At Synod, “Niche Issues” and “Fashionable Reforms” Criticized—And Championed

This month, Bondings 2.0 is reporting live from Rome as the final General Assembly of the Synod on Synodality meets.

ROME—This week as the Synod on Synodality’s General Assembly began, repeated exhortations were voiced by leaders and delegates not to get caught up in gender and sexuality debates, pejoratively described as “niche issues” and “fashionable reforms.” But, for some participants these are precisely what the Assembly should tackle.

At Friday’s press conference, Australian delegate Bishop Anthony Randazzo of Broken Bay lambasted advocates of “niche issues that often arrive from Europe and North America.” Describing them as a form of neocolonialism, he said that at times they become “all consuming” and an “imposition.” Pressed by a journalist on just what he meant by “niche issues,” Randazzo listed “governance” and women’s role in the church, specifically ordained ministry—and suggested that by focusing on “niche issues,” the real concerns of women in the world were being neglected.

Pope Francis somewhat echoed such thinking during his apostolic visit to Belgium last weekend, saying the Synod “is not about prioritizing ‘fashionable’ reforms,” but about, “How can we bring the Gospel to a society that is no longer listening or has distanced itself from the faith?” Andrea Tornielli, editorial director of Vatican News, picked up on this idea of “fashionable reforms” in a commentary, decrying “agendas” on both the progressive and conservative ends of the church’s spectrum. According to him, “Both of these perspectives end up forgetting the sole true purpose of any reform in the Church: the salvation of souls, the care of God’s holy faithful people.”

This line of thinking is reflective of some synod Assembly participants’ views. Though often framed in more ambiguous language than Randazzo’s direct critiques, the underlying argument is that by discussing topics related to gender and sexuality, the synodal process is undercut from its real purpose—though many observers believe such a purpose to be vague.

Despite the desires of these delegates and other Synod leaders, gender and sexuality keep emerging. Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Vartican’s Dicastery for Communication, admitted as much during Friday’s press conference. Among the 36 interventions, as synod speeches are called, at Friday’s General Congregation, delegates highlighted the marginalization of LGBTQ people (notably, Ruffini used the term “LGBTQ”), divorced Catholics, women called to ordination, and others. Another panelist, Sister Xiskya Lucia Valladares, a papal appointee from Nicaragua, acknowledged positively that there is “complete freedom of expression” in the Assembly.

The following are two examples of how LGBTQ+ issues have come through publicly, as the deliberations inside the Synod Hall remain private. America reported:

“Asked about reconciling differing views within the church, particularly in regard to the reception of ‘Fiducia Supplicans,’ Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero of Rabat, Morocco, said that it would have been preferable if such a document had gone through a synodal process.

“Cardinal López, president of the North African regional bishops’ conference, said bishops were not consulted about its publication, ‘so it should not surprise us that there were reactions against some of its points, not all of them.’ . . .

“Yet Cardinal López said his region was not consulted in Africa’s response to the document, despite being part of the continent.

“‘Learning synodality is not a simple thing,’ he said. ‘We are going to have to overcome many setbacks and many moments in which we will have to ask for forgiveness, just as the president of the African bishops asked forgiveness for making a statement without waiting for us make to one.'”

Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, OP, one of the Assembly’s two spiritual assistants, also mentioned Fiducia Supplicans during the two-day retreat delegates went on ahead of the Synod’s opening. In one of his four reflections on the Resurrection, he cited controversy over the declaration as evidence that trust must be rebuilt in the church—starting with the Assembly. Radcliffe explained:

“Will we dare to trust each other, despite some failures? This Synod depends on it.

“Just one example: it is no secret that Fiducia Supplicans provoked distress and anger among many bishops around the world. Some members of this Synod felt betrayed. But the Church will only become a trustworthy community if we take the risk, like the Lord, of trusting each other, even though we have been hurt. The Lord entrusts himself into our hands again and again, at every Eucharist, even though we betray him again and again. The sexual abuse crisis has taught us painfully that this cannot be an irresponsible trust which puts others at risk, especially minors. But a trust that embraces our own risk of getting hurt.”

Other delegates, however, who want these controversial issues discussed at the Assembly. In an interview with Kirche+Leben, Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck of Essen, a German delegate, lamented that the Assembly’s agenda seemed to set aside issues that the Catholic faithful named as pressing during consultative stages. He explained that a path forward for the church must both be honest about tough issues and allow regional developments, even if the church universal is not prepared to step forward:

“Synodality is not just an abstract way of being together on the path, but also generates dissent and thus addresses the tension and interrelationship between the unity of the universal church and the particularity of the local church. The results of the study groups are now to be presented at the beginning of the World Synod. However, I believe that there is an immense need not only for information, but also for discussion. . .

“Evangelization and mission affect all areas of life. Therefore, the strange exclusion of certain areas of life from the discussion is not right – even if one believes that these topics have been decided for eternity and are therefore no longer up for discussion. What is, is.”

Overbeck also rejected the idea that questions of sexuality and gender were simply concerns of Westerners. German Catholics have been at the forefront of LGBTQ+ advocacy in the church, particularly through the national Synodal Way process that conclude last year. The bishop stated:

“[W]e have raised questions that are just as pressing in the global church, but may be in other cultural contexts in which the church is not so closely interwoven with the state and society. It took us a long time in Germany to open up these issues and discuss them openly – and there are many local churches that still need this time. I am not a prophet, but it seems very certain to me that we will experience a lot more in this regard in the global church. . .

“[T]hese issues are pressing in all postmodern societies – on the one hand because of the role of women, on the other because of the role and differences between the sexes and questions about sexuality. These are and will remain issues of life that we cannot argue away or not deal with just because these issues are not as pressing in other countries.”

Asked whether the delegates might override Synod leaders’ desire to limit conversations about issues deemed too controversial, Overbeck said, “That could be the case” and would be a different form of synodality than just discussion if the Assembly, and not just Pope Francis, helped set the agenda.

As for ideas of “niche issues” and “fashionable reforms,” it seems an emerging positive path for LGBTQ+ advocates and other church reformers may not be universal declarations by the Assembly, but allowing local churches who are ready to make progress do so, even if not every local church will do so. Fr. Radcliffe framed the problem and possibility well in another of his retreat reflections, offering this:

“When I came to the Synod last year, I thought the great challenge was to overcome the poisonous opposition between traditionalists and progressives. How can we heal that polarisation that is so alien to Catholicism?  But as I listened, there seemed to be an even more fundamental challenge: How can the Church embrace all of the diverse cultures of our world? How can we haul in the net with its fish from every culture of the world? How can the net not be broken?”

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—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, October 5, 2024