Catholic synod is relevant for other Christians, too, delegates say

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — While the Catholic Church’s Synod of Bishops is not exactly like a synod in other Christian communities, the issues being discussed and the way they are being handled are relevant to other Christian churches and to the search for Christian unity, synod participants said.

Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, and three of the “fraternal delegates” representing other Christian churches and communities spoke at a synod press briefing Oct. 10.

Synod members were scheduled to participate with Pope Francis in an ecumenical prayer vigil Oct. 11 in the Square of the Roman Protomartyrs, just south of St. Peter’s Basilica, which is the site where St. Peter was martyred.

At the first session of the synod on synodality in 2023, Pope Francis had invited delegates from 12 churches; Cardinal Koch said other churches asked to participate, so there are 16 fraternal delegates this year.

“We can say the synodal journey is ecumenical, and the ecumenical journey is synodal,” the cardinal said, because both strive to go beyond a discussion of ideas to “an exchange of gifts.”

“No church is so rich that it does not need to be enriched by the gifts of other churches,” he said, “and at the same time, no church is so poor that it has nothing to contribute to Christianity as a whole.”

Orthodox Metropolitan Job of Pisidia, co-president of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church and the representative to the synod from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, said the delegates felt welcomed and fully involved in the synod discussions.

The Catholic Church’s current synodal process is based on the Second Vatican Council’s emphasis on the equal dignity and shared responsibility of all the baptized, he said. And “baptism as the basis of the synodal path immediately brings to our attention the fact that there are also other baptized people outside the canonical limits of the Roman Catholic Church. There are baptized in other Christian churches, and Vatican II opened the doors and windows of the Roman Catholic Church to enter into dialogue with the other Christian churches.”

Anglican Bishop Martin Warner of Chichester, co-president of the English-Welsh Anglican-Roman Catholic Committee, said the synod and its focus on relationships in the Catholic Church made him think also of the relationships between the Catholic Church and other Christian communities.

Catholics and Anglicans, he said, are “a family which has a story to tell about a long history and a past,” but also one “where we can as a family begin to look at each other and recognize and respect our differences,” but also where want “to grow from each other’s experiences.”

The Rev. Anne-Cathy Graber, secretary for ecumenical relations of the Mennonite World Conference, told reporters, “In my opinion, the Catholic Church does not need the voice of the Mennonite tradition. It is such a minority voice; it is an ultra-minority.”

But, she said, inviting the Mennonites to send a delegate “says something about synodality,” and its insistence that every voice counts — “even an ultra-minority culture, even a very underrepresented country.”

Responding to questions, Metropolitan Job told reporters that the Roman Catholic Church is not the only church discussing “the restoration of the ministry of the deaconesses, which existed in the ancient church.”

At this point, though, he said, the Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria is the only one of the Orthodox Churches to have approved women deacons and it did so citing “the missionary needs in Africa,” he said.

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