Synod Evaluation IV: What About the U.S.?

OK. You’ve been waiting for it. What have the US Bishops done with the Synod reports from 95% of the dioceses in our country? We need a text!

According to Brian Fraga in NCR, in early August the “synod team” held a “writing retreat” after “regional reports” had been prepared. I suppose some rubric is necessary to consolidate 300 reports. I’d be curious about how Catholics differed around the country, but I haven’t even seen the results of that step. The 10-page final draft was due August 15 in Rome. I wonder if our team held to that number of pages, single or double spaced, wide or narrow margins. Will we know?

Do we have a report that’s spiffily printed out and widely available, like the Irish Synthesis? That’s 23 pages, maybe because there are so many people on the Steering Committee and the Task Group. Take a look.

I’m grateful to Colm Holmes, the Spokesperson and Joint Coordinator of We Are Church Ireland, who sent this photo to me after my blog last week. He included the caption, “When women make up half the team, everyone gains.” Could not agree more. A great and numerous team.

We do have at least one woman on our synod team. According to Fraga, the consultant to the bishops over the whole two-year “discernment process” is Julia McStravog, a former USCCB employee. He also identifies Richard Coll, “the bishops’ liaison to diocesan synod coordinators” and the executive director of the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development.

Fraga relies on general summaries from these team members, but like most other journalists, goes go back to the individual dioceses for stories. He reviewed a dozen reports from “Northeast, West, South and Midwest,” which I can think of as distinct regions. “Welcoming” is the “common thread” he found; the church should extend itself more to “immigrants, people of color, youth and young adults, divorced and remarried Catholics, and other marginalized groups.” Of course, that includes the LGBTQ community, “particularly sidelined by many in the church.” Not by the church itself? Of course, women have their own category, “Participants said that women deserve to be in important leadership positions in the church, even in roles that are currently cut off to them via ordained ministry in the permanent diaconate and priesthood.” Do you see why we need a text? Summaries may artificially encourage.

In addition to WOC Executive Director Kate McElwee, Fraga quotes Notre Dame theology professor, Anne-Marie Bugyis, a new voice to me. She is “not surprised with the synodal responses…Women have had really prominent ministerial roles in the church, and this has been true since the beginning of the church’s history, and I think it still remains true today…There are many women who are really thinking about their place in society and the ways in which many patriarchal forces are still at work that are keeping them from making certain advances, and that includes the church.” Bugyis notes historical research showing that women served as deacons in the early church, including a link to NCR’s deacon series from several years ago. But will that make it into the consolidated statement from the US?

McStavog is rightly proud that 650,000 US Catholics participated in more than 30,000 opportunities to provide input. Fraga estimates that’s 1% of 51 million. The demographics might not be exactly representative, but we have no way of knowing that, either.

McStavog’s assessment in this interview? “There is an awareness of the difficult talks and the difficult conversations, and I think that is coming through to the top…There’s excitement but also skepticism, though that skepticism may be less now than when we first started on this synodal journey.” That would be good news. Nobody thought this would be easy.

Who else is writing about the Synod in the US? Phyllis Zagano provides her own summary of several other diocesan reports, and a gloomy summary of the present state of the hierarchy: “the so-called biological solution touted by conservative Catholics is taking hold. As priest and bishop supporters of the Second Vatican Council and of Francis age out or die in place, they are replaced by a cadre of bishops ordained as priests during the reign of Pope John Paul II, who in turn appoint conservative pastors ordained during the reign of Pope Benedict XVI.” I truly hope Francis will leapfrog over those American bishops as he appoints Cardinals this week.

Michael Sean Winters makes a similar negative into a positive, this time the negative a critical article about the present pope in First Things. He reminds us that “Pope Francis has made synodality such a central focus of his legacy, I think his critics need to try and derail it. They can’t risk the synodal process being a success.” That’s what he sees them doing in the face of many positive reports. Both of these articles are in NCR.

Commonweal has another one of those diocesan articles, this one by development staff member Gabriella Wilke. She shares her impressions of a listening training session at St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN, a place she loves. She’s meditative.

The other Commonweal piece is an example of what can come forth in such an open process. Lisa Fullam, professor emerita of moral theology at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, writes at length about what Title IX meant for the representation of women in sports. What better American example of full inclusion? It’s a terrific article about Title IX, but the creative part is her shift to Titulus Novem, and the consequences that such a provision might be on the ground in the Church.

Fullam asks, “What if, every time a diocese fully funds the education of a man in seminary, it provided equal opportunity and equal funding for a woman? That alone would vastly expand women’s opportunities to minister in the Church and would especially benefit lower-income candidates.” WOW. That Fullam’s many ideas about education, liturgy, preaching, and priesthood might result from a simple statement in the U.S. Synod document takes my breath away. She concludes that “when Title IX was passed, few could imagine the sea change it would bring. Simply requiring that women be treated like equal human beings, like people whose lives and strivings, hopes and dreams could not be shot down by the legacy of discrimination, fostered an enormous change in women’s educations and careers.”

I’m ready for it.  In the absence of an actual text, I’ll put in what I think should be: for every person now denied who wants to be ordained. Can it be that simple?