Synod on Synodality World Tour: Europe, Part III
Synod Participants from Western Europe: Theologians, Lay Leaders, and More
This is the eleventh in an occasional series exploring the contributions of different parts of the globe to the upcoming Synod on Synodality in October.
As readers know, for the past three months I have been highlighting the participants in the fast-approaching Synod on Synodality from each of the different continents, aside from North America (which has already been covered, for example here). So many of the delegates and experts are from Europe, however, that I had to consider Western and Eastern Europe separately, and then even covering Western Europe became so unmanageable that I had to split that task in two, as well. Earlier this week, I surveyed some of the important curial officials, bishops, and leaders of the synodal process from Western Europe. In this post, I will focus more on theologians, lay leaders, and activists, but with a few bishops thrown in for good measure.
One curial official who I didn’t mention in the earlier post is Charles Scicluna, the Adjunct Secretary of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, in which position he investigates cases of sexual abuse by clergy. Scicluna is also the Archbishop of Malta, a position he has held since 2015, and he is representing the Maltese episcopal conference at the Synod (Cardinal Mario Grech, the General Secretary of the Synod of Bishops, is also from Malta). Scicluna has rightly gained the reputation as the Catholic Church’s most effective investigator of cases of sexual abuse, having headed the investigation of Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, in 2005, that of Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien in 2014, another of the priest Juan Barrios in Chile, and most recently a thorough investigation into the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, a society of apostolic life, in Peru. In 2010, Scicluna also helped revise the Vatican’s canonical norms for addressing cases of sexual abuse, making it easier to remove priests credibly accused of abuse.
Speaking of canon law, two officials from the Vatican office dedicated to the interpretation of canon law, the Dicastery for Legislative Texts, will also be present at the Synod: Arcbishop Filippo Iannone, O.Carm. of Italy, its prefect, and Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta Ochoa de Chinchetru of Spain, its secretary. Although Iannone is attending by virtue of his office, Arrieta was chosen to attend by Pope Francis.
Three scholars of canon law were also invited as non-voting experts: Fr. Alphonse Borras, a retired professor of canon law at both the Catholic University of Louvain and the Institute Catholique de Paris and the vicar general of Liège, in Belgium; from Spain, Fr. José San José Prisco, the dean of the Faculty of Canon Law at the Pontifical University of Salamanca, and formerly the rector of the Pontifical Spanish College of Rome; and Dr. Myriam Wijlens, a professor of canon law at the Faculty of Catholic Theology at Erfurt University in Germany. Wijlens is a noted expert in clerical sexual abuse and the law, and a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. The presence of so many experts on canon law suggests the desire for the Synod participants to have input on how canon law could be adapted or revised to better reflect a synodal style of leadership and governance, although it would be better if more experts from other continents were also present.
Since this is a newsletter about theology, I want to make sure and highlight the many theologians from Western Europe who will be attending the Synod. Aside from Gerhard Müller, the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the two most internationally recognized theologians from Western Europe attending the Synod are bishops I already mentioned in the earlier post . Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, O.P., the Archbishop of Vienna, led the team that put together the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1992. He has also written several books on Christology and the Christian kerygma. In 2005, Schönborn authored a short essay in the New York Times arguing that evolution should be thought of, not as a process of random chance, but as the work of an intelligent designer, an argument he expanded on the next year in First Things. Bruno Forte, the Archbishop of Chieti-Vasto in Italy, is the author of numerous books on theology and spirituality, with a special focus on the Trinity and theological aesthetics. Both Schönborn and Forte were at one point members of the Vatican’s International Theological Commission, and, interestingly, both were considered theological disciples of Joseph Ratzinger despite their more moderate views on same-sex relationships (discussed in the previous article).
Another bishop theologian attending the Synod is Roberto Repole, the Archbishop of Turin. Unlike Schönborn and Forte, Repole spent much of his career as an academic, as well as in pastoral ministry. Repole had previously served as the rector of the Faculty of Theology for Northern Italy in Turin and president of the Italian Theological Association from 2011 to 2016. Pope Francis appointed him to the prestigious archbishopric of Turin without having first served as a bishop, a rarity. Repole’s theological work focuses primarily on ecclesiology, including the analysis of the ecclesiology of Pope Francis.
