"A synodal Church that wants vocations has the duty to be welcoming to all members of society, but it cannot build its witness on sand, so it must rely on an anthropology firmly anchored in the Word of God."

This is the reflection that the Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect emeritus of the Dicastery for Bishops, delivered the day after the beginning of the first session of the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops being held in these weeks, of which he is a member by pontifical appointment.

The occasion is the next Congress on vocations organized for March 1 and 2 at the Vatican, on the theme: "Vocations". "Man-woman, image of God. For an anthropology of vocations", together with the Center for Research and Anthropology of Vocations (CRAV). This initiative is the natural continuation of the previous Symposium led by the Cardinal himself in February 2022 on the "Fundamental theology of the priesthood". The Acts of those days have just been published in two volumes in six languages, which Ouellet considers the "greatest update on the subject of the priesthood since the Second Vatican Council".

Anthropology and the Word of God

In an interview granted to Vatican News, the Prefect Emeritus of the Dicastery for Bishops underlines the urgency of a more active participation of the faithful in the life of the Church, in order to generate "a deeper ecclesial communion that has an impact on the mission", as the current Synod intends to reflect. But in order to reach this awareness, it is essential to cover the foundations of Christian anthropology "that allow all vocations to be built on the Word of God", especially taking into account the challenges posed by the contemporary world.

"The common experience of our secularized societies is loneliness, individualism, excessive consumerism, multiple addictions, suicides, etc.," Ouellet explains to Vatican News, "phenomena that find their roots in the crisis of the family, the disappearance of valid points of reference, globalized indifference, ideologies and the generalized crisis of hope."

Reasons to live

Therefore, all those opportunities that can provide "points of reference on the human vocation", together with reasons "to live and also to suffer at the service of Love", must be put back into action. "The Christian vision of man and woman thus promotes the gift of self as a path to happiness, self-realization in service and communion with others, in a horizon of solidarity and fraternity with all humanity," added the Prefect Emeritus of the Dicastery for Bishops.

The format of the days of reflection on vocation will be academic and scientific, with the presence of international scholars and experts, but they are open to everyone. Specifically, they aim to offer "a very current vision for educators and formators in all areas of Christian formation, including, of course, families".

They will take place in the Vatican Synod Hall. The previous Symposium on the priesthood was attended by some 700 people.

CRAV

The Center for Research and Anthropology of Vocations, independent of the Holy See, was founded in November 2020 by Cardinal Ouellet with the support of a strong international scientific council.

Its purpose is to promote and support any research action in social sciences on vocations within society in a broad sense and in all its branches, whether they are secular or religious institutions.

Located in France, the Research Center conducts international academic research activities, organizes events to nurture this research and to disseminate its results, train or even secure publications.

"In this Synod - also to make room for the Holy Spirit - there is the priority of listening, there is this priority". The Pope recalled this in his greeting at the opening of the first General Congregation, in Paul VI Hall. 

The Pope dedicated the last part of his greeting to the work that, in his opinion, assembly members and communicators should do before this synod.

To the participants of the Synod, the Pope said: "We have to give a message to the press operators, to the journalists, who do a very beautiful, very good job. We have to give precisely a communication that is a reflection of this life in the Holy Spirit. We need an asceticism - excuse me for speaking to journalists in this way - a certain fasting from the public word to guard this. And whatever is published, let it be in this climate. Some will say - they are saying it - that the bishops are afraid and that is why they do not want journalists to speak. No, the work of journalists is very important. But we must help them to say this, this walking in the Spirit. And more than the priority of speaking, there is the priority of listening." 

As for the media professionals, he said: "I ask journalists to please make people understand this, so that they know that the priority is to listen. The Pope added that "some hypotheses are circulating about this Synod: 'what are they going to do', 'perhaps the priesthood for women'; I don't know, these things that are said outside. And many times they say that the bishops are afraid to communicate what is happening. That is why I ask you, communicators, to fulfill your function well, adequately, so that the Church and people of good will - the others will say what they want - understand that also in the Church there is the priority of listening".

The Pope and communicators

At the end of August, Francis, receiving the "It's Journalism" award, had relaunched "the urgency of constructive communication, which favors the culture of encounter and not of clash; the culture of peace and not of war; the culture of openness to the other and not of prejudice". Once again, the Pope warned of the "sins of journalism": disinformation, slander, defamation and coprophilia.

"Please, let us not give in to the logic of opposition, let us not allow ourselves to be conditioned by the language of hatred," the Pontiff pointed out. With the appeal to cultivate the principle of reality, which is always "superior to the idea". In order not to run the risk of "the information society becoming the society of disinformation". 

