Cardinal’s Absence from Dialogue Meeting Frustrates Synod Delegates

ROME—As the Synod assembly’s final week begins, an important church leader’s absence at a critical meeting  reportedly caused great disturbance among Synod delegates, and raised the question about whether this meeting will be successful in finding ways to address issues of gender and sexuality.

Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, did not attend a dialogue session which had been specifically arranged because Synod delegates felt that a lack of transparency was hampering their work.

When the Synod’s working document was made public this summer, it appeared that a number of the most controversial issues that surfaced last year—issues primarily about sexuality and gender—were bracketed off from the October assembly’s agenda and had been relegated to various study groups announced the preceding March. The study groups would not offer reports until mid-2025. So, as we’ve reported here before, inclusion for LGBTQ+ people or women’s ordination are not part of the Synod’s agenda.

On the Synod assembly’s first day, coordinators of the study groups gave brief reports, and the delegates were so unsatisfied by the lack of information that they voted to dedicate an otherwise free afternoon on October 18th for meetings with these study groups. Top among delegates’ concerns was Study Group 5 on ordained ministry, which was intended to include research into the possibility of ordaining women to the diaconate. Unlike the other study groups, its members have not been made public, and the issue of ordaining women was oddly reserved to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. Fernandez used his report at that first meeting to essentially shut down the possibility of women deacons.

According to the National Catholic Reporter, “approximately one-third of the synodal assembly, including multiple high-ranking cardinals and Vatican officials” were in attendance at the October 18th session. NCR reported that, “One delegate, who requested anonymity, citing the synod’s communication guidelines, described [Fernandez’s] absence as a ‘disgrace.’ Another called the meeting a ‘disaster’ for the synod.”

America reported similar dissatisfaction:

“Another of the participants who asked to remain anonymous told America there was ‘palpable outrage and frustration’ from the delegates in the room, adding that the meeting ‘left me deeply dismayed.’ . . .

“In their questions and comments, delegates expressed what one source called their ‘intense frustration’ that neither Cardinal Fernandez nor any members of the study group had come to the meeting and that their questions were not being answered . . . “

Fernandez issued a message apologizing for his absence and offering to meet with delegates on October 24th.

While this incident is not about LGBTQ+ issues, it is highly relevant for advocates of inclusion. Fernandez’ absence makes it appear that some church leaders do not want to engage synodally.

Last week, before the weekend’s Study Group 5 controversy, I posed a question at the daily Vatican press briefing about lack of response from church leaders to issues raised by the faithful. I asked Australian theologian Fr. Ormond Rush the following:

“You mentioned ‘new questions require new answers,’ that maybe old theologies don’t meet what our world needs today. In the preceding three years, a lot of Catholics raised up new questions that were burning for them, often these were difficulties around identities, gender, sexuality, relationships. It doesn’t seem the assemblies last year and this year will be offering many new answers to those questions. What would you say to the faithful who raised these questions in the preceding stages and are being met with what they perceive as a very limited response. And what would you say if they begin to question the project of synodality itself because of that?”

Fr. Rush responded that this was a “very good question” because “certainly there is pushback on the very notion of synodality, and perhaps because of this.” He continued:

“Last year’s session of the Synod and this year’s session saw people speaking up about this issue but also there were others within the Synod who were uncomfortable about this. Probably even over two sessions of Synod there won’t be a consensus of the whole church. An issue within this is the matter of culture, where particular cultures have issues with regards to, for example, the role of women and particularly these issues of LGBTQI+ and so on.

“So, it’s a question that won’t go away. Whether there will be an answer given at the end of this session to the satisfaction of those people you were speaking about is something—we’ve still got two weeks, so who knows what will come. But it’s a question that won’t go away.”

And that, perhaps, is what is shaping up to be the Synod assembly’s biggest hurdle in its final week and the hurdle for synodality going forward. The questions that Catholics have raised about gender, sexuality, relationships, and so many other topics, not only for the three years of this synodal process, but for decades, are not going away. These questions will keep arising until they are forthrightly and adequately addressed.

Synodality is an incredible tool but only if church leaders let the Holy Spirit lead in a transparent, participatory, accountable, and honest process.  If church leaders do not respond, or even show up to meet with Catholics, the faithful must persist in speaking out and continue to find new ways to share that their faith inspires them to be inclusive, affirming, and just.

—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, October 21, 2024