Synod on Synodality World Tour: Europe, Part II
Synod Participants from Western Europe: Vatican Officials and Bishops
This is the tenth in an occasional series exploring the contributions of different parts of the globe to the upcoming Synod on Synodality in October.
The Synod on Synodality World Tour ends in Europe. Two weeks ago, I offered some reflections on the European continental document. This document intentionally points to the tensions that exist in the Church that became apparent in the synodal process, most notably those between truth and mercy, tradition and openness to the world (aggiornamento), and the hierarchical nature of the Church and co-responsibility in the Church’s mission. Without resolving these tensions, the document nevertheless calls for a kenotic, or self-emptying, Church willing to abandon old forms so that new life can emerge.
Although these tensions are global, the European delegation to October’s Synod will have an outsized influence on how the Church thinks them through. This is not just because of the historically dominant role of Europe in the Church’s history, but more practically because of the huge size of the European delegation. By my account, there are nearly 150 voting delegates and non-voting experts from the European continent, far more than from any other continent. To keep things manageable, I originally planned to focus first on the participants from Western Europe, and in a later post look at the participants from Eastern Europe. Even so, Western Europe alone has over 100 delegates, still more than any other continent, and so in this post I will focus primarily on curial officials, Synod organizers, and bishops, and in a later post look at other religious, lay leaders, and theologians from Western Europe, with a post on Eastern Europe participants coming afterwards.
One reason for these large numbers is that Western Europe is still, despite Pope Francis’s efforts, overrepresented in the Roman Curia. Second, the Synod organizers invited representatives of various ecclesial communities and social movements, and these are heavily skewed toward Western Europe. And third, a large proportion of the non-voting experts and facilitators are from Europe, perhaps as a matter of convenience (for example, some have been working on preparations for the Synod since 2021, and must frequently travel back and forth to Rome).
I defined “Western” and “Eastern” Europe using the old Cold War boundaries. Even though those boundaries are no longer politically relevant, they still reflect distinct cultural experiences—not just the experience of living under communism, but also the influence of Slavic culture, the proximity of the Orthodox Churches, and the prominent presence of Eastern Catholic Churches.
Since its inception in 2021, there has been some confusion over what exactly the purpose of the worldwide synodal process is. For example, as I noted in an earlier post, some Catholics (both proponents and skeptics of the process) have thought of it as a quasi-democratic process in which the Catholic faithful could voice their opinions, and this would in turn shape the teachings of the bishops. Skeptics fear that the Synod’s organizers (perhaps including Pope Francis himself) are using the Synod as a means of implementing a pre-determined agenda to change Church teaching on issues like the ordination of women to the priesthood and same-sex marriages.
No doubt contributing to the confusion is the fact that the German Synodal Way, or Synodal Path (Der Synodale Weg in German), has occurred concurrently with the global synodal process. The Synodal Way was a series of conferences held by the German bishops and lay leaders from 2019 through 2023, organized to discuss the pressing issues facing the Church in Germany and to offer recommendations on how the Church should respond. At its final meeting in March 2023, the Synodal Way proposed a number of recommendations challenging official Church teaching, including the revision of the Church’s teaching on homosexuality in the Catechism, approval for the blessing of same-sex unions, and a reexamination of the ordination of women. It also proposed permitting lay people to preach during Mass and making priestly celibacy optional.
These recommendations, of course, have generated a great deal of criticism within the Church, with some even raising the possibility that the German Synodal Way might lead to a schism. In 2022, the Vatican released statements from Cardinal Marc Ouellet, then the Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, and Luis Ladaria Ferrer, S.J., then the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), criticizing certain proposals from the Synodal Way. Pope Francis also raised criticisms of the German Synodal Way in 2019 and earlier this year, in both instances faulting it for not being truly synodal, in that it did not begin with the consultation of the Catholic faithful, but rather was carried out in a “top-down” manner. The Synodal Way has also called for the creation of a permanent Synodal Council, a governing body with authority over the bishops of Germany, a proposal the Vatican has rejected on theological and canonical grounds.
