From October 4 to October 29, 2023, the 16th Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops of the Catholic Church takes place in Rome. Its theme is “For the Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission”. Such synods were the result of the momentum of the Vatican Council II and have been held in the Catholic Church since 1967 on average every four years. At the same time, for the first time, the Synod is attended by faithful who are not endowed with episcopal authority – laity and monks, including women, deacons and priests. In total, the participants of the Synod with the right to vote are more than 360, of which almost 27% are not bishops.
The Synod plans to discuss quite important issues of both theoretical and practical nature. It was their urgency that became the reason for the discussion in form of confrontation of some cardinals with the official position of the Vatican. Thus, two cardinals Walter Brandmüller and Raymond Leo Burke, with the support of three more cardinals, formulated five “doubts” (in Latin “dubia”) about the direction of the theological development of the Catholic Church. These are the following questions:
- Can the Church reinterpret Divine Revelation according to the cultural and anthropological changes in vogue?
- Does the practice of blessing same-sex unions, which tends to spread in some regions, align with the Revelation and official teachings of the Catholic Church?
- Is synodality really a “constitutive dimension of the Church”, i.e. is the Church inherently synodal?
- Is it true that “the theology of the Church has changed”, and therefore women can receive ordination to the priesthood?
- Is the sacrament of repentance only a “human right” when a priest must forgive a sin named in the confession, even when the person who came to this sacrament does not express remorse and intention to no longer commit this sin?
These issues were first formulated in July 2023, then reformulated in August. Pope Francis’ responses were published on October 2, 2023. It is believed that this discussion of the mentioned cardinals and the Pope reflect the conservative and liberal positions on these topics. Both the questions and answers in Ukrainian were published on the website “Catholic observer” (http://catholicnews.org.ua/).