On October 29, 2023, the first session of the Synod of Bishops which lasted almost four weeks ended in Rome. It was decided that the second session will be held next October 2024, participants will continue reflections and discussions on the current themes of the life of the Catholic Church.
The key result of this session of the Synod was the final document “A Synodal Church in Mission”, which in some time was translated into main European languages. The document has about 40 pages; it consists of 20 chapters, includes in total 270 paragraphs, and for each of them was held a vote.
The largest discussions were around women’s ministry – this is chapter 9 “Women in the Life and Mission of the Church”. The most votes “against” (69 out of 346) received the paragraph on women’s access to deacon’s ministry. For some, this ministry “consider it a discontinuity with Tradition”, for most “opening access for women to the diaconate would restore the practice of the Early Church”. For the first group this is “a worrying anthropological confusion, which, if granted, would marry the Church to the spirit of the age”, for the majority this is “an appropriate and necessary response to the signs of the times, faithful to the Tradition, and one that would find an echo in the hearts of many who seek new energy and vitality in the Church”.
The matter of deacon’s ministry as a whole, described in chapter 11 “Deacons and Priests in a Synodal Church”, caused smaller disagreements but was urgent as well. It concerns mandatory celibacy for priests, women’s access to the deacon’s ministry and possibility of restoring priests to their ministry after a certain period when they left the clergy.
Chapter 15 “Ecclesial Discernment and Open Questions” is also noteworthy. This is not just about issues of homosexuality, but more broadly: “Certain issues, such as those relating to matters of identity and sexuality, the end of life, complicated marital situations, and ethical issues related to artificial intelligence”. The proposal here is “to take the time required for this reflection and to invest our best energies in it, without giving in to simplistic judgments that hurt individuals and the Body of the Church”.
In general, regarding the process of the Synod, it should be noted that participants of the Synod adhered to the “Pontifical secret”, that is, they did not publicly retell or comment on the course of the Synodal discussions, and also did not inform about their own attitude to the Synod.
Instead, the Vatican Communications Office summarized some of the topics discussed during daily speeches. The purpose of this approach was to guarantee freedom of expression for the Synod participants.