Synod Document Offers Only ‘Crumb of Comfort’ for LGBTQI+ People
Beginning today and continuing through next week, Bondings 2.0 will be providing commentaries on how the Synod’s Instrumentum Laboris, released on July 9th, may impact LGBTQ+ issues in the church.
Dr. Mary McAleese
Today’s guest commentator is Dr. Mary McAleese, President of Ireland 1997-2011.
The instrumentum laboris, that is the working preparatory document which will inform the October 2024 meeting of the Synod of Bishops, is worthy, wordy and ultimately disappointing in its grating piousness and its tedious repetition. Deep buried in its 20000 words are the barely recognisable remnants of the distilled discernment of those, who in good faith, participated in the global synodal process over these past three years. The participants believe, as Pope Francis had promised, that there would be freedom of speech, an open agenda and there would be “nothing about us without us”.
The participants’ views have now been synthesized, edited and thinned out of any subject vaguely touching on controversy. Anyone hoping for clarity on the greater inclusion of women and LGBTIQ+ people which were priority demands right across the globe, will likely be disappointed. The latter do not even merit a mention but presumably (hopefully) are among those described in the instrumentum laboris as feeling “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”. That message seems to have at least been received even if one has to dig to find in it some crumb of comfort for LGBTIQ+ Catholics.
Will the synodal process over time prove to be the leaven in Church thinking which opens space for updating of the magisterial teachings, practices and processes which deliberately deprive the Church of the talents of many who do not just “feel” excluded but actually are excluded by Church teaching and practice. The document fails to admit that these “feelings” of exclusion are grounded in a reality for which the Magisterium must take responsibility and which the Pope has full primatial power to redress any day ot the week.
The issue of the exclusion of women fares a little better for at least they merit a particular mention. However discussion of their greater participation in ecclesial decision making is advanced mainly as a subject for further study and in the broader context of developing greater lay involvement in Church non-ordained ministries and administrative roles. Will a road-map to that promised land emerge in October 2024?
There are three references to “the circularity of the synodal process” and the “circularity of dialogue”. There can be little doubt that these references get close to the truth albeit accidentally. The synodal process has led the Church round in circles to what purpose remains to be seen. Women and LGBTIQ+ are not only no better off at this juncture in the process but have endured emphatic dismissal of their cases from Pope Francis himself. He has ruled out ordination of women to the deaconate and priesthood. He has made it clear that Church blessings for same sex married Catholic couples are not possible; only brief informal, non-liturgical blessings of individuals as individuals are permitted. His interventions have robbed the Synod of freedom of speech and an open agenda on two live issues which were manifestly of wide concern among the faithful.
The instrumentum laboris is not likely to excite or inspire the many who were baptised into the Catholic Church but who have exercised their inalienable human right to freely leave the Church ( a right not recognised in canon law) whether to embrace another faith, give up on faith altogether, whether in righteous anger over clericalism, misogyny, homophobia, physical and sexual abuse of children by clergy, episcopal protection of criminal clergy and neglect of their victims …. the reasons are many, all valid and unlikely to be reversed by the synodal process so far.
It is a dull document but perhaps all the cans that have been kicked down the Synodal road will yet create a din that cannot be ignored. The People of God made this Synodal process their own until their voice was dubbed over in Vatican-speak but in the vague plans the instrumentum laboris discloses for ongoing, regular formal synodal dialogue at every level of the Church there remains the hope that that voice of the faithful will not be snuffed out but will grow stronger, more synodally sure of itself.
Meanwhile let us hope the circusful of elephants left out of the synodal room are noisy enough to be heard inside despite the heavy duty sound-proofing.
—Dr. Mary McAleese, July 12, 2024
To read excerpts form the Instrumentum Laboris, click here.
To read New Ways Ministry’s opinion, entitled “Synod Opens Door for Greater LGBTQ+ Inclusion,” click here.
To read about other statements Dr. McAleese has made in regard to LGBTQ+ issues in the church, click here.
To read about a recent homily Dr. McAleese gave during a Dublin Pride Prayer Service, click here.
Mary knows the inside story only too well. The kind of decisions she wants would go over well in Ireland, perhaps, but I think Pope Francis and the Synod office are thinking of other countries too. I’m thinking they wouldn’t get majority approval from U.S. Catholics, am I wrong?
In turning a deaf ear to women’s ordination and total deafness to LGBTQIA+ issues the Vatican bureaucrats, ( I include Pope Francis here) have said to us, you can stay if you want to, but we are not going to go into schism for you. As always, the boys in the Vatican will risk NOTHING for us. Thank you President McAleese for saying so clearly what has otherwise been absent from this blog.