Two other Italian theologians will play key roles at the Synod. The first is Fr. Riccardo Battocchio, the Rector of the Almo Collegio Capranica (one of the residences for priests and seminarians studying in Rome) and, since 2019, the president of the Italian Theological Association. Battocchio will serve as a Special Secretary for the Synod, which I believe means he will play a role in collating the reflections of the different working groups at the Synod. Battocchio’s work focuses on historical theology from the late medieval and early modern periods, as well as ecumenical theology. He co-authored a book examining synodality from Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox perspectives. Giuseppe Bonfrate is a professor of theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, focusing on ecclesiology and the sacraments, and he is also the Director of the Alberto Hurtado Centre for Faith and Culture at the Gregorian, an institute offering courses and lectures for the general public integrating faith and culture. Bonfrate will be one of the nine presidents of the Synod, and the only one from Europe.
Like Repole and Bonfrate, many of the other theological experts at the Synod are ecclesiologists, and rightfully so given the theme of the gathering. Fr. Dario Vitali, a professor of dogmatic theology at the Gregorian, has been appointed the coordinator of the Synod’s theological experts. In his theological work, he has been exploring the concept of synodality long before it became an everyday word. Severino Dianich is a venerable figure in Italian theology; a founding member of the Italian Theological Association in 1967, he served as its president from 1989 to 1995. Now retired, he served for many years as a professor of the Faculty of Theology for Central Italy in Florence, and his work has focused on the nature of the Church in light of Vatican II.
From Spain, Dr. Eloy Bueno de la Fuente has written a number of books on the Church, including Pope Francis’s ecclesiology, as well as a book on the Marian apparition at Fatima. He is a professor of the Faculty of Theology of Northern Spain, in Burgos, and formerly the dean of the Faculty. From France, Fr. Hervé Legrand, O.P. is a retired professor from the Institut Catholique de Paris. His work has focused on the role of bishops, and he has been engaged in ecumenical dialogue with the World Lutheran Federation. Fr. Hyacinthe Destivelle, O.P. is the Director of the Institute for Ecumenical Studies at the Angelicum in Rome and is also on the staff of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Christian Unity. His work focuses on the Catholic Church’s relations with the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches.
Other theologians have written on specific vocations in the Church. Fr. Eamonn Conway from Ireland was recently appointed the Professor of Integral Human Development at the University of Notre Dame Australia after teaching several years at Mary Immaculate College in Ireland. His work has focused on the priesthood, as well as on Catholic education. Fr. Vito Mignozzi is a professor of the Faculty of Theology of Puglia and the President of the Faculty, as well as the vice president of the Italian Theological Association. His work has included a focus on the roles of the clergy and the laity in carrying out the mission of the Church. The co-responsibility of clergy and laity is one of the key themes of the Synod, and so these theologians will likely have much to say. Dr. Cristina Inogés Sanz from Spain has likewise written on the ministry of women, another important focus of the gathering.
Two theologians at the Synod are well-known not just for their work, but also for a bit of drama at their institution. In 1981, Pope John Paul II established the Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family (later the Pope John Paul II Pontifical Institute) to further study of the Church’s teaching on sexuality and marriage, particularly his “theology of the body.” In 2017, Pope Francis revised the Institute’s statutes, expanding its focus to include the teachings of his 2015 apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia and the sociological study of the family, and its name was changed to the John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences. The vice president at the time, José Granados, publicly stated that the changes undermined the original purpose of the institute, and its former president, the moral theologian Livio Melina, was removed from the faculty. The Italian Fr. Pierangelo Sequeri, who will be attending the Synod as a theological expert, had been president of the Institute since 2016; he defended and helped implement the changes mandated by Pope Francis. A noted composer of hymns, Sequeri’s theological work focuses on the experience of faith and the intersection of theology and psychology. Now the dean of the Institute, Sequeri was succeeded as president by Fr. Philippe Bordeyne, from France. Bordeyne has likewise continued to lead the Institute according to the vision of Francis. He is the former rector of the Institut Catholique de Paris, and his work focuses on marriage, the family, and theological anthropology.
A few other theologians at the Synod also focus on moral theology and social ethics. Fr. Andrea Bozzolo, S.D.B. is a professor of theology and the rector of the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome, whose work focuses on sacramental theology, particularly marriage. Fr. Carlo Casalone, S.J. is a moral theologian on the Faculty of Theology at the Gregorian whose work focuses on medical ethics. In 2022, he wrote an article in La Civiltà Cattolica using Pope John Paul II’s argument in his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae, that an “imperfect law” that falls short of fully protecting the dignity of life can be supported if the alternative is a morally worse policy, to argue in support of a proposed assisted suicide law in Italy. The article generated a fair bit of criticism. Casalone also serves on the Pontifical Academy for Life. Someone well-known to theologians in the United States through her participation in the Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church initiative is Dr. Anna Rowlands, the St Hilda Professor of Catholic Social Thought and Practice at Durham University in the United Kingdom. Rowlands has written extensively on migration and asylum in the UK, and recently published a book on Catholic social teaching, Towards a Politics of Communion: Catholic Social Teaching in Dark Times. She has also written on the twentieth-century thinkers Simone Weil, Hannah Arendt, and Gillian Rose.
