Brilliant, Seán and absolutely spot on!!
The failure to mention lgbt folk, the chief instance of a vast population who have suffered greatly, both directly and indirectly, at the Church’s hands, consigns this pious message to the register of cagey, tailored, hypocritical utterance, not making any real effort to connect with people where they are. The lay people who sent reports to the Synod are far more intelligent and clued in than the bureaucrats crafting these soothing platitudes.
The West’s awake: no soothing platitudes but a few home truths.
https://westernpeople.ie/news/people-not-buildings-are-the-future-of-the-catholic-church_arid-4003.html