Referring to the Synod on Synodality, the Pope pointed out that "the Church today offers the world, a world so often incapable of making decisions, even when our very survival is at stake".

"We are trying to learn a new way of living relationships, of listening to one another in order to hear and follow the voice of the Spirit - Francis pointed out - We have opened our doors, we have offered everyone the opportunity to participate, we have taken into account the needs and suggestions of all. We want to contribute together to build a Church where everyone feels at home, where no one is excluded. That word of the Gospel that is so important: everyone. Everyone, everyone: there are no first, second or third class Catholics: no. We want to build a Church where everyone feels at home, where no one is excluded. All together. All together. This is the Lord's invitation... That is why I dare to ask you, the masters of journalism, for help in this: help me to tell this process as it really is, leaving behind the logic of slogans and prefabricated stories".

"Information Fasting" at the Synod

"Stop. Listen to yourself. It is a challenge that deserves to be told. It is the first novelty of this Synod." This was reiterated by Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Dicastery for Communication and president of the Assembly's Commission for Information, at the briefing with journalists, which took place on Thursday, October 5, at the Holy See Press Office.

"The other members of the Information Commission will be elected on Monday morning," the prefect noted. "Yesterday you were able to follow the first day in full," he told the journalists. "Today, as you know, the minor circles began, which by their nature are part of those moments that must be preserved in their confidentiality."

"The Pope explained why," the prefect recalled: "To give priority to listening to others and to the Holy Spirit. To pause in the hubbub in which we are immersed. To discern, fasting from the public word".

This fast does not imply that there is nothing to write about," Ruffini told reporters. In any case, the news is here. In this suspension of time. In this silence that deafens in its own way because it is totally different from the routine of the public word, which has become accustomed to the stereotype of the retort'.

In reality, for Ruffini, "the news is in the way in which an institution as large as the Church allows itself a moment of common discernment in silence, listening, faith, communion and prayer. The news is in this fast, in this stop".

The Synod, he added in response to a question, is "a body", it is "an experience of sharing" that wants to "take the time to discern". The synodal journey will continue in discernment and there is no need to wait for decisions because we are "halfway through", in "a process that ensures that everyone can present their point of view" and "reach a consensus in communion".

For the Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, discernment, therefore, is the guiding criterion for synodal reflection, starting from the main question: "Starting from the journey of the local Church from which each one comes and from the contents of the Instrumentum laboris, What distinctive signs of a synodal Church emerge most clearly and which ones need to be more clearly recognized, emphasized or deepened?"

There are 8 "points for prayer and preparatory reflection". The ability to learn to listen as a characteristic of a synodal Church is the focus of the fourth track. With a question about which resources are possessed and which are lacking.

In essence: How can the ability to listen become an increasingly recognized and recognizable feature of our communities?

The Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops dedicated to synodality has begun. Before the beginning of the sessions, at the opening Mass, the Pope called for a change of mentality.

The synod was born in the midst of an evident tension due to the doubts published by several cardinals who have asked the Pope to clarify whether this assembly will change the doctrine of the Church on issues such as the female priesthood or the attitude towards homosexual persons.

AhNow you can enjoy a 20% discount on your subscription to Rome Reports Premiumthe international news agency specializing in the activities of the Pope and the Vatican.

RelatedLaudate Deum. The good use of nature against environmental and human degradation."'Laudato Si' has been a watershed for the Church and for the world."Pope convenes Laudato si' Platform for Action to last 7 years

"We don't have enough reactions while the world that welcomes us is falling apart and perhaps approaching a breaking point", with this statement he begins, practically, Laudate DeumPope Francis' sixth Apostolic Exhortation, which this time focuses on the climate crisis and was published on October 4, 2023, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, three years after Fratelli Tutti.

The Pope begins this letter by focusing on the global climate crisis. Here he stresses how "it is true that not every specific catastrophe can be attributed to global climate change as a matter of course. However, it is verifiable that certain changes in the climate brought about by mankind significantly increase the likelihood of increasingly frequent and intense extreme events". 

This recognition of man's responsibility, together with causes beyond his control, is a constant in this new Apostolic Exhortation, which reminds us, on more than one occasion, that nature is not simply a "framework for man", but that we are all part of it as a result of God's creative power.

Resilience to climate change

The Pontiff mentions the resistance and criticisms that, also within the Church, he notes in the face of what he considers an urgent reality. In this sense, Laudate Deum The "reasons" used to ridicule the concern for environmental degradation, such as frost and rain problems or confusion of information, are some of the reasons that are ridiculed.