The Synodal Way’s recommendations were supported by the majority of the German bishops, and some of the most important will also be attending the Synod of Bishops in October. First, George Bätzing, the Bishop of Limburg since 2016 and the President of the German episcopal conference since 2020, is an outspoken proponent of the German Synodal Way. Bätzing was appointed to replace the so-called “Bishop of Bling”, Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, who resigned amidst scrutiny over spending millions on the renovation of the episcopal residence while diocesan staff had their salaries reduced in the name of fiscal austerity. Bätzing has expressed support for the ordination of women and for ending mandatory celibacy for clergy, as well as for the blessing of same-sex unions. In addition, he co-chaired an ecumenical group that recommended more widespread intercommunion between Catholics and Protestants. Perhaps dangerously for Church unity, he has recently challenged Pope Francis’s leadership, including his criticisms of the Germany Synodal Way, as “extremely questionable,” and has insisted that the German Church will continue to implement the Synodal Way’s recommendations despite the Vatican’s objections to a Synodal Council.
Two other strong episcopal supporters of the German Synodal way will be attending the Synod: Franz-Josef Overbeck of Essen and Felix Genn of Münster. Both Overbeck and Genn have called for revisions to the Church’s teachings on same-sex relationships, and Overbeck has likewise called for the ordination of women. Contrary to Pope Francis, Overbeck has insisted that a Synodal Council is consistent with the teachings of the Second Vatican Council.
A handful of other European bishops at the Synod are largely sympathetic to these progressive aims. For example, Franz Lackner, O.F.M., the Archbishop of Salzburg and President of the Austrian episcopal conference, initiated a study on the possibility of same-sex blessings, and more recently criticized the DDF’s 2021 note forbidding the practice. In 2019, Bishop Felix Gmür, another Synod participant, allowed same-sex blessings in the Diocese of Basel, Switzerland, and endorsed civil marriage equality. Cardinal Jozef De Kesel, the Archbishop Emeritus of Mechelen-Brussels and the President of the Belgian bishops’ conference from 2016 to 2023, who soon after his appointment as archbishop in 2015 expressed his respect for gays and lesbians’ “way of living their sexuality” and his support for making priestly celibacy voluntary, more recently participated in the publication of an official same-sex blessing by the Belgian bishops, in defiance of the DDF. Pope Francis appointed De Kesel a cardinal in 2016.
Of course, the European delegation includes opponents of the German Synodal Way, as well. Stefan Oster, S.D.B., the Bishop of Passau, is one of four German bishops who have so far blocked the development of the proposed Synodal Council by withholding funding (funding decisions require unanimous agreement among the German bishops). Oster has likewise expressed his support for the DDF’s decision regarding same-sex blessings. Perhaps significantly, Oster was personally selected by Pope Francis as a delegate to the Synod. Among the bishops chosen by the German episcopal conference is Bertram Johannes Meier, the Bishop of Augsburg, who has been critical of the German Synodal Way’s proposals regarding same-sex blessings and the ordination of women, but has also been supportive of the process itself and defended it against critics.
Among non-Germans, Czeslaw Kozon, the Bishop of Copenhagen, Denmark since 1995, was among the bishops from the Scandinavian countries who wrote a letter in 2022 criticizing both the method and the proposals of the German Synodal Way. Kozon is the President of the Bishops’ Conference of the Nordic Countries and is representing the entire conference at the Synod.
Cardinal Kurt Koch, who preceded Gmür as the Bishop of Basel before being appointed President of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010, and who is now the Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, has likewise criticized the German Synodal Way. He had previously criticized the proposal for intercommunion co-sponsored by Bätzing, and in an interview last year with the German newspaper Die Tagespost, Koch criticized the Synodal Way’s orientation text for including the “signs of the times” (“Zeichen der Zeit”) as a theological locus alongside Scripture and Tradition, instead insisting that the signs of the times must be assessed in light of the Gospel. He appealed to the 1934 Barmen Declaration, the statement of faith of those Christians who resisted the Nazi regime, which rejected "other events and powers, figures and truths, as God's revelation” in addition to the Gospel. After a protest by Bätzing, Koch clarified that his intent was not to compare the Synodal Way to the Nazis.
