Critics of Catholicism rarely stray too far from a few old chestnuts. The claim that the Catholic Church never changes, that it is the same monolithic corrupt organization that it always was, incapable of any modernisation, is one of the most pervasive. It is helped, of course, by the fact that Catholics take pride precisely in the fact that the Church is not meant to have changed. It is a single pure tradition going back to Jesus Christ himself. Yet change does happen in the Church, and some of it is very radical indeed. This week there is an extraordinary synod taking place in Rome and it has the potential to be one of those rare moments of radical change.
Before the excitement levels get too high it is worth noting that this change is not what many in the West might hope it to be. There will be no volte face on basic principles like the indissolubility of marriage, resistance to artificial birth control, opposition to same-sex marriage, co-habitation or even, probably, at least for now, the giving of communion to the remarried or divorced. For many, that will be a terrible disappointment. Francis will be a failure, or at least, a great man handcuffed by opposition in the Curia and among his conservative bishops.
None of that is quite the case, however, and before throwing up hands in despair at the lack of change some consideration should be made for just how radical current events might prove. Extraordinary synods were an innovation of Vatican 2 designed to increase a sense of collegiality and decision making by bishops rather than simply being dictated to by the Vatican. That, at least, was the vision. In practice there have only been 2 prior synods of this sort, in 1969 and 1985.
Simply be virtue of its rarity, therefore the synod is worthy of some attention. That such a rare event has been devoted exclusively to questions of the family is significant too. The focus is on taking the Church back to its believers, back to the key constituent unit of society (the family) and focusing on how the Church responds to that. There will not be major changes in doctrine, but we are seeing a re-positioning of how the Church thinks, acts and decides. The focus will be on mercy and support and, crucially this is going to be done with an increased focus on bishops reflecting on the experience of their own setting, rather than a single view taken from Rome.
A more usual way of confronting the issue of the family might be for Francis to have written an encyclical – a statement from his own pen laying out the exact policy of the Church to be followed by each of the dioceses worldwide. By instead opting to bring together the bishops who represent the different national conferences of the Church and encouraging a candid debate, Francis is reviving the hopes of Vatican 2 for a more locally responsive, decentralized Church with a stronger and more appreciated college of bishops.
Small gestures reveal this mind-set further. The Synod is not, as is the norm with such events, being held in Latin, but in Italian. A small gesture, but one which resonates with a desire for a more candid and less Roman-centric debate. Another interesting gesture was the decision to distribute a questionnaire to the different bishops’ conferences and the laity before the synod. The questionnaire itself was dreadful, a real guide in how not to ask questions, and the results have not been released, which is a shame. However, the desire to ground the discussion at least in part on what the faithful are saying is almost unprecedented and again links into a desire to encounter a more local and grounded response to family issues. Few will have shocked an assembled body of bishops more than an Australian couple extolling the virtues of their sex life in a happy marriage – yet their invitation to do so suggests a willingness to embrace some of these more “real life” scenarios.
If, as seems plausible, this is Francis’s vision for the future of the Church that would be a radical move indeed. The power of the Curia would be greatly reduced and the hope for a Church that is more responsive and alive to the issues on its local doorsteps might move a little closer to reality. That would be an extraordinary legacy indeed and a most unusual change in the history of a Church which, like all big institutions, has often struggled to divest power from its centre.
Ben Ryan is a researcher at Theos
Image by David Gibson from flickr.com under the Creative Commons Licence