The Pope emphasizes at this point that "there is no lack of those who blame the poor because they have many children and even pretend to solve it by mutilating women in less developed countries. As always, it seems that the poor are to blame. But the reality is that a small percentage of the richest people on the planet pollute more than the poorest 50% of the entire world population, and that the per capita emissions of the richest countries are many times greater than those of the poorest. A reality that is rarely highlighted, especially in the so-called Western bloc.

Francis does not hide the difficulty of carrying out a "transition to renewable forms of energy, well managed" to avoid, as has happened on occasions, the destruction of numerous jobs. At this point, the Pope points to the need for politicians and businessmen to take care of an integral management that does not eliminate jobs under the banner of environmentalism.

Everything that ceases to be a gift becomes a slave.

After analyzing risks and situations arising from environmental degradation and the advancing climate crisis, the Pope urges "a broader vision that allows us not only to marvel at the wonders of progress, but also to pay attention to other effects that probably could not even have been imagined a century ago. Nothing more is asked of us than a certain amount of responsibility for the legacy we will leave behind us as we pass through this world". 

In this regard, Francis recalls that already in Laudato Si'offered "a brief development about the technocratic paradigm that is behind the current process of environmental degradation. It is 'a way of understanding life and human action that has deviated and that contradicts reality to the point of damaging it'". An idea of progress and absolute power of man that advances such as Artificial Intelligence have consolidated in many people.

Faced with this idea of unlimited power, the Pope reminds us that "the natural resources required by technology, such as lithium, silicon and so many others, are not unlimited, but the greatest problem is the ideology that underlies an obsession: to increase human power beyond imagination, in the face of which non-human reality is a mere resource at its service. Everything that exists ceases to be a gift to be appreciated, valued and cared for, and becomes a slave, a victim of any whim of the human mind and its capacities". 

In this letter, the Pope once again attacks what he calls the "logic of maximum profit at the lowest cost, disguised as rationality, progress and illusory promises". A logic that has led to the implantation of nuclear waste or the establishment of polluting industries in the poorest areas of the planet without taking into account the life and development of its inhabitants. A logic that, in the Pope's words, "renders impossible any sincere concern for the common home and any concern for promoting the discarded of society".

On this point, the pontiff clarifies, "one thing is a healthy approach to the value of effort, the development of one's own abilities and a laudable spirit of initiative, but if one does not seek real equality of opportunity this easily becomes a screen that further consolidates the privileges of a few with greater power. Within this perverse logic, what do they care about the damage to the common home if they feel safe under the supposed armor of the economic resources they have achieved with their ability and with their effort?"

A common effort

Another of the major blocks of this letter is dedicated to the need for a common effort, a "new multilateralism" that integrates mechanisms for effective cooperation and entails a real commitment on the part of the countries in this regard.

In this line, the Pope recalls in Laudate Deum the need to have a comprehensive vision that addresses these problems in the same way.

"To seek only a technical remedy to every environmental problem that arises," the Pope reminds us, "is to isolate things that in reality are intertwined and to hide the real and deeper problems of the world system."

Once again, the Pope stresses the urgency of "responding to new challenges and reacting with global mechanisms to environmental, health, cultural and social challenges, especially in order to consolidate respect for the most basic human rights, social rights and care for the common home. Only in this way will we be able to overcome the risk of "remaining locked in the logic of patching, patching up, tying up with wire, while a process of deterioration that we continue to nourish continues to advance underneath. 

An appeal to the faithful

Although the title of the Apostolic Exhortation Laudate Deum While addressing "all people of good will," the Pope dedicates the last part of the letter in a special way to believers.

In this sense, Francis recalls, "God has united us to all his creatures". In this area, the pontiff appeals to a situated anthropocentrism, which, while recognizing the "peculiar and central value of the human being in the midst of the marvelous concert of all beings," also recognizes "that human life is incomprehensible and unsustainable without other creatures."

To rethink ourselves and "understand ourselves in a more humble and richer way", this is the proposal of Pope Francis who invites believers "to a path of reconciliation with the world that shelters us, and to embellish it with our own contribution".

Laudate Deum concludes with a call for personal responsibility, stressing that "there are no lasting changes without cultural changes, without a maturation in the way of life and in the convictions of societies, and there are no cultural changes without changes in people". 

Francis closes with a powerful statement "a human being who pretends to occupy the place of God becomes the worst danger to himself", which contains, in summary, the key to Laudate Deum. 

RelatedLaudate Deum. The good use of nature against environmental and human degradation."'Laudato Si' has been a watershed for the Church and for the world."Pope convenes Laudato si' Platform for Action to last 7 years

The first Synod to be held in accordance with the Apostolic Constitution Episcopalis communio September 15, 2018. "For a Synodal Church: communion, participation and mission": on October 4 will be the first session of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.

