“We’ve come far but there’s still a long way to go in a short time.”

Here’s a photo of my “small” group taken (in front of a huge sculpture of JPII) just after we’d finished our final session. I’m on the far left, next to Fr Adolfo Nicolas, Superior General of the Jesuits. The group included 18 nationalities.

Yesterday we finished work in the small groups. Our group was a very mixed bag, as were all the groups more or less. But English being spoken so widely we had a real jumble of nationalities (18), and voices spoke from vastly different backgrounds, at times it seemed from different planets. It wasn’t always easy to weave a tapestry from this but – thanks in large part to the tact and patience, the tactics and hard work of the Moderator, Archbishop Eamon Martin – we came close enough to it.

Yesterday we finished work in the small groups. Our group was a very mixed bag, as were all the groups more or less. But English being spoken so widely we had a real jumble of nationalities (18), and voices spoke from vastly different backgrounds, at times it seemed from different planets. It wasn’t always easy to weave a tapestry from this but – thanks in large part to the tact and patience, the tactics and hard work of the Moderator, Archbishop Eamon Martin – we came close enough to it. Continue reading →

My view across the Synod Hall

‘I have been surprised at how fearful some are of change – as if the Church will collapse if certain language is used or if pastoral responses are too forgiving. This Church isn’t collapsing.’

The work of the Synod is taking more shape as we finished the second week of relentless presentations and conversations, and much fantastic pasta and just a few glasses of wine.

People are generally very weary but there remains a sense of optimism and the persistence of courage on the part of many synod members who have brought with them such a strong sense of the pastoral and a wish to represent the needs of ordinary folk in families throughout our very disparate world. I recall an early plea to the synod to let ‘our pastoral imaginations’ flourish during this time. Wonderful language! Continue reading →

“Those voices, clinging desperately to some imagined or ideologised past, cannot point the way into the future. History will have its way, however much we try to cling to illusions of timelessness.”

Archbishop Mark Coleridge

The Italians are past masters of the art of improvisation. In a restaurant (at least of the more old-fashioned kind) the menu is only a rough approximation of what they actually have on offer. So too with the details of the Synod timetable. At the start we were given a timetable, but there have been many adjustments as we’ve gone along. As a group reporter, you never quite know until the last minute when you’ll have to swing into action, so you just stay tuned and learn to improvise. Nothing is set in concrete; everything seems to be fluid. Continue reading →

“We’re caught at the moment between Abraham and Moses. All of the bishops have a bit of both in them, but some are more Mosaic than Abrahamic, others more Abrahamic than Mosaic. Let’s hope the two patriarchs can embrace by week’s end.”

The skies cleared as the Canonisation Mass continued. The clouds dispersed but the mitres were still everywhere.

Yesterday, being Sunday, was free from Synod commitments. But that didn’t mean free from praying and eating – both of which are done in considerable quantities during the Synod, free day or not. I had two invitations for Mass – one to the Domus Australia where Cardinal Pell was celebrating the fourth anniversary of the Aussie house in Rome, the other the Canonisation Mass in St Peter’s Square. I decided the Square was closer, so over I went with Bishop Hurley to join the mob of of bishops who gathered around the Pope as he declared four blesseds – among them the parents of Therese of Lisieux – to be saints. Continue reading →

Here’s the Pope speaking. Note he stands rather than sits as his predecessors tended to do. The Cardinal in front of me is Charles Bo of Myanmar. Not sure who the veiled Orientals in front of him might be.

More out of duty than anything else, I went this morning to the Audience Hall (below the Synod Hall) for a celebration of the 50 years of the Synod of Bishops. Pope Paul VI established the Synod immediately after Vatican II as an attempt to continue its trajectories into the life of the Church beyond the Council.

I knew the celebration would be a classic Roman talkfest – and that’s exactly what it turned out to be. We started shortly after 9am when the Pope just sauntered on to the stage of the Audience Hall. His informal appearances tend to catch everyone off guard, but I suspect that’s the way he wants it. Continue reading →

Rome and the Vatican can always surprise, even when you think you know the nooks and crannies well. Yesterday morning I arrived at the Hall with Bishop Eugene Hurley, and we bumped into Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh upstairs. He simply opened a door and led us out on to a terrace which I’d never known existed. And it’s his first Synod; Eamon is a quick learner. So out we went on to the terrace overlooking the entrance to the Synod Hall. I felt like giving an Urbi et Orbi. It was an eye-opener for me, and I thought it was worth a video to share my sense of discovery. Continue reading →

Synod Venue, Paul VI Hall, Vatican City, Rome

Follow the journey through the Synod on the Family with our blog, ‘On the Road Together‘ featuring daily updates from our Australian representatives.

Yesterday morning the Pope wasn’t in the Synod Hall because he was out in the rain in St Peter’s Square at the General Audience. I thought he might say something about the Synod, but he didn’t. Perhaps he thought it would be premature or that his words, whatever they were, would be pounced upon and misinterpreted in a way that wouldn’t be helpful at this delicate midpoint of the Synod process. Continue reading →