New Synod Document Offers Hope for LGBTQ+ Issues: Some Excerpts

Yesterday, the Vatican released the latest working document for the Synod on Synodality, a text that will guide the second, and final, session of the synod’s General Assembly, to be held in Rome in October. Though the document, known as the Instrumentum Laboris, contains no specific mention of LGBTQ+ issues, the vision it advocates and the plans it sets forth could greatly benefit justice and equality in the church for LGBTQ+ people.

Today’s post provides more background and then a collection of document excerpts that are directly relevant to LGBTQ+ issues. (For New Ways Ministry’s reaction statement on why the document opens doors for greater LGBTQ+ inclusion, click here.)

The Instrumentum Laboris (IL), as the working document is known, is entitled “How to be a missionary synodal Church.” The text is divided into three parts: an introduction and foundations section, main sections on “Relations,” “Pathways,” and “Places,” and a conclusion. In its roughly thirty pages, the IL focuses on the practices and structures of a synodal church, almost entirely bypassing any specific topics raised in the last three years, including gender and sexuality. The one exception is a portion of the document dedicated to women’s participation and leadership in the church.

The IL’s themes, however, are fertile ground for making significant change for an inclusive church. The document’s guiding question is: “how can the identity of the synodal People of God in mission take concrete form in the relationships, paths and places where the everyday life of the Church takes place?”

A partial answer repeated throughout the IL, is to build a church which answers people’s desire for a church where every person is welcomed in, able to participate, and accompanied with love. Similarly, the document emphasizes themes of right relationship, dialogue, encounter, respect for diversity, and the pursuit of social justice. Below are eleven excerpts exemplifying these themes and proposals that could aid in LGBTQ+ ministry:

1. Heeding the Voices of Excluded Catholics: “At every stage of the process, the desire emerged to broaden the possibilities of participation and the exercise of co-responsibility by all the baptised, men and women, in the variety of their charisms, vocations and ministries. This desire points in three directions. . .The third is to recognise and transform the sorrow evoked by the non-participation of so many members of the People of God in this journey of ecclesial renewal and the Church’s struggle to live well the relationships between men and women, between the generations, and between people and groups of different cultural identities and social conditions, especially those made poor and the excluded. This weakness in reciprocity, participation and communion remains an obstacle to a full renewal of the Church in a missionary synodal sense.” (12)

2. Lack of Welcome Is a Global Concern: “The journey so far has led to the recognition that a synodal Church is a Church that listens, is capable of welcoming and accompanying, and is perceived as home and family. A need emerges in all continents concerning people who, for different reasons, are or feel excluded or on the margins of the ecclesial community or who struggle to find full recognition of their dignity and gifts within it. This lack of welcome leaves them feeling rejected, hinders their journey of faith and encounter with the Lord, and deprives the Church of their contribution to mission.” (33)

3. Building Formal Ministries for Inclusion: “It seems appropriate to create a recognised and properly instituted ministry of listening and accompaniment, which would make this characteristic feature of a synodal Church an enduring and tangible reality. An ‘open door’ of the community is needed, allowing people to enter without feeling threatened or judged. The forms of exercising this ministry will need to adapt to local circumstances according to the diversity of experiences, structures, social contexts and available resources. This opens up a space for discernment to take place at the local level, with the involvement of national or continental Episcopal Conferences. However, the presence of a specific ministry does not mean reserving the commitment to listening to these ministers alone. On the contrary, it has a prophetic character. On the one hand, it emphasises that listening and accompaniment are an ordinary dimension of the life of a synodal Church, which in different ways engages all the baptised and in which all communities are invited to grow; on the other hand, it reminds us that listening and accompaniment is an ecclesial service, not a personal initiative, the value of which is thus recognised. This awareness is a mature fruit of the synodal process.” (34)

4. Conscience as Indispensable in Discernment: “The starting point of all ecclesial discernment is listening to the Word of God. . .God speaks to the community in the liturgy, the pre-eminent place of interpreting what the Lord says to his Church. God speaks through the Church, both Mother and Teacher, through its living Tradition and practices, including those of popular piety. God continues to speak through the events in space and time, provided we know how to discern their meaning. Moreover, God communicates with his People through the natural world, whose very existence points us to the Creator’s handiwork, filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit, who gives life. Finally, God speaks in each person’s own conscience, which “is the most intimate centre and sanctuary of a person, in which he or she is alone with God whose voice echoes within them” (GS 16). An authentic discernment cannot neglect any of these channels of divine communication.” (61)

5. Accountability to the Community: “Concrete procedural [discernment] options, in their variety, must be consistent with the requirements of an underlying synodal theological methodology. Based on the experience of the synodal process, it is possible to identify some key elements, including the need for (a) a personal and communal prayer life, including participation in the Eucharist; (b) an adequate personal and communal preparation, based on listening to the Word of God and reality; (c) respectful and profound listening to the word of each person; (d) the search for the widest possible consensus not by finding the lowest common denominator, but by overflow, aiming at what most ‘makes hearts burn’ (cf. Lk 24:32); and (e) while the consensus is to be formulated by those conducting the process, it must be given back to all those who participated, so that they can verify their representation in that formulation.” (63)

