Pope Francis Journey of Synodality
Sacred Heart University
Background on Tobin from Wikipedia
Ordained a priest in 1978, he returned to his childhood parish first as vicar, then pastor (1984- 1991). Also served in Archdiocesan administration during this period. What the Wikipedia article did not tell us that most of this was Hispanic ministry, which of course is why he can talk to Francis so easily.
On August 2, 2010, Tobin was appointed secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life and titular archbishop of Obba.
When Tobin arrived at CICLSAL, it was already conducting a visitation—a critical inspection of ministries and organization—of the 341 institutes of apostolic women religious in the United States. At the same time, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) was conducting a doctrinal assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), focused on its theological orthodoxy.
In December 2010, Tobin said that the Holy See needed to acknowledge the "depth of anger and hurt" among the nuns that was provoked by the CDF visitation, saying it illustrated the need for a "strategy of reconciliation" with women religious.The CDF issued its report on the LCWR in April 2012; Tobin was reportedly unhappy both with its content and with the failure of the CDF to consult him before releasing it.
On October 18, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Tobin as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, a Catholic community of 246,000. He was installed on December 3, 2012. His reassignment from the Curia had been rumored since Tobin expressed his unhappiness with the CDF's highly critical report on the LCWR in April 2012.
In June 2014, Tobin warned that ideological polarization of American political life "helps to contribute to the balkanization of American Catholics into so-called right wing and left wing, or progressive and traditionalist, factions, who point fingers at each other". Speaking at a meeting of the College Theology Society, he said that: "In my opinion, finger pointing does a great harm to religious life because it makes us defensive ... [and] we feel constantly compelled to defend ourselves against other parties in the church."
On October 9, 2016, Pope Francis announced that Tobin would be made a cardinal in a papal consistory to be held on November 19, 2016.
On November 7, 2016, Pope Francis named Tobin as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Newark, a city which has, like Indianapolis, never before been headed by a cardinal. He was installed there on January 6, 2017.
The Lecture
22:00- 29:00 What is synodality?
It is a journey. The listening preparation for the meeting is important, but also the reception of the chosen direction is essential. The circle needs to be completed. It is not a passing fad, nor a trojan horse to accomplish certain goals. The goal is stated very clearly in the Joy of the Gospel, to rethink and reform everything in order to bring the Gospel to the world.
29:00 -39:00 Pentecost as a model
The double miracle of Pentecost: the Church is both One and Catholic (i.e. diverse). People heard the same message in their own languages. They did not become homogenized. Inclusivity is a poor word for describing what happened. Christians of Jerusalem retained their ethic identities, resulting in the crisis between the Greek, and Hebrew/Aramaic speaking Christians over the distribution of goods. As Pope Francis has remarked the early church, with the help of the Holy Spirit, defused this conflict by inventing the deaconate!
39:00 - 44:00 Vatican II as model
At the urging of Cardinal Suenens Vatican II adopted the phrase People of God and put it first over the Hierarchy in its description of the Church. The Whole is more important than its parts; the ends are more important than the means. The Church is just as much an ad extra as an ad intra institution. Synodality as described by the documents that Francis has approved reinforces all these things.
44:00-50:59 Critique of the present process.
He basically agreed with the criticism by a priest from Chicago in America magazine: perfunctory approach to Holy Spirit, people speaking to the church, i.e. bishops and clergy, rather than from their personal experience as church, focus on internal issues rather than the world at large.
Tobin was out of the country for 21 years after 1991; did not watch Seinfel, etc. He has been amazed at the polarization that has taken place since then. He thinks going against polarization is the most counter-culture thing that one could currently do. Both the left and the right may attempt to coopt the synodal process.
Patience is a very important part of synodality. The gospel gives many parables which basically advocate patience, not a particularly strong suit of Americans. This is a strong contrast to many cultures around the world that he knows well from his order.
What could happen? both the married priesthood and woman deacons were approved by the Synod of the Amazon but not by Francis who saw the process as a parliamentary procedure in which one side outvoted the other rather than a genuine coming together.