Even so, Koch’s criticism brings to the fore the pertinent theological issue—although the Church must learn from the world, it must do so with discernment. For his own part, Bätzing has appealed to German theologian Johann Baptist Metz’s “theology of interruption,” insisting that a demand for absolute continuity in the Church’s teaching and practice is “frankly suspect.” This is certainly correct. But as I noted in my reflection on the Belgian theologian Lieven Boeve’s version of a “theology of interruption,” a theological interruption must be distinguished from a rupture. The encounter with the Other, or listening to the signs of the times, may disrupt the Christian tradition but is nevertheless made sense of in light of that tradition. Similarly, although the signs of the time may serve as an interruption of the Christian tradition, the Christian kerygma likewise interrupts the world’s narratives. Obviously, pointing out this delicate balance does not settle the theological and pastoral issues at stake one way or the other, but as I explained in my earlier document on the European continental document, the perceived tension between tradition and openness to the world is somewhat artificial: “the Church’s mission to become more inclusive and to engage with the world should not be understood as something to be held in tension with the "‘demands of the Gospel,’ but rather is grounded precisely in those demands.”
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I can’t help but notice how much the conversation on these issues has shifted in just a few years, at least amongst the bishops. For example, a handful of bishops at this year’s Synod were considered among the most progressive on the issue of same-sex relationships at the two Synods on the Family in 2014 and 2015, but today sound downright moderate (or even conservative). For example, the reputation of Archbishop Bruno Forte of Chieti-Vasto, who had once been considered a contender for the papacy, never really recovered after it was discovered he had drafted a section of the interim report at the 2014 Synod that stated, “[I]t is possible to grasp authentic family values or at least the wish for them” in same-sex civil unions, and:
Homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community: are we capable of welcoming these people, guaranteeing to them a fraternal space in our communities? Often they wish to encounter a church that offers them a welcoming home. Are our communities capable of providing that, accepting and valuing their sexual orientation, without compromising Catholic doctrine on the family and matrimony?
Before the 2015 Synod, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, O.P., the Archbishop of Vienna and President of the Austrian bishops’ conference from 1995 to 2020, had likewise expressed the need to recognize “what is positive” in the loving relationship of two people of the same sex, a position that was later considered but rejected by the Synod, although also insisting that “only the union between a man and woman, open to new life, by principle, can be called a marriage.” More recently, Schönborn has criticized the DDF’s rejection of blessings for same-sex unions.
Ft. Timothy Radcliffe, O.P., the former Master of the Order of Preachers (the Dominicans), had expressed views similar to those of Schönborn in a 2013 interview, stating that “Certainly [a same-sex relationship] can be generous, vulnerable, tender, mutual and nonviolent. So in many ways, I think it can be expressive of Christ’s self-gift.” Radclifffe, along with Mother Maria Ignazia Angelini, O.S.B., the Abbess of the Monastery of Sts. Peter and Paul in Viboldone, Italy, part of the Subiaco Cassinese Congregation, will lead a three-day retreat just prior to the opening of the Synod (Oct. 1-3), and then continue on as Synod participants.
Of course, these views continue to have critics in the Church. Radcliffe’s role as retreat master at the Synod has been questioned, and Archbishop Mario Enrico Delpini of Milan, another Synod participant, has been criticized for suggesting that people of the same gender might have an “experience of love” and for the archdiocese’s hosting of a vigil against homophobia and transphobia. What seems different is there is now a contingent of bishops staking out a position to the “left” of that of Forte and Schönborn, calling for a more sweeping revision of the Church’s teaching on sexuality.
Bätzing has attempted to link the German Synodal Way and the worldwide synodal process, claiming they are complementary means to the same goal, which suggests that its supporters will see the upcoming Synod as an opportunity to pursue a similar set of proposals. Significantly, the Synod’s main architects have said otherwise. Perhaps most importantly, Cardinal Mario Grech from Malta, since 2020 the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, has clearly distinguished the Synod on Synodality from the German Synodal Way (although pointedly not criticizing the latter), stating that issues like same-sex marriage and the ordination of women are not on the agenda for the Synod. Rather, it is an opportunity to “help the Church to become more synodal and create those spaces where all the members of the people of God, under the leadership and the guidance of their pastors, can really contribute to evangelization.”
Similarly, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, S.J., the Archbishop of Luxembourg and the Relator General of the Synod (sometimes referred to as the General Rapporteur), has stated that the purpose of the Synod is not to address specific issues facing the Church, but rather “how we can be a synodal and missionary Church.” Both Grech and Hollerich have insisted that the Synod is not meant to pursue a particular agenda, but rather to foster the ability of the Church’s members to come together and listen to one another.
