• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Cardinal-designate Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla of Juba, South Sudan, talks with a reporter at the Vatican press office Sept. 29, 2023. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

New cardinals have great hopes for synod on synodality

September 30, 2023
By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Feature, News, Synodality, Vatican, World News

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Many of the prelates Pope Francis will make cardinals Sept. 30 will be taking part in the synod on synodality or have been very active in its preparatory phases as leaders of their dioceses.

Cardinals-designate Ángel Sixto Rossi of Córdoba, Argentina, and Stephen Ameyu Mulla, 59, of Juba, South Sudan, will be attending the Oct. 4-29 assembly in Rome.

As a Jesuit and expert in spiritual discernment, which is a core characteristic of the synod on synodality, Cardinal-designate Rossi, 65, commented on opposition to the synod.

“It’s simply a pharisaical view of suspicion, which is very sad,” he told Catholic News Service Sept. 28.

Cardinal-designate José Cobo Cano of Madrid, Spain, poses for a photo while meeting reporters at the Vatican. Sept. 29, 2023. (CNS photo/Carol Lola Gomez)

“Ordinary (people) have hope for it and they value it, the others fear it or criticize it, even without knowing what is going to happen,” he said.

Also, he said, “There is a very sad view, a fundamentalist position, almost directed at the figure of the pope, to which the pope, by living the Gospel unwaveringly, is always against. Each time men and women seriously live out the Gospel they are signs of contradiction and the pope is one of them.”

Cardinal-designate Mulla, 59, told reporters Sept. 29 he had great hopes for the synod.

“In a very simple way,” he said, synodality “is a way of participating, it is a way of communion, it is a way of mission together.”

“We should hope that this synod will bring a lot of things that can help us understand our faith in the modern time,” he said, and possibly offer solutions to “the many problems, the many challenges” facing the local and universal church.

Italian Cardinal-designate Pierbattista Pizzaballa, 58, patriarch of Jerusalem, had encouraged all priests and local communities of the patriarchate to be active in the synodal process.

When asked what he hoped would come from the first assembly, which begins Oct. 4, he told CNS Sept. 28 that he did not expect the synod to be giving “precise and specific answers to problems,” but rather “some criteria for interpretation that may help us then to face problems, our problems each in our own situation.”

Cardinal-designate Américo Manuel Alves Aguiar, 49, of Setúbal, Portugal, told reporters Sept. 29 that the synod should be “a place where everyone should feel free to speak their mind freely, to what the Holy Spirit does with their heart, listen with respect, listen with interest and then the Holy Spirit makes the decisions.”

“That’s the synodal journey we want to make, that’s the synodal way we want to live,” he said.

He expanded on what Pope Francis had said at World Youth Day in Lisbon and on the plane back to Rome, about there being room in the church for everyone, “todos, todos, todos.”

“‘Everyone, everyone, everyone,’ is not the same as ‘everything, everything, everything,'” he said. “‘Todos, todos, todos,’ are people. Each person. Each person must be the reason for our concern, the center of our work, our affection, our tenderness, and this is what the synod wants to do, wants to deepen, wants to signify.”

Cardinal-designate José Cobo Cano, 58, of Madrid, Spain, told CNS Sept. 29 that the synodal way “is not a methodology of a congress, but a methodology of the journey of the people of God.”

The synod on synodality, he said, will be looking at how this way of journeying can be “kept in the church and be transferred to the life of the church in a more effective way.”

The process requires openness, listening and dialogue, he said, “like crossing a bridge together.”

“If I go with a road map or if I am going to try to convince others of my plans, this would be a parliament. The synod is not a parliament and I would not want it to start like that,” he added.

Cardinal-designate Cobo said, “There are going to be issues that may not be important for the media, but for the life of the church, for the life of the parishes, for the life of Christians, Christian families, they are going to say that this is the issue we needed. I believe that this will be the success of the synod, that it will respond to the thirst that the church has right now.”

Contributing to this story was Justin McLellan at the Vatican.

Read More Synodality

Synod office provides guidelines to help local churches, bishops implement synodality

With pope’s support, Vatican to publish document on synod’s final phase

Synods and synodality: Pope Francis’ method, vision for church

Pope approves next phase of synod, setting path to 2028 assembly

Ahead of U.S. Franciscans’ synod, friars say ‘communal discernment’ long-held tradition for order

India’s Syro-Malabar Catholic Church begins synod amid liturgy row

Copyright © 2023 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Carol Glatz

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Prince of Peace merges with St. Francis de Sales in Harford County

  • Construction underway on new north addition to St. Joseph’s Nursing Home 

  • Archbishop Wenski leads Knights on Bikes to pray rosary at Alligator Alcatraz

  • Archdiocese of Baltimore offers resources for parishes to assist migrants

  • Radio Interview: Youth ministry changing with the times

| Latest Local News |

Archdiocese of Baltimore offers resources for parishes to assist migrants

Third annual gun buyback scheduled for Aug. 9

Driver arrested after crashing into entrance of Esperanza Center

Construction underway on new north addition to St. Joseph’s Nursing Home 

Prince of Peace merges with St. Francis de Sales in Harford County

| Latest World News |

Poland’s ‘living memorial’ to St. John Paul II marks 25 years of transforming lives

Catholic ‘American Ninja Warrior’ fights world hunger, one obstacle at a time

Parishes need to launch ‘revolution of care’ for the elderly, pope says

Broglio: Church teaching obligates the faithful to support pastoral care of migrants

Ireland’s abortion rates rise 62 percent over 5 years; Catholic advocates call it ‘a tragedy’

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Poland’s ‘living memorial’ to St. John Paul II marks 25 years of transforming lives
  • Our faith is not afraid of questions
  • Catholic ‘American Ninja Warrior’ fights world hunger, one obstacle at a time
  • Parishes need to launch ‘revolution of care’ for the elderly, pope says
  • Broglio: Church teaching obligates the faithful to support pastoral care of migrants
  • Archdiocese of Baltimore offers resources for parishes to assist migrants
  • Third annual gun buyback scheduled for Aug. 9
  • Ireland’s abortion rates rise 62 percent over 5 years; Catholic advocates call it ‘a tragedy’
  • Miami archbishop presses for pastoral visitation at Alligator Alcatraz

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en