6. The Sciences as Necessary Partners: “Discernment always takes place ‘with one’s feet on the ground,’ meaning within a concrete context, aware of its particularities and complexities. Discernment, therefore, can only benefit from the analytical contribution of the various human, social, and administrative sciences relevant to the issue at hand. This does not mean that technical and scientific expertise has the last word – such an approach would constitute a technocratic drift. Rather, the aim is to ‘provide a concrete foundation for the ethical and spiritual itinerary that follows’ (LS 15). Therefore, these forms of expertise must be given a chance to offer their important contribution without dominating other perspectives.” (64)

7. Widely-Participatory Decision-Making and Taking: “‘In the synodal Church the whole community, in the free and rich diversity of its members, is called together to pray, listen, analyse, dialogue, discern and offer advice on taking pastoral decisions which correspond as closely as possible to God’s will’ (ITC 68). This statement needs to be decisively implemented. It is difficult to imagine a more effective way to promote a synodal Church than the participation of all in decision-making and taking processes. This participation takes place based on a differentiated responsibility that respects each community member and values their respective skills and gifts in view of a shared decision.” (67)

8. Empowering Local Churchs to Act: “It is up to the local Churches to increasingly implement all the possibilities of giving life to authentically synodal decision-making processes that suit the context’s specificities. This is a task of great importance and urgency since the successful implementation of the Synod largely depends on it. Without tangible changes, the vision of a synodal Church will not be credible. This will alienate those members of the People of God who have drawn strength and hope from the synodal journey. This applies most especially to the effective participation of women in drafting and decision-making and taking processes, as called for in many of the contributions received from the Episcopal Conferences.” (71)

9. Transparency and Accountability, Including for Church Workers: “If the synodal Church wants to be welcoming, then accountability and transparency must be at the core of its action at all levels, not only at the level of authority. However, those in positions of authority have a greater responsibility in this regard. Transparency and accountability are not limited to sexual and financial abuse. They must also be concerned with pastoral plans, methods of evangelisation, and how the Church respects the dignity of the human person, for example, regarding the working conditions within its institutions.” (76)

10. Ensuring Diversity in Ecclesial Bodies: “In a similar vein, attention must be paid to the composition of these bodies [e.g. parish and diocesan councils] to encourage greater involvement of women, young people, and those living in conditions of poverty or marginalisation in the composition of these bodies. Moreover, as the First Session emphasised, it is fundamental that these bodies include men and women committed to witnessing to the faith in the ordinary realities of life and in their social contexts, with a recognised apostolic and missionary disposition (cf. SR 18d), and not only those involved in organising the life and services of the community. In this way, the ecclesial discernment carried out by these bodies will benefit from greater openness and ability to analyse reality and a diversity of perspectives.” (93)

11. Decentralizing Reform Efforts: “Adopting a synodal style enables us to overcome the idea that all Churches must necessarily move at the same pace on every issue. On the contrary, differences in pace can be valued as an expression of legitimate diversity and an opportunity for the exchange of gifts and for mutual enrichment. In order to be realised, this horizon needs to be embodied in concrete structures and practices. Answering the question ‘How tobe a synodal Church in mission?’ requires identifying and promoting such structures and practices.” (95)

The only two specific issues mentioned in the document are gender and the sexual abuse. Gender identity issues and gender diversity are not addressed. However, there is an insistence on a male/female sex binary in calls to expand roles for women in the church, which rely heavily on  gender essentialist language. The IL states outright the question of ordaining women deacons will not be discussed at the October assembly, and that the question of women’s participation will be studied by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

This latest working document was developed from reports submitted by episcopal bodies, Vatican dicasteries, international unions for vowed religious, an international gathering of priests, Synod working groups, and “the testimonies of experiences and good practices received from all over the world and the observations of almost two hundred groups.” (New Ways Ministry’s Synod report, available here, was submitted to the General Secretariat for the Synod this spring.) Bishops, clergy and religious, theologians, and other scholars received these materials and created the new IL. A further document on the theological foundations for synodality is expected in the coming months.

As Catholics anticipate October 2024’s final assembly for this synodal process, the IL’s guidance suggests change is already underway, and there is hope that vexing issues, like LGBTQ+ inclusion, could be addressed fruitfully in the future:

“Among the gains of the process so far, we can include having experienced and learned a method for addressing questions together, in dialogue and discernment. We are still learning how to be a missionary synodal Church, but it is a task we have learned that we can undertake with joy.”

This week, Bondings 2.0 will provide further coverage about the Synod’s new working document and how it could impact LGBTQ+ issues in the church. To read New Ways Ministry’s statement on why the document could opens doors for greater inclusion, click here.

—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, July 10, 2024