A surprising number of the Synod theologians are experts in fundamental theology. Fr. Armando Matteo from Italy is the Secretary of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, second to Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the prefect. His own work has focused on faith in the postmodern age, among other topics. Fr. Piero Coda is the Secretary General, or leader, of the International Theological Commission. Coda is the Professor of Theological Ontology at the Sophia University Institute in Loppiano, Italy, a university founded in 2008 and linked to the Focolare movement. Coda was the inaugural president of the university until 2020. He was also president of the Italian Theological Association from 2003 to 2011. Fr. Christoph Theobald, S.J. is Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology at the Jesuit-run Centre Sèvres in Paris and the longtime editor of the journal Recherches de science religieuse, from 2009 to 2021. Theobald has been advocate for the thought of Karl Rahner, S.J. in French theology, focusing especially on the theme of revelation. Dr. Giuseppina de Simone is an Instructor of Philosophy of Religion at the Pontifical Faculty of Theology of Southern Italy, where she is the Coordinator of the Specialization in Fundamental Theology. Her work focuses on the experience of faith and is carried out in dialogue with the phenomenological philosophers Max Scheler and Michel Henry.
The two remaining theologians come from distinct fields. Dr. Thomas Söding is the recently-retired Professor of New Testament Exegesis at Ruhr Universitat Bochum’s Faculty of Catholic Theology, where he served as dean from 2017 to 2019. And Fr. Luis Miguel Castillo Gualda is a professor of the Faculty of Theology San Vicente Ferrer of the Catholic University of Valencia, Spain, where he teaches Patristics. He is also the Rector of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Barcelona
Several other Synod participants from Western Europe are involved in ecclesial ministry of various kinds. Among the most noteworthy is Eva Fernández Mateo, the Coordinator of the Secretariat of the International Forum of Catholic Action, that is, the leader of the world body of Catholic Action associations. Catholic Action is a leading organization providing formation for lay Catholic engagement with the world. Fernández Mateo, a nurse by profession, is also the President of General Catholic Action in Spain. She has proposed that Catholic Action can contribute to synodality by encouraging the laity to live out the Gospel in the world. Also from Spain, Fr. Luis Manuel Romero Sanchez is the Director of the Episcopal Commission for the Laity, the Family, and Life, an office of the Spanish episcopal conference. Romero Sanchez also coordinated the synodal process for the Spanish bishops.
Geert de Cubber is the only ordained permanent deacon attending the Synod. He works as an episcopal delegate for the Diocese of Ghent, focusing on catechesis, youth, and family ministry. Finally, he is also an instructor at the Diocesan Higher Institute of Religion, an institute providing formation for deacons and lay ministers.
Fr. Valentino Bulgarelli is the Director of the National Office of Catechetics in Italy, and undersecretary of the Italian episcopal conference. Bulgarelli also teaches as part of the Faculty of Theology of Emilia-Romagna. Sr. Anne Ferrand is the Director of Permanent Formation (adult faith formation) for the Diocese of Rodez in France and was one of four delegates representing France in person at Europe’s Continental Assembly. Claire Jonard, a consecrated virgin, is a pastoral animator for one region within the Swiss Diocese of Sion.
Leaders of religious orders are well-represented amongst the Western European delegates and experts. Those participating in the Synod specifically in virtue of their role as superiors include the Italian Sr. Nadia Coppa, A.S.C., the Superior General of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ and, until this month, the President of the International Union of Superiors General, the worldwide body representing the majority of religious orders. In the latter role, she worked toward greater collaboration among religious orders. Sr. Coppa has also called for new forms of leadership in religious orders. The other superior is the Italian Mauro-Giuseppe Lepori, O.Cist., the Abbot General of the Cistercian Order since 2010. In addition, Sr. Samuela Maria Rigon, S.S.M. from Italy, the Superior General of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, a group of Third Order Franciscans, will be attending the Synod as a delegate appointed by Pope Francis.
