New Synod document calls for more inclusive Church

October 27, 2022

The Vatican has released a new working document for the Synod on Synodality, summarizing the results of national consultations and preparing for the “continental stage” of the continuing Synod process.

In a 44-page document, entitled “Enlarge the space of your tent,” the document calls for “a Church capable of radical inclusion,” and stresses the need to reach out to those who feel alienated from, or marginalized by, the Church. In particular, the text calls for greater efforts to include women in decision-making roles, and to reach out to homosexuals, divorced and remarried couples, single parents, young people, and victims of racism and abuse.

“It is a working document that seeks to bring out the voices of the People of God, with their insights, their questions, their disagreements,” Vatican News explained. The bishops of the world will now be invited to offer their responses to this document, which will in turn be used in discussions at the “continental stage” to produce yet another summary, to become the basis for discussion at the October 2023 meeting of the Synod of Bishops.

The authors of the new Synod document acknowledge the difficulty of summarizing the results of thousands of listening sessions, and incorporating suggestions and comments that are sometimes contradictory. The document (#30) refers to the danger of “an experience of Babel and not Pentecost,” but suggests that this difficulty can be overcome by a process that “starts from a desire for radical inclusion—no one is excluded.” (11)

In pursuit of this inclusive model—which the document suggests is the model for a “synodal” Church—the working document encourages greater dialogue with “those who, for various reasons, feel a tension between belonging to the Church and their own loving relationships, such as: remarried divorcees, single parents, people living in a polygamous marriage, LGBTQ people, etc.” (39)

The document recognizes, but does not attempt to resolve, a serious disagreement among Catholics about the Eucharistic liturgy, with many listening sessions hearing calls for a restoration of traditional liturgical practices, while others explore the prospects for still greater experimentation.

In summarizing the results of consultations to date, the document stresses the number of calls for inclusion of women in the organizational structure of the Church. The document observes that “much greater diversity of opinion was expressed on the subject of priestly ordination for women, which some reports call for, while others consider a closed issue.” (64)

 

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Further information:

• “Enlarge the space of your tent" [full text from Vatican Synod office]
• Voices of excluded heard in Document for Continental Phase of Synod (Vatican News)
• Synod on Synodality: Vatican reveals framework for next stage of discussions
• Vatican synodality text calls for structural reforms (Pillar)