Yes, indeed… we all feel a lot of frustration. We likely placed too many short term expectations in a process that has barely started, and which aims to handle massive changes. On paper, the pope can change the magisterium with the stroke of a pen. In reality, he’s simply the one with the task to enact changes in the text once they have substantially happened in people’s hearts.
Changes of this magnitude inevitably result in all sorts of pain, largely due to the enormous time differentials at play. Our little lives are but a few decades in a multi-century transformation, some of us being ahead of the curve, and some of us behind.
For a large, multinational and multiethnic organization like the Church, it’s virtually unmanageable. Either changes happen too fast for the conservatives, and they go in schism. Or changes happen too slow for the progressives, and they “leak out” (as Paul VanderKlay would say in his videos about such difficulties in his CRC denomination). It’s pretty clear that the Vatican has chosen the second option, because at the end of the day, we are a small western minority when looking at global, long term scales. Simply demanding changes won’t make them happen. Here in the West, some people will have the patience to stay, handle the occasional difficulties, maybe minister to the more conservative. Many won’t. It is for each person to discern with God what they are called to do, where they will worship and serve. And for those who chose to stay, they must understand that the changes we so hope for are not coming tomorrow or in a year from now, such that they are not repeatedly discouraged and hurt.
I also like Thomas Reese’s take on these topics here as well: https://religionnews.com/2024/05/28/pope-francis-disappoints-progressives-women-deacons-gays/
Appreciate the realism.
Only contemplatives with a ‘wisdom eye’ sustained by Spirit-Hope can endure.
Thanks!
Thank you for sharing Dr. Mary McAleese, July 12, 2024 Posting today. It seems to be spot on.
As I read this article, I am not even a smidgen surprised! This was exactly what I believed would happen as I took part in 3 Synod sessions, including the online response.
This summation again raises the question I have asked myself for decades, “Why do I keep supporting the Catholic Church with my time, talent, and treasure?” I believe those in the magisterium all the way up to the pope are just digging their heels further into the ground to protect themselves and their brother religious with blind support from the conservative and most fearful Catholics. They are mostly of the mindset of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. They do not realize that it is broken and being fractured into ever more tiny shreds.
I believe the only way to open their minds and their hearts is to suffocate them by withdrawing our financial support. I would venture that most women feel like their voices are not heard, they are treated with disdain and disrespect, and that they and those who do not tow the Catholic line are ignored and jeered at behind the closed robes and costumes of the magisterium, the Knights of Columbus, the seminaries, and even the brothers’ conversations.
I am still confused as to why a male who is gay is not supported by the Church for choosing the religious life. All the priests take a vow of celibacy, so why the discrimination against someone who prefers the company of men to women? The Church PROMOTES their priests to enter into comradeship with mostly men!
I believe I’ve said enough and need to think further about why and if I will continue to support the Catholic Church in the future. Blind faith in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is one thing, but blind faith in a group unwilling to listen to the love that is proclaimed by the Holy Trinity and true followers should not be blindly followed by me!
I wish I had the author’s eloquence in telling the stone cold’s truth in all its specificity.
Not that she lacks the sparks of poetry at times, either:
“It is a dull document but perhaps all the cans that have been kicked down the Synodal road will yet create a din that cannot be ignored.”
I am impressed, and I share her bleak state of mind. We deserve better, God knows. Is God knowing this enough?
Bravo! It is so important that such a sharp, eloquent, and witty perspective illuminate with bright lights the elephants in the room and the heads in the sand that permeate the reality of the process. When added together, women, LGBTQIA people, and other people marginalized by the Church represent the majority of the inhabitants of the planet. Dr. McAleese cuts through all of the denial emanating from those in power who fear confronting the truths represented by most of the Church. I am sure her words make leaders very uncomfortable. And they should. But fear is dangerous. To all of the boys holding the keys, you will never grow up until you face your fears and truly engage everyone with welcome, vulnerability, and just plain honesty.
For people who are personally suffering the exclusion, the worry about possible schism is doubtless secondary. I noticed in the IL for this October that they will discuss allowing different policies, practices, theologies in different geographical cultures. That could be a way to alleviate the suffering of people who could make some changes in their own locale. Globally our unity is in the Christian religion, not in uniformity of practice. We would have to have a common understanding of what constitutes that unifying religion. What do you think?