Sir, – Bishop Brendan Leahy’s praise for Pope Francis’s synodal way reflected well the pontiff’s hopes for a missionary church (“Synod on Synodality aims at missionary outreach to the excluded and marginalised”, Opinion & Analysis, October 7th). But Bishop Leahy is overly optimistic to describe the synodal way as “one of extensive global consultation and conversation”, and one in which Ireland has “reflected the voices within 26 dioceses”. Indeed, in his own diocese, the participation rate of baptised Catholics in the synodal process has been a mere 3.55 per cent. Granted, that surpasses Dublin’s pitiful 1.13 per cent participation rate, but it falls short of the great consultation Pope Francis might have hoped for.
Let us not fool ourselves that the voices being listened to in the synodal process truly reflect those of faithful Catholics. Otherwise the few might be speaking for the many, after all. – Yours, etc,
PORTIA BERRY-KILBY,
Suffolk,
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England.
Sir, – Bishop Brendan Leahy’s article serves as a reminder of the obligation Catholics have to the marginalised poor who “are always with you” and of the suffering of the victims of abuse. The identity of these groups and the obligations Catholics have to them has been well defined heretofore. The article refers to the excluded, without revealing who this group might be, and without any indication of how people become excluded or how to rectify their plight.
Bishop Leahy speaks of global Catholics actively journeying together. The synodal exercise has involved quite the opposite. It has become clear that most Catholics hardly know the synod is in process. The report on the listening exercise conducted in Ireland as presented to the Continental Synod in Prague in 2022 only partially represented the submissions made by the laity to the national listening exercise. This was pointed out to Bishop Leahy at the time.
Once the laity had made their submissions, they were cast to the peripheries while elite experts processed their submissions in a highly reductive fashion. The laity were never consulted on the accuracy of the views attributed to them.
As regards the process since then, only one phrase from the article is substantive. This substantive phrase refers to the universal Synodal Assembly in 2023, and states accurately that “the universal Synodal Assembly was a time to listen to all”. Bishop Leahy omits that this tiring exercise of the said synod, described as “Conversation in the Spirit”, requires listening (not debate) interspersed with a lot of prayer. The latter word is not mentioned in the article. And yet again in a synodal article, the Spirit seems to operate independently of Jesus Christ.
And the synodal process in 2024 is no more inclusive than was the Irish listening exercise years previously. As Bishop Leahy says, the system was again given over to committees of faceless experts in 2023 while during the same synod, the Fiducia Supplicans Declaration was being put together by Pope Francis and others elsewhere in the Vatican. The synod assembly became nothing more than a bunch of spectators, albeit listening and praying spectators.
In short, one has to ask the question as to whether the whole synodal process is in effect an exercise centralising even more power in the papacy, while conferring influence on elite experts and leaving priests and laity to one side. – Yours, etc,
NEIL BRAY,
Cappamore,
Co Limerick.