Role of synod: to listen, to learn, not to decide - Synod of Bishops for the Americas, in Rome, Nov 16-Dec 12, 1997

National Catholic Reporter, Dec 12, 1997 by Gary MacEoin

ROME -- "The synod is a discussion group," Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk of Cincinnati told journalists at the Vatican press office November 29. He was summing up the work of some 300 synodal fathers and collaborators who during the previous two weeks had made 254 "interventions," or speeches -- eight minutes each for synod members, six for experts and other lesser luminaries. The Synod of Bishops for America convened Nov. 16 to run to Dec. 12.

"Few bishops can resist the invitation to speak for eight minutes," said Pilarczyk "Each brings the problems and experiences of his own diocese, trying to add something to the overall issue of the Synod for America. It is not an efficient way to do business, but we are not here to do business. We are here to listen, to learn and at the end to produce a series of propositions for the pope, recommendations he may use or not at his discretion."

The press has been given summaries of the 254 interventions, all made in the pope's presence. Each speaker had previously handed in his summary along with the full text, both in writing and on a diskette. As part of the Vatican's obsession with secrecy, the full texts are unavailable to journalists, so the quotations that follow are from these official summaries.

Are the speakers telling the pope what they think? "They are afraid," says Pepe Alvarez Icaza of Mexico City, who with his wife Luzma represented the Christian family in Vatican Council II. "They know from previous synods that the pope follows every word, scowling when he hears anything he doesn't like."

"They are afraid," says Paulist Fr. Kenneth McGuire, an anthropologist who is studying the dynamics of the synod.

"They are afraid," echoes Holy Cross Fr. Robert Pelton who is here with a team of six lay women and men in search of creative ideas for promoting Christian base communities in the United States. Team members are church employees who coordinate base communities in parishes from Maryland to Texas.

In response to charges that the synod fathers are afraid of the pope, Fr. Paul Minnihan, of San Jose, Calif., says "Not so." Minnihan, a doctoral student at the University of Louvain, is working on a dissertation on the synod. He admits that synod language can often be enigmatic because of curial conventions. "They are telling the pope what their problems are."

"Are you sure?" I challenged him. "Many bishops anguish at the shortage of priests, and I'm told they want approval of married priests and women priests. Where is that in the interventions?"

"It's there," said Minnihan, pointing to the intervention of Bishop Angelico Sandalo Bernardino, auxiliary of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The number of priests in Brazil, this bishop said, has grown from 5,000 to 8,000 in 20 years. But the situation is still desperate, an average of one parish priest for 20,000 Catholics. They are "overloaded, under stress, lack time to take care of their physical and spiritual health." They survive only because there are 75 pastoral agents for each priest. "How can we solve these problems?" the bishop asks. "How can the synod help provide a creative solution to the problem of ordained ministers and their collaborators?"

If this is a call for women priests, it is so cautious as to confirm Alvarez Icaza's insistence that the bishops are afraid to anger the pope.

Bishop Gerald Wiesner, Prince George, Canada, was even more cautious when he expressed the need "to address the matter of women in the church" and called for "a just and balanced collaboration" of women in leadership roles.

One bishop did speak openly about another touchy issue. Bishop Nestor Herrera Heredia of Machala, Ecuador, said that there are situations in which marriages break up that do not involve a denial of the love of Christ, nor of matrimonial indissolubility and fidelity. The roots of such situations lie rather in economic, social and cultural causes that precipitate free union, divorce and new unions because of the necessity to subsist and to maintain and educate the children. Many such couples participate actively in the liturgy. Cannot there be a way to allow them to receive the Bread of Life in the Eucharist?

Poor Herrera was quickly shot down by no less a watchdog of truth than Archbishop Jorge Medina Estevez, pro-perfect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

"Our life should be like a sacrifice, living, holy and agreeable to God," Medina said. ... "It is illogical to seek to participate in the eucharistic communion while one's concrete life expresses a rejection of the law of God, as is clear in situations of concubinage and adultery."

About half of the interventions were homilies. It's risky, as Pilarczyk said, to invite a bishop to speak. "With my whole heart I thank the Holy Father for having called us together for this Synod of America, our America," one prelate said. "My intervention is to stress the importance of the formation of our priests. ... The priest must be holy, wise and sound. ... A monthly retreat and an annual obligatory retreat. Frequent confession. ..."