dIn its current form, a synod of bishops is a consultative and deliberative assembly, in which the Pope has the final say. The initial objective of the last synod, whose second general assembly, also open to some lay people, concluded at the end of October, was to think about desirable changes in the Church, in the context of the revelations about the extent of child delinquency. . and abuses of all kinds committed by clerics.
Throughout the synodal process, the primary objective was lost sight of in favor of the means to be used to achieve it. The “synodal method,” considered an end in itself, became the main objective of this synod. Thus, this assembly did not address a series of important points and, in particular, that of the foundations of governance.
However, we can learn some lessons from both sessions.
Rejection of debate
First of all, when Catholics are given the word, they take it. The Synod gave the floor to the faithful who, for the most part, took it, within the framework of the extensive consultation organized before its preparation.
Thus, despite the inevitable dilutions and reformulations resulting from the syntheses carried out by the bishops of each country, and then of each continent, the demand for greater equality between men and women in ecclesial functions arose largely from this consultation in everyone.
But, during the general assemblies of the Synod, we witnessed an in-principle rejection of the debate. [le sujet du diaconat féminin a, entre autres, été exclu des discussions] as a method of creating consensus by the ecclesiastical institution. A rejection served by the notion of “conversation in the Holy Spirit” : it was about reducing the space for debate and constructive confrontation, perceived by the teaching profession of the Church as an attack on its conception of unity, inherited in its modalities from the Roman Empire, by the will of Constantine.
These elements are characteristic of the paradox that this synod had to resolve: can the Roman Catholic Church, a society organized in hierarchical orders, coexist today in a civil society whose basic principle, now secular, is the equality of people, with the consequent consequence ? social organization?
The Church and civil society operate according to two contradictory models. A society of orders, organized in two separate and hierarchical castes (clergy/lay), versus a society based on equal rights, without distinction of sexes, according to several characteristics:
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