He ended with the observation that all of Francis efforts (Joy of Gospel, Marriage, Environment, Human Fraternity, Synodality) have had a much stronger effect in countries around the world which practice synodality. He said that it is to the shame of the American bishops that they never discuss these issues. When he asks the bishops why, they say that these are all too polarizing. His response: we are already polarized, why not be polarized about something that is worthwhile?
"He basically agreed with the criticism by a priest from Chicago in America magazine: perfunctory approach to Holy Spirit, people speaking to the church, i.e. bishops and clergy, rather than from their personal experience as church, focus on internal issues rather than the world at large."
ReplyDeleteAre you hopeful that this might change and become more productive? Or do you think this will die with Pope Francis?
I am only seeing a Godforsaken corner of the Big Picture, but nobody in the local parish is aware that there is any larger movement toward synodality except for Raber, and he knows about it only because I told him.
Imo, the process has not received much coverage in the Catholic press (absolutely zip about it in our award-winning diocesan magazine).
Pope Francis's terminology always sounds like Vatican-ese buzzwords. "Synodality" and "accompaniment" sound like they're for clergy, not "regular" people.
Tobin said that the parts of the world which already have synodality, e.g. Latin American, Africa, and Asia are where Francis' message is taking root.
DeleteHere in the USA, that is among Hispanics. He said the Hispanics in his diocese were readily to go, and quickly organized because they had already done something similar in their Encuentro (meetings or get-together) programs.
https://www.usccb.org/offices/public-affairs/national-encuentro
Encuentro is a two-year process of missionary activity, consultation, leadership development and pastoral discernment in parishes, dioceses and episcopal regions that culminates with a national event. A primary outcome of the Encuentro process is to discern pastoral practices and priorities to impact the quality of ministry among Hispanic/Latino Catholics, under the leadership of the U.S. bishops.
The Hispanics in the USA will become increasing organized and in touch with the dominate Catholicism of the Third World, most likely under future Third World pontiffs that share Francis’s priorities.
The six percent of world Catholicism which is the US will then consist of a declining 3% White Catholicism out of touch with World Catholicism along with a increasing Hispanic Catholicism in touch with the rest of the world.
I don’t think all the rich Catholics in the USA will be able to buy off the rest of the world. The People of God are the Church.
Love that last paragraph, Jack. There's nothing about Catholics becoming rich that makes them more Catholic.
DeleteI don't really understand about rich Catholics buying off the rest of the world. You mean white American Catholics who are against Francis's initiatives and overstate their influence in the Church worldwide?
DeleteInteresting idea, but not sure that money doesn't buy influence, even in Holy Mother Church.
Moreover, American Hispanics are not a monolith, and after a couple of generations people from Spanish-speaking countries get Americanized. So I don't agree that the influence of White American Catholics will be diluted by 50 percent. Especially if Hispanics, like other Americans, move into evangelical and "none" categories.
I don't understand how emerging nations are more "synodal," I guess.
Encuentro sounds interesting, a lot like the Mormon missions. I will have to look at whether Cristo Rey in Lansing has that program.
The latest poll by Pew shows that fewer than 50% of all Latino Americans still self- identify as Catholic. The younger age groups - second and third generation Americans- have an even lower rate of self- identification as Catholic.
DeleteJean says
DeleteI don't really understand about rich Catholics buying off the rest of the world. You mean white American Catholics who are against Francis's initiatives and overstate their influence in the Church worldwide?
Yes, rich Catholics supported American bishops who gave money to Rome which bought influence there. But in order to really have influence there you have to have allies in the Curia, especially those who influence appointments of bishops.
I recently pointed out that Francis has appointed a Chicagoan as the new head of the department that appoints bishops.
https://newgathering.blogspot.com/2023/01/chicagoan-named-new-head-of-vatican.html
In many ways Francis Prevost, an Augustinian missionary who has been serving as Bishop of Chiclayo in Peru, is similar to Tobin: American religious order priests who have extensive experience outside of America and have not been taken in by our preoccupations with the culture wars. They are the two key people who will be vetting appointments of American. bishops at least as long as Francis is Pope and maybe years beyond that. It takes years to remake that department.
