Synod on the Ides of March

We thought we were so smart. Forced to take Latin, we freshmen had a new word: “the Ides.” Or maybe it was because we were forced to read Shakespeare’s version. We knew to “Beware the Ides of March.” We understood the power of Roman conspiracy. “Et tu, Brute?” and all that.

It may not seem as momentous to you as it does to me, but this year on the Ides of March Cardinal Mario Grech, the secretary-general of the Synod, announced the members of the preparatory commission for the October meeting in Rome. I felt betrayed.

I had been led on by how representative the North American Writing Group is. They might be slow, but the “eight bishops, three laywomen, two priests, two laymen and two women religious” from the US and Canada finished their cheery meeting February 16, if YouTube is to be believed. Maybe their diversity is making finding unity on a final draft difficult. It’s due March 31; the Vatican has been forwarding those from other continents for more than a month. Nothing more than a schedule is on the USCCB website. Canada’s CCB has a press release. One US bishop, Thomas Zinkula of Davenport, shared his experiences in the diocesan paper, which I want to recognize for continuing to publish a print edition.

Maybe I should not have felt betrayed by Grech’s selections because an American was included: Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas. He’s been the bishop head of the US Synod committee that produced the national synthesis that I wrote about—enthusiastically—in The Table on September 24. He’s also the head of the USCCB committee on doctrine, kind of amazing given his pro-Francis bent. Michael Sean Winters says he “brought the house down with a talk on ‘Collegiality, Synodality, and the Pastoral Vision of Pope Francis’” at a recent Boston College conference, an exclusive gathering of theologians and bishops held early this month. Winters says “rising interest in pastoral theology and the insights it yields may be one of the more enduring legacies of this pontificate.” Flores is one of the bishops who is part of the North American writing group.

But I did feel betrayed. Five of the six other members are male clerics: Jesuit Father Giacomo Costa, who will serve as coordinator; Archbishop Timothy Costelloe of Perth, president of the Australian bishops’ conference; Bishop Lucio A. Muandula of Xai-Xai, Mozambique; Father Dario Vitali, a professor of theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome; and Polish Msgr. Tomasz Trafny, a member of the synod secretariat staff, who will serve as secretary of the commission. Most of these men seem to have experience organizing Synods or similar meetings. It seems as if Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg, general relator of the synod, will also meet with this group.

Initially, the best news seemed to be that laity and women were at least represented. Mercedarian Sister Shizue “Filo” Hirota from Tokyo, Japan, according to the Catholic News Service, is “a consultant for the Catholic Council for Justice and Peace of the Japanese bishops’ conference.” The more I read about her, the less betrayed I felt. If she’s used to standing up against nuclear war, she may be able to take on all the clerics the Vatican can put forward. Goyo Delarosa’s ANTI-GLOBALIST POLITICAL ARTS PROPAGANDA REVUE immediately grabbed me because it reported on a peace witness with people that I had just seen in the film The Nuns, the Priests, and the Bombs. An NCR article no longer available on the website reported that “Sr. Filo Hirota told those gathered that she envisioned a new world order in which the ‘principle of nonviolence is translated into the way how the world is organized.’ Hirota…asked in a prayer following her brief talk for an economy ‘that creates communion in equal and just relationships.’” Francis language, several years before Francis.

Filo Hirota also served on the Executive Committee of Pax Christi International, so she has Rome experience. Their 2010 biography of her notes: “Previously she was chairperson of the Conference of Major Superiors of Women Religious of Japan, which organised peace action for nuclear disarmament in conjunction with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious of the U.S.A. She was also Assistant Executive Secretary at the Office for Human Development of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conference in Manila. Filo Hirota is a member of the Mercedarian Missionaries of Berriz and has served in Bolivia, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Mexico.” Genuinely international. She also is a former member of the executive board of the International Union of Superiors General. Maybe she was in Rome when they asked Francis about women deacons a few years ago.

All that leadership prepares Hirota well for work on the Synod. She was the resource person for the 2016 Asian Forum for sisters of Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. One goal that was emphasized at every step of that meeting was “our interconnectedness and collaboration with our lay partners in mission.” I hope she was responsible for that openness.

Delarosa gives some indication of Hirota’s complexity. “Her peaceful international pro-life activities, formed in Christian charity, Spanish colonial missionary zeal, Gandhian pacifism, the long great meditative tradition of Zen Buddhism in Japan, and the tragic Americanist nuclear strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, make Sister Filo a true role model for 21st century pro-life Christian women of peace everywhere.”  

The Pillar reports that in August 2022 Hirota was appointed chairperson of Talitha Kum’s Japan Steering Committee. “End Human Trafficking” is the slogan of this organization that works to care for, heal, empower, and find justice for “victims, survivors, and those at risk.” She writes: “In the 20th century, we used to say, ‘To think globally and act locally.’ Now, we are called to ‘think and act globally and locally.’” Again, a good attitude.

So on the Ides of March, I feel much less betrayed, though I realize how high my expectations are for what this one woman may do as she works with the group preparing the theme and documents for the October Synod.

I may need to rely on another one of those classic comments Pope Francis made this week when “La Nacion asked the pope if only one woman would have a vote at the next synod assembly,” according to Cindy Wooden. “‘Everyone who participates in the synod will vote. Those who are guests or observers will not vote,’ he said, but whoever participates in a synod as a member ‘has the right to vote. Whether male or female. Everyone, everyone. That word everyone for me is key.’” Maybe with one of Cardinal Grech’s undersecretaries, Sister Nathalie Becquart, Sister Filo Hirota will be a second woman who votes. The world, as they say, will be watching.