Much Ado About…Study Groups?

ROME—This year’s General Assembly of the Synod has been fairly muted relative to previous Vatican gatherings under Pope Francis. Fewer journalists attend the daily press briefings, perhaps because so little real information is dispensed. Fewer church reformers are present, perhaps because hopes for any change are diminished. And fewer, if any, controversies have erupted so far, perhaps because Synod leaders are working hard to keep the toughest questions—like LGBTQ+ inclusion and women’s ordination—off the (round)tables.

One possible trouble spot emerging is the question of the study groups Pope Francis established last March. At the time, the proposal was that these groups would take up issues raised at 2023’s assembly, study them, and then issue reports—in mid-2025. Synod participants were promised updates this October on the work of the groups, and on the very first afternoon, each study group did indeed provide video and written reports.

Those reports, most of which were just a page or two, were seemingly insufficient for the Synod assembly’s members. Last Friday, the delegates voted to use one of their rare free afternoons for dialogues with the study groups. These meetings will take place on October 18th. At Monday’s press briefing, Sr. Mary Barron, OLA, president of the International Union of Superiors General, which represents the leadership of the world’s women religious, explained that delegates believed the reports were “very short” and desired to know “what is actually happening.” Specifically, Barron said there is a desire to “know more about who’s involved” and for Synod members to be directly participating in the study groups.

Topics for the study groups include the role of papal representatives, the church in the digital world, relations between Latin Rite and Eastern churches, Canon Law, and a commission on polygamy.

For LGBTQ+ advocates, the focus is on Study Group 9, which is entitled”Synodal theological and methodological criteria for shared discernment of controversial doctrinal, pastoral and ethical issues (SR 15).” This bulky title is seen by many as a catch-all for the most controversial issues, including gender and sexuality. To give readers a sense of why Synod delegates may want more information, here is some of what Study Group 9 included in its three-page report (emphases in the original):

—The group reported its first task was to “adopt a methodology. . to coherently formulate the specific issues that will need to be examined.” Under the heading “Crisis as a kairós,” the Study Group wants to” courageously and radically take up the challenge/opportunity currently facing the Church’s mission today: conversion of thought and reform of practices in contextual fidelity to the Gospel of Jesus.”

—Under the heading, “The need for a new paradigm. . .as ancient as the Gospel,” the Study Group report states, in part:

“It is not a matter of proclaiming and applying abstract doctrinal principles, but of vitally inhabiting the experience of faith in its personal and social relevance so that we will be open to the ever new promptings of the Holy Spirit; this in turn enables us to come to affirmations of the truth that are shared in the communion of the one and catholic Church, as consistent with the Gospel and in keeping with reality. Only a vital, fruitful, and reciprocal tension between doctrine and practice embodies the living Tradition and is able to counteract the temptation to rely on the barren scleroticism of verbal pronouncements.”

—Under the heading, “The question of ‘how?’, the Study Group names as the “decisive question” for today’s controversial issues as:

“How can and should we articulate the two foci of the ellipse that delineates the Christian experience: the focus of the eschatological end (the universal salvific will of God in Jesus, through the ministry of the Church, at the service of the coming of the Kingdom) and the focus of the concrete, varied, complex and challenging condition of the reality in which we live (the historical mediation of the Gospel, with its specific instruments for cultural production and the creation of resistance)? How do we do this in fidelity to the Revelation of God who is Agápe (cf. 1 Jn 4:8. 16) and in fidelity to the concrete journey of the community and of individuals?”

Study Group 9 then lays out what its process will be at three levels: theological, synodal discernment practices, and “controversial ethical questions.” On issues deemed controversial, the Study Group promises “some concrete guidelines for discernment – to be carried out locally and with attention to specific contexts” for two areas. One focus is on peace in a violent world. The second is:

“On the personal and family level, we will offer some guidelines regarding the meaning of sexuality, marriage, the generation of children, and the promotion and care of life.”

Last year, the question of LGBTQ+ inclusion was likely the most contentious one in the Synod Hall—and opponents to including the term “LGBTQ” in the Assembly’s final report reportedly threatened to sink the entire document over it. This year, the only place LGBTQ+ issues officially show up is in the one line above, listed among other issues, in a brief study group report.

At the press briefing, Sr. Barron also noted that Fr. Timothy Radcliffe challenged delegates to ask, “Who are we not listening to?” Barron then commented, “We promised that synodality be a way to be a listening church,” so the delegates needed to listen more attentively to people still marginalized in this synodal process. Yet, as was the case last year, there are no openly LGBTQ+ people in the Synod Assembly. Is this omission being repeated in Study Group 9? Are its members studying “controversial ethical questions” without including those most affected in their deliberations?

Reviewing just this one report from Study Group 9, read in the context of the Synod on Synodality’s four-year, multi-stage process, clarifies why delegates might be asking, as Sr. Barron put it, “what is actually happening” and “who’s involved.” Those are the right questions—and perhaps they are the right opening to move the Assembly from talking at 30,000 feet about abstractions to seeking real movement for the many Catholics wounded by the church and desiring reform.

—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, October 8, 2024