Stage of a process initiated on October 10, 2021, which will culminate in a new session next year, also in October. The first with the active participation and voting rights of seventy non-bishops, as well as the presence of fifty experts, divided into facilitators and theologians. 

Rediscovering the dimension of silence to listen to the voice of the Spirit and making the Synod a place of fraternity: this is the spiritual "path" indicated by Pope Francis to the Church during the Synod. the ecumenical prayer vigil "Together - Gathering of the People of God", on September 30 in St. Peter's Square.

Together with Francis, nineteen ecumenical representatives prayed together and listened to significant testimonies offered by young people, some of them refugees and intellectually disabled.

Pre-retirement

After the ecumenical vigil and on the last day of the spiritual retreat at the "Fraterna Domus" in Sacrofano for the participants in the Synod, Mother Ignazia Angelini pointed out in the celebration "the intimate energy of the synodal journey. In all its steps and passages. The Synod itself takes place as a "celebration".

"Do justice to me, God" (Ps 42:1) gives voice," he observed, "to the groaning of oppressed humanity and of creation subjected to vanity and in travail (Rom 8:20-24), prey to a generalized sadness that clouds our days".

But then, without interruption, we intone: "All things sing and shout for joy" (Ps. 63:14). It is precisely this counterpoint of supplication and praise that is the unmoving song of faith, which brings together the dissonant harmonies of visible and cultured worlds, accompanying us into the night in the struggle to believe, to be in the company of humans as "all brothers and sisters".

Radcliffe echoed him, for whom "the evening convocation of each day, in the Magnificat, welcomes us and reveals to us how to bring to completion every work undertaken in the obedience of faith. As evening falls, the Mother of God awaits us with her song. An extraordinary song because of its potential for a prophetic reading of history. A "maternal" synthesis that gathers and gives light to our frayed human history. And shows the way".

Mary's song is thus given to the Church of God on her journey "to gather in prayer the evening twilight and open the future to each of her steps. Even the synodal meetings".

The Magnificat is, in Father Radcliffe's opinion, for the Church and her synodal process, "a daily grace of fulfillment; a grace that propels her forward, beyond differences and oppositions. It impels with the intimate certainty that the Lord nevertheless gives grace, looks upon poverty, knows-from the Egypt of the oppressed people to the Golgotha of the Son-our labors and afflictions."

With meekness and humility. Names, faces, questions, comparisons, options, under that unifying gaze, "without looking back".

Synodal process

Dario Vitali, professor of ecclesiology at the Department of Dogmatic Theology of the Pontifical Gregorian University, appointed by Pope Francis as coordinator of the expert theologians involved in the Synod, explains the methodology of the Synod's work: "Pope Francis has asked that the whole Church be involved, that everyone be protagonists in the logic of the ecclesiology of the People of God. This explains why Episcopalis communio transforms the Synod from an event into a process, articulated in phases. The first phase involved the participation of the whole Church and everyone in the Church, through the consultation of the People of God in the particular Churches and after the two moments of discernment, in the Episcopal Conferences and in the Continental Assemblies. According to the Second Vatican Council, the People of God participates in the prophetic function of Christ (Lg 12). Therefore, non-bishop members, who do not represent the People of God, but are witnesses to the unity of the synodal process, participate fully in the Assembly. Their presence and their contribution show that the Synod is not a circumscribed Assembly and that the first phase is essential for discernment. And that the themes to be addressed are those that emerge from the consultation of the People of God".

The ultimate goal of the process," Vitali maintains, "is to root a synodal style and form of Church, so that synodality, as a constitutive dimension of the Church, can and must shape the Church itself, its life, its institutions, its way of thinking and working, its mission.

A principle matured in the wake of Tradition, in continuity with the Council, "which does not contradict," concludes the theologian, "the Church of always, but illuminates it with a new light, with that newness that is always in the order of grace, therefore....". nova et vetera, new because old".

Also in the last few days Pope Francis has responded to the 5 Dubia, the questions that some cardinals asked the Holy Father last July. The Pope's answers, in Spanish, have been published on the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith website.

After September 30, more than 70% of the cardinals will have been elected by Francis. Italy remains the country with the most cardinals, followed by the United States.

Of the 242 cardinals who make up the College of Cardinals, 137 are electors.

The state funeral of Giorgio Napolitano was held in a secular ceremony; he will be laid to rest in the non-Catholic cemetery in Rome. However, Giorgio Napolitano's relationship with the Popes and the faith deserves to be explored in the light of his intense and rich personal, cultural, political and institutional parable. From which stands out the effigy of a respectful layman and a sharp and credible interlocutor with the Church, fleeing from ideological sectarianism and anticlerical positions.

