Washington Post, Vatican Synod Ends With Divide Over Women Deacons and LGBTQ+:

Days before the start of the most significant Catholic gathering since the 1960s, Pope Francis dropped a theological bomb. In a reply to conservative bishops concerned about his openness to the LGBTQ+ community, the 86-year-old pope effectively said he could envision priests, on a case-by-case basis, blessing same-sex couples if those benedictions fell short of the sacrament of marriage.

In the subsequent weeks, how and whether to welcome LGBTQ+ Catholics became, according to participants, the most contentious topic at the month-long synod that closed Saturday in Vatican City. Facing opposition from senior clerics from Eastern Europe, Africa, and elsewhere, the wording of a concluding report, with sections approved by at least a two-thirds majority of voting members, fell far short of the inclusive language used earlier by the pope himself.

The document failed to even mention the phrase “LGBTQ+,” as used in preliminary materials. The most it ventured to say was that “people who feel marginalized or excluded from the Church, due to their marital situation, identity and sexuality, also ask to be listened to and accompanied, and that their dignity is defended.”

It also lumps “sexual orientation” under a slew of ethical questions described as “new” and “controversial,” including artificial intelligence.

“We are a family and we must respect everybody’s pace,” Synod General Secretary Cardinal Mario Grech told reporters who questioned the synod’s position on homosexuality and other issues late Saturday. “We must journey together.”

The synod — a gathering of the church’s highest consultative body, which for the first time included lay people and women as voting members — is seen as a landmark moment in the church. Delegates arrived after broad consultations within regions and countries on the issues facing the church. They will now recess, consult with their local churches and reconvene next October before offering what is expected to be a final set of recommendations to the pope.

Delegates described a civil, constructive atmosphere in recent weeks, but also disagreements, including on the role of women in the church and the question of priestly celibacy. But the gulf over LGBTQ+ reception suggested the extent of the ideological rifts dividing a global church of 1.3 billion Catholics, as well as a challenging road ahead for Francis as he seeks to unify the faithful and cement his legacy in the latter stage of his papacy.

• New York Times, Vatican Deems Bigger Church Role for Women ‘Urgent,’ but Postpones Major Issues
• Wall Street Journal, Vatican Synod Report Plays Down LGBTQ Issues, Disappointing Progressives

Wall Street Journal Op-Ed:  Do Catholics Need Questions? No, Answers, by Fr. Raymond J. de Souza (Pastor, Holy Cross Church (Kemptville, Ontario):

A crisis of confidence and clarity comes into view at Pope Francis’ ‘synod on synodality.’

I came here 25 years ago to begin study for the priesthood. October 1998 was a heady time, the 20th anniversary of John Paul II’s papacy. Things were different this year, when the synod on synodality came to town. It was Pope Francis’ signature initiative: a sort of corporate retreat for several hundred bishops and ecclesiocrats to consider how to make the Catholic Church more relevant—to what wasn’t clear.

The meeting issued a 41-page report that advances no significant doctrinal changes but promises further study on such issues as female deacons and, strangely, what “synodality” actually means. Some of the senior cardinals directing the process spoke of building for the future, giving theological laggards time to catch up with the “pace” of the avant-garde. The point may be to keep the questions, consultations and discussions going, so that the bold promise of salvation yields to the bureaucratic process of synodality.

The contrast with 1998 was striking. Then, John Paul recommitted himself to the mission given by Jesus to Peter, “the task of strengthening his brethren in the faith.” Memories traveled back to October 1978, when the new pope sounded a certain trumpet in St. Peter’s Square: “Be not afraid! Open wide the doors to Christ!” Last month the church heard uncertain trumpets and precious few bold proclamations along the lines of what John Paul would say in Baltimore in 1995: “Jesus Christ is the answer to the question posed by every human life.”

It reminded me of something Cardinal Timothy Dolan often said when he was my rector at the Pontifical North American College in 1998: “No man will give his life for a question mark; he will for an exclamation point!” …

There were plenty of questions at this synod on synodality—church parlance for “a meeting of pastors on how pastors should meet.” That kind of thing gets tiresome quickly, so conversations veered off to consider whether Catholicism would do better as a facsimile of liberal Anglicanism: ordaining women, revising sexual morality, enhancing lay governance—and, of course, trying to arrest climate change. …

Rome has the feel of slipping backward, toward the confusion, chaos and corrosive questioning of the 1970s. The exclamation point is being bent into a question mark. That’s not without consequence. The life of faith needs both questions and answers. The best questions get us to emphatic answers on which a life, church, culture and civilization can be built.

More than 10 years into the pontificate of Pope Francis, Rome spent a month entertaining questions of widely diverging importance. That’s done, though another “synodality” session is planned for next year. Questions deserve answers. The Gospel provides them. The church is to preach them. Sometimes with exclamation points.

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