Three religious sisters have taken on important roles in the Vatican. Sr. Yvonne Reungoat, F.M.A. of France was the Superior General of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians; in 2022, Pope Francis took the unprecedented step of appointing her and two other women to the Dicastery for Bishops, the Vatican office that advises the pope on the appointment of bishops. Sr. Nicoletta Vittoria Spezzati, A.S.C., an Italian member of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, served as Undersecretary of the Congregation (now Dicastery) for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life from 2011 to 2018, and currently serves as a consultor to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. Sr. Simona Brambilla, M.C., the Superior General of the Consolata Missionaries, also serves as a member of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
Last but not least, Sr. María Luisa Berzosa González, F.J. from Spain is a member of the Daughters of Jesus, a religious order of women based in Ignatian spirituality and sometimes called the “Jesuitinas.” In the past, she served as the president of the Fe y Alegría network of schools run by the Jesuits and continues to serve as part of its leadership team.
One of the most colorful participants in the Synod is the Italian activist Luca Casarini. Casarini was originally a leader of the Tute Bianche movement that took part in the anti-globalization protests in Genoa in 2001, inspired by the autonomist Marxism of Antonio Negri and Mario Tronti. More recently, he was a founding member of Mediterranea Saving Humans, a network devoted to saving migrants from Africa and the Middle East stranded at sea. Casarini has reported that the life-and-death experience of participating in these rescues led him to encounter God and to become a Christian, without renouncing his activist past. A priest serving as a chaplain on one of the rescue ships helped put him in touch with Pope Francis, whom he now considers a friend. Francis has spoken out in support of Mediterranea Saving Humans and other migrant rescue groups, and Casarini will be representing Mediterranea Saving Humans at the Synod.
Enrique Alarcón García from Spain is the president of FRATER España Fraternidad Cristiana de Personas con Discapacidad, an organization of specialized Catholic Action (that is, a Catholic Action organization focused on a specific group of people) that advocates for the rights of persons with disabilities. Alarcón García was one of five people who attended a Special Consultation on Persons with Disabilities in September, 2022 to discuss their participation in the worldwide synodal process, and he hopes to be a voice for people with disabilities at the Synod.
Three Synod participants from Western Europe are involved with aid organizations. Fr. Thomas Schwartz from Germany is the CEO of Renovabis, the German Church’s aid organization providing assistance to Eastern Europe. He has led the organization since 2021, and also teaches business ethics at the University of Augsburg. Helena Jeppesen-Spuhler is on the staff of Fastenaktion, a Swiss organization focused on combatting global hunger. Jeppesen-Spuhler also works for Allianz Gleichwürdig Katholisch, a group promoting transparency and synodality in the church in Switzerland. She also helped draft the Synod’s Instrumentum Laboris, or working document. Finally, Erica Tossini is the coordinator of volunteers and youth for Caritas Ambrosiana, the Catholic charitable organization in Milan.
The Western European delegation also includes three journalists. Fr. Antonio Spadaro, S.J. is very well known in the United States. Until recently, he served as the editor of La Civiltà Cattolica, the Jesuit periodical closely aligned with the Vatican Secretariat of State. Spadaro conducted a famous interview with Pope Francis during the first year of his pontificate that arguably introduced the pope to the world. He also penned the influential, but controversial, 2017 article “Ecumenism of Hate” on the alliance between traditionalist Catholics and evangelical Protestants in the United States. Spadaro has also published a book on “cybertheology,” or how to think about the faith in the information age, a theme central to the concerns of this newsletter. More recently, Pope Francis appointed Spadaro to be the Secretary for the Dicastery for Culture and Education, second-in-command to Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça. In addition to Spadaro, Paolo Foglizzo, also from Italy, is an editor at the Jesuit magazine Aggiornamenti sociale, perhaps the Italian equivalent of America. Lastly, Austen Ivereigh is a Fellow in Contemporary Church History at Campion Hall, Oxford University, but also a journalist, having served as the Deputy Editor of The Tablet. He is also a biographer of Pope Francis and chronicler of his papacy; Ivereigh is one of the best communicators of Pope Francis’s thought, including the concept of synodality
The Western European delegation brings with it a lot of theological firepower, although as I have shown in the earlier articles in this series, the other continents are sending formidable theologians of their own. The Western European participants also bring a wealth of experience in ministerial leadership and activism. Even as the global balance of the Church shifts toward the Global South, Europe will have an outsized role in shaping the agenda for the Synod.