Input of Laity Critical for Synod

Fom Mervyn Pollitt, Waterfall, KZN

The December 24 issue of The Southern Cross contains an article headed “Bishops get questionnaire for 2015 family synod”. Together with a copy of the final report of the family synod held in October 2014, the world’s Catholic bishops have received a questionnaire of 46 questions “on a range of topics, including matters of marriage and sexuality, that proved especially controversial at the synod”.

Midway through the 2014 synod, an interim report was issued that seemed to indicate a new tone calling for mercy, understanding, respect, and a new spirit of listening by the Church in matters such as homosexuality, divorced and remarried Catholics, and matters relating to contemporary society.

The final report seems to backtrack on the interim document.

Archbishop Bruno Forte, who acted as special secretary to the 2014 synod, said publically that the final report of the synod would be circulated worldwide to enable the “faithful in their local churches” to make their views heard.

The article in The Southern Cross states that bishops’ conferences are being asked to consult with “academic institutions, organisations, lay movements and other ecclesial associations”. This seems to be at odds with what Archbishop Forte said as quoted above.

I pose the question: What about the views of the ordinary devout Catholic in the pew?

I ask the bishops of South Africa to circulate the report and questionnaire to every parish to enable the widest range of views possible to be gauged of the ordinary lay person.

Let us not have a repetition of the questionnaire of late 2013 where only a narrow group of lay Catholics was consulted. The excuse was that there was not enough time to consult more widely.

In his address to the Vatican curia of December 22, Pope Francis made some highly critical comments on the “ailments” of the curia. These were unprecedented and have a lesson for the Church hierarchy worldwide that the pope is determined to change the outlook of the Church from that of strict doctrine to one of “the House of the Father, with doors wide open”.

In achieving this, the laity must be listened to.