That being said, Hollerich, who will be responsible for leading the process of writing a final document for the Synod after the second session in 2024, has stated that he believes that the ordination of women and the blessing of same-sex unions are both open questions for the Church. Even if the Synod itself does not address these issues, it is conceivable that it could open the door to their consideration later on. Ed Condon, writing at The Pillar, writes that the synodal process has become such a central focus that some in the Vatican have suggested that Grech’s Secretariat has become more powerful than any dicastery and will wield a great deal of influence over the future direction of the Church.
Throughout the synodal process, Sr. Nathalie Becquart, X.M.C.J., one of two undersecretaries of the Synod of Bishops, has been an effective advocate for synodality, providing a clear articulation of its meaning, compared to the sometimes vague statements of Grech and Hollerich. For example, in an interview with America, she links synodality to the teachings of Vatican II. She has also spoken about what the Synod means for the role of women in the Church, particularly women’s leadership. Becquart was previously the Director of the National Service for the Evangelization of Young People and for Vocations for the French episcopal conference. In virtue of this role, she was asked to take on a leadership role at the 2018 Synod of Bishops focused on young people, and subsequently in 2019 she was appointed a consultor to the Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops before being named its undersecretary in 2021.
Becquart’s fellow undersecretary, Luis Marín de San Martín, O.S.A., has received less media recognition, at least in the United States. Prior to his appointment, Marín was highly involved in the Augustinian Order, serving as Assistant General and General Archivist for the Order, and acting as President of the Institutum Spiritualitatis Augustinianae in Rome, devoted to the study and promotion of Augustinian spirituality and the continuing formation of the Order’s members. Marín has called on critics of the Synod to open their hearts to grace, insisting, in Augustinian fashion, that “If we are not a community of love, we become aggressive, sectarian gangs or egotistical individuals.” Fr. Giacomo Costa, S.J., the Consultor for the Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, will also be present at the Synod, serving in the role of Special Secretary. Costa has often served as a sort of “press secretary” for the Vatican’s synodal team, for example, announcing the publication of new documents. He also played a role in drafting the Instrumentum Laboris that will guide the discussions this October. In addition to this role in the Vatican, Costa is also the National Spiritual Accompanier of the Association of Italian Christian Workers (ACLI), the Catholic labor federation.
A number of other Western European curial and episcopal participants are worth highlighting. We just missed the opportunity of having three Prefects of the Dicastery (formerly Congregation) for the Doctrine of the Faith together at one Synod. Of course, soon-to-be Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, the current Prefect, will be there, as I noted in my survey of the Latin American participants. Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer, S.J., who Fernández replaced this summer, was slated to be present at the Synod, but has withdrawn “due to accumulated tiredness and his desire for a bit of rest,” according to the Vatican press office.
Perhaps surprisingly, Pope Francis directly invited Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the Prefect appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012 and who served during the first years of Francis’s pontificate, to the Synod. I say “surprisingly” because, since his resignation in 2015, Müller has been a regular critic of Francis, although it’s not clear over exactly what. Both during and after the 2014 and 2015 Synods on the Family, he insisted that communion could never be given to the divorced and remarried, but later he defended the orthodoxy of Pope Francis’s exhortation Amoris Laetitia against critics like Cardinal Raymond Burke, and even admitted that under certain conditions, the divorced and remarried could be admitted to the sacraments. Müller has criticized the way Pope Francis dismissed him from his position, but oddly, only days before first raising this criticism, he had suggested that there had been nothing out of the ordinary. Müller is among those who have suggested that the Synod on Synodality is being used to bring about a “hostile takeover” of the Church, so his presence at the Synod is certainly a wild card.
The Vatican’s two leading diplomats, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, and Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Secretary for Relations with States, will both be present at the Synod. Both Parolin and Gallagher have criticized the German Synodal Way’s proposal for a Synodal Council but have both been relatively silent about the Synod. Parolin, who has been Secretary of State since 2013, is perhaps best known for helping to restore U.S.-Cuba relations in 2014, negotiating the Vatican-China agreement on the naming of bishops in 2018, and for his insistence on Ukraine’s right to defend itself against Russia while working for peace. For his part, Gallagher negotiated the treaty between the Vatican and Palestine in 2015. Parolin has long been considered a contender for the papacy after Francis’s death, but his entanglement in the recent financial scandal involving Cardinal Angelo Becciu may have diminished his chances.
Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the Archbishop of Bologna, is also considered papabile, and this summer was appointed by Pope Francis to lead a peace mission to Ukraine and Russia. Zuppi had previously worked with the Community Sant’Egidio as one of four mediators who negotiated the peace deal that ended Mozambique’s civil war in 1992. Zuppi was elected to the powerful position of President of Italy’s episcopal conference in 2022. Claudio Gugerotti, soon to be made a cardinal, is the Prefect for the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches and is assisting Zuppi in his peace efforts in Ukraine. Gugerotti had previously served as a Vatican ambassador in several nations of Eastern Europe, and more recently in Great Britain.
Spanish Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, M.C.C.J. has also been a promoter of peace as the Prefect of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue. As Secretary of the former Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, in 2016 he restarted dialogue between the Vatican and Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the latter of which often represents Sunni Islam in interreligious meetings, after such dialogue had ceased under Pope Benedict. His work led to the signing of the Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together Document by Pope Francis and Ahmed el-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, in 2019, and the opening of the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi in 2023.
More controversial is Cardinal Arthur Roche, the Prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship, having replaced Cardinal Robert Sarah of Ghana in 2022 after serving as Secretary for the then-Congregation from 2012 to 2021. Most recently, Roche has been responsible for the implementation of Traditionis Custodes, Pope Francis’s 2021 motu proprio limiting the use of the Traditional Latin Mass, which has made Roche the object of criticism for many traditionalists. Ironically, Roche had earlier been the chair of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy when it introduced the new, more exact, and much-criticized at the time English translation of the English missal in 2011.
Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça of Portugal, the Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, is an interesting figure. A published poet and essayist, he became a consultor for what was then called the Pontifical Council for Culture in 2011, where he helped promote the Church’s engagement with the world of culture and the arts. In 2018, he was appointed the head of the Vatican Library, and in 2022 moved to his current position. Earlier this year, he organized a meeting of Pope Francis with a number of artists in the Sistine Chapel. He has also been involved in initiatives of interest to readers of this newsletter. This year, he offered some remarks on ethics and artificial intelligence, especially in the context of higher education. His Dicastery, together with that for the Promotion of Integral Human Development, also produced the recent document renouncing the “Doctrine of Discovery,” which I mentioned in an earlier post.
Dr. Paolo Ruffini (who I briefly mentioned in my recent essay on social media and evangelization), the Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, will be responsible for managing media access to the Synod. Ruffini, who oversees the Vatican News service, Vatican Radio, the newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, and the Vatican’s publishing arms, is the first lay person to head a dicastery. He has attempted to modernize the Vatican’s communications and imbue them with a missionary spirit, while respecting journalistic norms and avoiding proselytism. Before moving to the Vatican, Ruffini was director of TV2000, the channel of the Italian bishops.
In 2020, Benoît Bertrand, the Bishop of Mende, led a working group that produced a report on the state of ordained priests in France, including the challenges they face. That expertise will be needed at the Synod, which will consider how to promote the ministerial vocation of priests while challenging clericalism. His colleague Jean-Marc Eychenne, the Bishop of Grenoble-Vienne, has personal experience with an innovative response to the challenges faced by priests. Before his elevation to the episcopacy, Eychenne was a member of the Community of Saint Martin, a community of priests who live communally, similar to members of a religious order, and who emphasize the human development of member priests. Archbishop Delpini of Milan, already mentioned, has recently revised the formation process for the archdiocesan seminary, in response to declining numbers. The formation of priests will also be a potentially important topic for the Synod.
Brian McGee, the Bishop of Argyle and the Isles, will be representing Scotland at the Synod. He is perhaps best known for excommunicating a group of three hermits who had accused Pope Francis of heresy in 2020. McGee has also tried to implement the teachings of Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’ in his diocese. Irish Bishop Alan McGuckian, S.J. of Raphoe is noteworthy for his early efforts in the 1990s, long before his elevation to the episcopacy, to use the internet to connect people with the Church.
The focus of today’s post has been on curial officials, Synod organizers, and bishops, but later this week I will highlight some of the religious, lay leaders, and theologians who are part of the Western European delegation.
Thank you for all your work to put together these very well researched guides. I’ll definitely be following the rest of this series!