I think it is going to be very difficult for money to influence the next conclave. There is an effort under way by conservatives to gather damaging information about candidates they do not like. However, that could backfire. Historically the conclave is set up to block outside influence, so cardinals will be very wary of those attempts.
Gosh, Jack. Are you telling us that it isn’t really the Holy Spirit who picks popes? The nuns lied to me?
DeleteEven Benedict admitted that the Holy Spirit does not pick the Pope, there are too many examples in history in which it is obviously that the Holy Spirit would not have picked that pope.
DeleteJack - 😁
DeleteRegarding that America Magazine article by a Chicago priest: he is Rev. Lou Cameli. His article is here:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2022/08/18/synod-formation-eucharist-cameli-243473
It's a pretty good article. He reviewed and tried to wrap his head around all the Synod responses that came in from the archdiocese. Rather than identify common threads in the responses, he offers in this article a "via negativa" of threads which he would have liked to see but which seemed to be missing. He identified three missing elements:
1. "In our consultation, most people had not accurately or fully grasped the path of synodality as Pope Francis had presented it. For so many respondents, the synod consultation was about figuring things out or sharing a personal opinion about how things ought to be, or some form of need-based planning. The Holy Father’s hope for the synodal process aligned things much differently. For Pope Francis, everything about the synodal path begins in prayer. Out of their prayer, believers encounter each other. In their encounters, they are summoned to listen deeply to each other. And finally, in their listening, they discover where the Holy Spirit might be prompting them to move. The essential elements are prayer, encounter, listening and discernment."
My comment: that does sound like Francis. It sounds very Jesuit. One could wish that is how a papal conclave would be conducted, too!
2. "At a certain point, I realized that so many of the respondents were speaking more to the church rather than from the church. In other words, they commented on the church as if it were an object outside of them."
My comment: Jack's comment that the church is the People of God is on point here. We've discussed Avery Dulles' book "Models of the Church" once or twice here at NewGathering. Dulles' first model, and one which he sees as limited, is the Institutional Model: that the church is the pope, cardinals, bishops, priests, dioceses, cathedrals, seminaries and so on - the formal, institutional structure. If that is our only way of thinking of the church, then our view is impoverished. But that continues to be the dominant model in the US, I think. If our view of the church is mediated via the news media, then that institutional view is reinforced, because the institution is what news media know how to report on. It is not as easy to present the church as Mystical Communion or the church as Herald. And to Cameli's point: I can easily believe that many/most Catholics view themselves as objects rather than subjects of the church.
3. "So many comments in the responses spoke to recommended changes in church life or, even more accurately, within church life. The sense of outward mission was generally faint. Formation for mission, an ever-expansive sense of our purpose in the world, needs to take hold of our communities of faith."
My comment: here, too, our lack of ecclesial imagination seems to be doing us no favors. For good or ill, the institution these days seems to be about conserving what it has, rather than being outward-focused.
Thanks to Jack and Jim for their responses. It is very hard for me to grasp the RCC as anything but an object outside myself, and whenever I approach the institutional Church, it is always with a litany of grievances about "them"--its leaders, from the Church Ladies up to the bishop.
ReplyDeleteOccasionally, I try to remember St Catherine of Siena: " We are in God and God is in us, as the fish is in the sea and the sea is in the fish." Maybe that gets to the idea about all of us "being Church," phraseology that I admit has left me stymied.
Lately I have been trying to hold myself to account for whether I have been building people up and encouraging the goodness in them. I think some of us are in a pretty well-worn groove of insisting on our own rightness above other people's pain. Or we see their "wrongness" as the source of our pain.
If we are going to be carriers of the Good News, my guess is that we need to rise above a lot of that. Not easy if you're me.