Synod Briefing – Day 15: Presentation of the final document

By Tiziana Campisi and Roberto Paglialonga

The draft Final Document was distributed today, October 21, to all participants in the Synod.

Speaking at the daily press briefing at the Vatican Press Office, Dr. Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication and President of the Synodal Commission for Information, said: “We have reached a crucial moment.”

Moments of prayer and synodal initiatives

Dr. Ruffini expressed the joy felt by the members of the Synod after the previous day’s papal mass in St. Peter’s Square, during which 14 new saints were canonized.

This significant event took place on World Mission Day, at the heart of the synodal journey.

Ruffini also mentioned a prayer session held yesterday afternoon, which brought together digital missionaries online, as part of the Church’s “Listening” initiative, highlighted in the Work instrument.

On Friday, he said, at 5 p.m., at the San Calisto Palace, the “Synod of Sport”, organized by Athletica Vaticana and the Dicastery for Culture and Education, will take place. Many Synod participants have registered for the event, which will include discussions with athletes – refugees, Paralympians and Olympians – on the themes of peace and mutual service.

Presentation of the draft final document

Sheila Pires, secretary of the Commission for Information, summarized today’s work, emphasizing that “we are now in the last week of the Synod on Synodality.”

The day began with a mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, during which Cardinal Mario Grech emphasized in his homily that the Synod must be seen as a new beginning, aimed at announcing the Word of God to all.

Then, the General Congregation, attended by 351 members, opened with a meditation by Father Timothy Radcliffe on the themes of freedom and responsibility.

Then, the draft Final Document was presented by Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich.

Described as an “interim text”, it was emphasized that it required confidentiality, not because of a lack of transparency but to maintain a positive atmosphere of discussion.

Each participant received a copy of the project, the result of collaborative work.

The project, it was reiterated, “is not only the product of discussions within the assembly but is based on a rich process and integrates all the work carried out over the years during the different phases of the synodal path”.

Pires also noted that “the special rapporteurs and experts worked hard to listen carefully to what was being said and reviewed the reports from the small groups.” The theologians’ contributions were “significant both to the document and to the forums.”

Afternoon of discussions in small groups

“This afternoon,” Pires said, “participants will gather in small groups for a true exchange of gifts, as Cardinal Grech said, to “share challenges, dreams, inner dynamics and news motivations that emerged from reading the text”. It is a new way of living a retirement, perhaps unfamiliar.

So, Monday would be dedicated to prayer, meditation and sharing the draft of the final document.

Pires added that the morning session ended with a prayer for Jesuit priest Marcelo Pérez, who was assassinated yesterday in Chiapas, Mexico, shortly after celebrating mass in his parish in Cuxtitali, a neighborhood in San Cristóbal de Las Casas .

Cardinal Zuppi: dialogue “fundamental for the Church itself”

During the information meeting, the speakers were Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Father Timothy Peter Joseph Radcliffe, spiritual advisor of the Synod (who will be elevated to the rank of cardinal on December 7), Sister Nathalie Becquart , undersecretary of the General Secretariat. of the Synod, and Mgr Manuel Nin Güell, apostolic exarch of the Catholics of the Byzantine rite in Greece.

Cardinal Zuppi reflected on the experience of dialogue throughout the synod, describing it as “not instrumental, but foundational of the Church itself.”

He pointed to the tables where participants sit to talk, listen to and meet each other in a process that, he stressed, is always spiritual.

Father Radcliffe: Final document will contain “Kingdom images”

Father Radcliffe reflected on the path of renewal that the Church is currently undertaking, a path that will emerge in the final document.

He stressed that the document should not be seen as a place for decisions or headline-grabbing statements.

Faced with the disintegration of society, war and the difficult times the world is going through, the Church has a particular vocation: to be a sign of Christ, a sign of peace and to remain in communion with Christ.

Through this Synod, Father Radcliffe said, a new way of imagining the Church is emerging, and the final document will present images to show it, just as Jesus used parables to announce the Kingdom.

Sr Becquart: Synodality and ecumenism

Sister Nathalie Becquart, undersecretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod, shared her views on the fraternal atmosphere that reigned among the ecumenical delegates.

She is involved in the Synodal Commission for Ecumenism. The Synod gives us a new image of the Church, she said, referring to the image of the Pope sitting among the participants, listening, and also to the image of the ecumenical prayer service, where participants prayed together, remembering the martyrdom of Saint Peter. .

This, she said, opens a new phase for ecumenical relations and Christian unity, because this Synod introduces a new way of understanding the exercise of papal primacy and the collegiality of bishops and all the People of God.

Eastern Catholics in Greece

The Synod offers an opportunity for deeper understanding, said Archbishop Manuel Nin Güell, apostolic exarch of Byzantine-rite Catholics in Greece, who leads a small community founded about a century ago.

This community was formed when many Greek refugees arrived in Athens following the Greco-Turkish War. The Exarchate includes two parishes: one is the Cathedral of Athens and the other is located about 500 kilometers to the north, near Thessaloniki, in Yannitsa.

There are seven priests: two Greeks, a Slovak and a Chaldean.

The three communities of the Exarchate include Greek Catholics, Ukrainian Catholics who arrived about 28 years ago after the fall of communism in Ukraine (and more recently, because of the war), and Chaldean Catholics, who are Iraqi Christians of Eastern Syrian tradition.

The Exarchate also runs a Caritas organization which works with Orthodox Christians and Muslims, and has a foundation for autistic people.

Bishop Nin stressed that the Exarchate in Greece is a sui iuris Church in the Catholic tradition. Not everyone is aware of this, and the Synod provided an opportunity to become familiar with the role of the Eastern Catholic Churches, which share the same liturgies, theology, spirituality and canonical disciplines as their Orthodox sister Churches.

The precision of Cardinal Fernández

On October 21, 2024, Cardinal Fernández, Prefect of the Doctrine of the Faith, emphasized during the general congregation of the Synod that the Pope believes that the question of women deacons is not yet ready to be addressed.

However, the discussion on the role of women in the Church was the focus of the closing session of the information session.

Father Radcliffe urged people not to focus only on ordination, but to also consider the higher positions that women have held throughout history as Doctors of the Church. If we reduce everything to ordination, he said, we risk falling into a very clerical mentality.

Sister Becquart reinforced this point by emphasizing that women already occupy high-level positions in the Church, such as presidents of Catholic universities, leaders of organizations like Caritas or section heads within episcopal conferences.

She explained that there are many ways to promote women’s leadership and that many bishops now appoint women as diocesan general delegates, giving them a role in governance.

Sister Becquart adds that social and cultural obstacles remain because the Church is part of society. For example, she said, when speaking to Anglican bishops, it is often clear that a man’s contributions within the Church carry more weight than those of a woman, even when women were ordained.

A real conversion of mentalities is therefore necessary, and this will take time. We inherit mentalities not only from the Church but also from the society in which we live, Becquart noted.