The Synod, Church reform groups, and the next pope

What if the group now meeting in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall for the Synod assembly on the future of the Church were to elect the next pope? Sounds far-fetched, doesn't it? 

But in a synodal Church – which Pope Francis says is “precisely” what God expects the Church to be in the third millennium – the present model of electing the Bishop of Rome makes no sense whatsoever. In fact, it is arcane and anachronistic, like so many of the Catholic Church’s decision-making structures and procedures.

The conclave system that selects the Roman Pontiff is an exclusive (and exclusionary) institution of cardinals who are under the age of 80 – an all-male, clerical and hierarchical group, for sure. And it is also miniscule, numbering just a hundred or so men in a Church that supposedly has 1.2 billion baptized members, half (or more) of whom are women. In the days before the members of this elite voting body are locked inside the Sistine Chapel to choose the Successor of Peter they actually do allow some others to join them in pre-conclave discussions. But these, too, are all male hierarchs – cardinals who are now too old to cast a ballot.

What if the Church were to ditch the cardinals-only conclave and find a more “synodal” manner of electing the Bishop of Rome? It’s not as absurd as one might think. The Church’s cardinals are of human, not divine origins. They did not even exist until the mid-11^th century. And conclaves never became the means for electing the pope until the late 13^th century. That’s not even close to half the entire history of the Christian Church.

What about the women? 

But the current Synod assembly would not be the best option for replacing the conclave. Neither does it reflect a truly synodal Church. It remains, to this day, a gathering of the Synod of Bishops. Perhaps, officially keeping it an episcopal body is a way of foiling the criticism that lay people – especially women – are still woefully underrepresented in terms of the proportions of those who actually make up the 1.2 billion members of the Church. Indeed, many have praised the pope for the simple fact that he’s even allowed lay people – 54 of them women – to be among the 365 full voting members in the Synod of Bishops’ assembly. That is still only 45 out of 365, the rest of whom are all men. They are still overwhelmingly bishops and 65 of them are cardinals.

So, yes, it’s more than a bit lopsided, and it is reflective of the marginalization of women in the Church’s decision-making and ministerial structures – in fact, their complete exclusion at the highest levels. This is something Church reform movements are right to criticize and demand to be changed. A number of these groups have come to Rome to hold lectures, liturgies and discussions while the pope holds his Synod assembly in the Vatican.

Unequal disciples

The biggest event was a “lay-led synodal assembly” that physically took place this past week in Rome and Bristol (England), including the “live” online participation of people from all over the world. Spirit Unbounded, a global network that “actively embraces diversity and actively works to include groups marginalized by the hierarchical Church”, sponsored the events. Among the top speakers were Joan Chittister, a theologian and former head of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie (Pennsylvania), and Mary McAleese, a Gregorian University-educated canon lawyer and former president of Ireland. Both insisted that the Church’s current crisis is one of discipleship – or, rather, the manifest inequality between male and female disciples.

Chittister said there is no place for patriarchal clericalism in the Christian community of true discipleship. And while she never explicitly mentioned Pope Francis’ insistence that the Church give priority to serving the poor, she pointed out that “most of the world’s poor are women” – refugees, people lacking education, people who are cut out of decision-making. “Even in the Church!” she said. “The discipleship of women is the question that’s not going away,” she added.

The lecture McAleese gave was titled, “Being denied the discipleship of equals”. She spoke about human rights in the Church. In this key passage, she highlighted why the Church reform movements decided to come to Rome and hold their parallel synodal assembly:

We are here to keep the ongoing process honest and faithful to the powerful spiritual and theological discernment “affirmed from under” by the People of God. We are here to assert that there is a widespread desire evident in the diocesan and national synodal reports, for a Church which is a discipleship of equals. We are here to highlight the absence from the Working Document for this Synod of Bishops of an acknowledgment that as Christians we are a discipleship of equals and entitled to respect for our human rights in the Church’s internal sphere. The gravitational pull of resistance to change is strong but we are here because we believe change is possible and essential. We are here to encourage the Synod of Bishops to capture the spiritual zeitgeist and reorient the Church towards its Christian mission of a discipleship of equals which may yet write a history that ends in love.

One man decides, always and everywhere

One can use all the so-called theological reasoning and historical arguments one desires, but it remains a fact that women are not treated as equals in the Church. This is especially true when one considers that the first and most important sacrament – baptism – is shared by all and essential for receiving the other sacraments. Yet, there are sacraments (Holy Orders) that are denied to women. Joan Chittister, Mary McAleese, and others are right – there is no issue more important for the future of the Church than that of the role of women.

But to really get this right in the context of forging a synodal Church will require fundamental changes to the Church’s basic governing structure, which is not synodal, but top-down and monarchical at every turn – the universal, the diocesan and parish levels. Despite the juridical existence of all sorts of consultative bodies – e.g. the Synod of Bishops, diocesan and priest councils, and parish councils – the heads of the these bodies (the pope, the bishop, the parish priest) are the ones who, in the end, make the final decision no matter what these “advisers” say.

The next pope

Finally, Pope Francis has given much hope to reform-minded Catholics who are generally optimistic that someone who shares his supposed vision for real Church reforms will be elected the next pope – a John XXIV, as he often says. They seem to base this on the fact that Francis, who will be 87 in December, has pretty much “stacked the deck” by creating more than 70% of the current cardinal-electors. The assumption is that all these cardinals are so-called “Francis bishops”. In fact, they are not.

There are a number who embody some of the worst traits of clericalism the Jesuit pope says he abhors. A number of others are classic “Churchmen” who cut their ecclesiastical teeth in the Holy See’s diplomatic service or the Roman Curia. Most of the men in these groups, even if they are sympathetic to the current pope’s vision of Church, are not as enthusiastic about the often haphazard and unconventional ways has tried to advance that vision. They, and it would appear many others in the elite red-hatted cohort of electors, are likely to look for Francis’ successor among those candidates who, while backing Church reform and renewal, have a more coherent institutional sense of the papacy. A Gregory XVII, perhaps?

And because the Argentine pope’s governing strategy of shaking things up has become even more unpredictable and disturbing to some of them in the past several months of his pontificate, they will probably want a successor who will not reign for too long. That means they’ll likely look for the least worst option among those who would appear to have less than ten or eleven more years to live. Unless, of course, Francis steps down and papal resignations are no longer seen as an every-700-years-or-so idiosyncrasy but something considered quite normal or even more or less normative. Then a younger candidate could emerge.

In any case, unless it is reformed or replaced by some other means of electing the Roman Pontiff, the conclave will remain oddly out of step with the synodal Church that Pope Francis says is God’s plan for the 21st century.