"The wise will shine like the splendor of the firmament; those who have led many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever." This is the phrase taken from the biblical book of Daniel (chapter 12, verse 3), which Card. Gianfranco Ravasi, dedicated to the President Emeritus of the Italian Republic during the State funeral ceremony in the Chamber of Deputies. Ravasi explained that he wanted to place an ideal "flower" on Napolitano's tomb and that this flower was the phrase taken from Daniel.

"I remember with gratitude the personal meetings I had with him, during which I appreciated his humanity and clairvoyance in making important decisions with rectitude." Upon learning the news of Giorgio Napolitano's death, Pope Francis had remembered him with these words written in a telegram sent to his wife. 

During his two consecutive terms as President of the Italian Republic - from May 15, 2006 to January 14, 2015 - Napolitano met several times with Benedict XVI and Francis, establishing with the two Pontiffs significant relations of reciprocal esteem and respect. He never failed to convey to both the gratitude and affection of the Italian people for their service.

His relationship with Benedict XVI

As reconstructed in recent days by L'Osservatore Romano, relations between Pope Ratzinger and Napolitano began in 2006, when the Pontiff sent a message of good wishes to the newly elected Head of State. Then came the President's official visit to the Vatican on November 20 of the same year. Then, at the Angelus in January 2007, Benedict XVI reciprocated the expressions of good wishes that the President had addressed to him the day before in his New Year's message.

On January 17, 2008, after Pope Ratzinger was prevented from visiting La Sapienza University in Rome, Napolitano wrote a letter to the Pontiff in which he regretted what had happened and described the "manifestations of intolerance" as inadmissible. 

On October 4 of that year, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the Pope reciprocated his visit to the Vatican two years earlier by visiting the Quirinal.

He gave a series of concerts in honor of Benedict XVI on the occasion of the anniversary of his pontificate. Also significant were the messages he sent to the German Pontiff on the occasion of the World Day of Peace.

And it was also with an article in "L'Osservatore Romano" that Napolitano renewed his commitment to Benedict XVIFebruary 28, 2013, "the grateful and affectionate greetings of the Italians", thanking him for his service in the Pontificate.

The bond between the two was described in full by the president himself in an interview granted to our newspaper on July 13, 2012. "One of the most beautiful components that characterized my experience was precisely the relationship with Benedict XVI," Napolitano said in the interview.

In this sense, he pointed out that he had discovered with Pope Ratzinger "a great affinity, we experience a feeling of great and mutual respect. But there is something more, something that has touched our human chords. And for this I am very grateful to him".

Napolitano and Pope Francis

An important relationship was also immediately established with Pope Francis, punctuated by meetings and messages of mutual esteem and support. Above all, the gesture of Sunday, September 24, when the Pope visited the burial chamber of the President Emeritus installed in the Nassiriya Hall of the Senate.

Francis wished to "express - as indicated in a note distributed to journalists - with his presence and his prayer, his personal affection for him and his family, and to honor his great service to Italy." After expressing his condolences to the widow Clio Maria Bittoni and the children of Giulio and Giovanni, the pontiff observed a few minutes of silence before the corpse.

Francis' visit concluded with the signing of the register. The Pope's homage to Giorgio Napolitano was an absolute novelty in the history of Italy. It was the first presence of a pontiff in the Senate of the Republic. On the occasion of his visit to the Quirinal, Pope Francis reminded him of the nature of the mission they share: "to govern complex realities in a continuous attempt to unite".

On October 5, 2012 (Assisi, dialogue between believers and non-believers), Napolitano reflected on his spiritual life and his personal way of arguing faith, making his own Bobbio's words in De Senectute: "When I say that I do not believe in the second life [...] I do not intend to affirm anything peremptory. I only mean to say that the reasons of doubt have always seemed to me more convincing than those of certainty. Personally, I had a religious upbringing, that is, I spent all my adolescence in the sacraments and rites of the Catholic religion, which was my mother's religion and the one taught at school. But I detached myself, as Bobbio said, from a practice that did not in itself guarantee the answer to the "ultimate" questions, and I immersed myself completely in another dimension of life - political, cultural, institutional - that did not involve asking those questions. The real issue is precisely that I did not feel the urgency of those questions even for a long time. Then I was stimulated by encounters and conversations with people of authentic faith. I remember, for example, the impression made on me by La Pira [...]. One can close oneself in the conviction, or in the realization, that one has not been touched by "a light of grace", and close the discourse. On the other hand, the discourse should not end there".