Permanent Synodal Church — A Progressive Jesuit Cardinal’s ‘Dream’ Come True

National Catholic Register ^ | May 21, 2021 | Edward Pentin

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Permanent Synodal Church — A Progressive Jesuit Cardinal’s ‘Dream’ Come True

Today’s announcement of a two-year process for the upcoming synod on synodality appears to reflect the ideas of Jesuit Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, who viewed synodality as a vehicle for questioning Church teaching.

Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini of Milan visits St. Peter's Basilica on April 12, 2005.

The Vatican’s announcement today that Pope Francis has changed his plans for the next Synod of Bishops and made it into a multiphase process over two years comes closer to fulfilling a “dream” of the late progressive Jesuit Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini. 

The former cardinal-archbishop of Milan, a favorite of those pushing for heterodox reforms in the Church, had envisioned a permanent synodal Church in which the idea of collegial governance introduced at the Second Vatican Council could be better realized. 

The Jesuit biblical scholar, who died in 2012, “had a dream” in 1999 of a Church capable of being in a permanent synodal state, with a “collegial and authoritative exchange among all the bishops on some key issues.” 

For Cardinal Martini, those key issues comprised “the shortage of ordained ministers, the role of woman in society and in the Church, the discipline of marriage, the Catholic vision of sexuality, penitential practice, relations with the sister Churches of Orthodoxy and more in general the need to revive ecumenical hopes, the relationship between democracy and values and between civil laws and the moral law.”

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Ping

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from the Vatican statement of today:

“The Synod of Bishops is the dynamic point of convergence that calls for mutual listening to the Holy Spirit at every level of the Church’s life (cf.Address of His Holiness, Pope Francis, Ceremony Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the institution of the Synod of Bishops, 17 October 2015).The articulation of the different phases of the synodal process will help to make possible a true listening to the People of God to ensure the participation of all in the synodal process. It is not just an event, but also a PROCESS that involves in SYNERGY the People of God, the College of Bishops and the Bishop of Rome, each according to their proper function.”