On October 9, participants in the first session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops turned their attention to a new discussion topic: “How can we be more fully a sign and instrument of union with God and of the unity of all humanity?” An Eastern Orthodox prelate also told participants that the Synod he was witnessing in Rome “differs greatly” from the Eastern practice of synodality.
The first phase of the Synod (October 4-7) was devoted to a discussion of the Synod’s first module (For a synodal Church: An integral experience). The Synod’s second module (“Communion, participation, mission: Three priority issues for the synodal Church”) is divided into three topics:
· B1. A communion that radiates: How can we be more fully a sign and instrument of union with God and of the unity of all humanity?
· B2. Co-responsibility in Mission: How can we better share gifts and tasks in the service of the Gospel?
· B3. Participation, governance and authority: What processes, structures and institutions in a missionary synodal Church
The first session of the Synod concludes on October 29; the results of the Synod’s first session will form the agenda of the Synod’s second session in October 2024.
In the morning, participants gathered in St. Peter’s Basilica for the celebration of the Divine Liturgy according to the Byzantine rite (CWN coverage). Patriarch Youssef Absi, the head of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, presided at the liturgy, and Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, the Patriarch of the Maronite Church, preached the homily.
Reflecting on the Lord’s words that “the harvest is great, but the laborers are few,” the Maronite Patriarch preached:
“We read in the Instrumentum laboris [working document] that in a synodal assembly Christ makes himself present and acts, transforms history and daily events, grants the Spirit that guides the Church to find a consensus on how to walk together toward the Kingdom and how to help humanity move forward in the direction of unity,” Cardinal Patriarch al-Rahi continued.

Most Americans don’t place a high priority on marriage and children compared with their careers and friends, a new Pew Research Center survey says, and a large minority of Americans are pessimistic about the future of marriage and family.
Patrick T. Brown, a family policy expert and fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, told CNA that the increasing number of people uninterested in having children or getting married “should help us recognize that we are entering a new era.”
“The Pew survey shows what I think a lot of [people] already feel: that the family, as an institution, is under threat, not least from a shifting cultural attitude that treats family and marriage as incidental to long-term well-being,” Brown said.
The Pew Research Center survey of 5,073 U.S. adults took place from April 10–16. Respondents were part of the Pew Center’s American Trends Panel.
“There’s baseline support for a variety of family arrangements, but the public still favors some types of families over others,” the Pew Research Center said Sept. 14.

Two-thirds of Catholics believe Jesus is present in the Eucharist, but only 17% attend Mass weekly, according to survey
Almost two-thirds of Catholics believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, but only 17% of adult Catholics physically attend Mass at least once per week, according to a newly published survey from Georgetown University’s Centre for Applied Research in the Apostolate. The survey also revealed a high correlation between belief in the Eucharist and weekly or even monthly Mass attendance.
The 2022 survey of self-identified Catholics published Sept. 26 and titled “Eucharist Beliefs: A National Survey of Adult Catholics” found 64% of respondents provided responses that indicate they believe in the Real Presence, that the Lord Jesus Christ is truly present under the appearance of bread and wine in the Eucharist.
That conclusion was drawn from both open-ended and closed-ended questions respondents were asked about their under-standing of church teaching about the Eucharist and additional questions to clarify their beliefs
According to the CARA stu-dy, 49% of respondents correctly identified that the church teaches that “Jesus Christ is truly present under the appearance of bread and wine.” The other 51% inco-rrectly identified the church’s teaching as “Bread and wine are symbols of Jesus’ actions at the Last Supper, meaning that Jesus is only symbolically present in the consecrated bread and wine.”
“Results of this question indicate that there is substantial confusion about what the church teaches about the Eucharist with slightly more adult Catholics not knowing this correctly than those correctly identifying the teach-ings,” the report stated.

Cardinal-elect Stephen Chow said on Sept. 28 that evangelization in China today should focus on communicating the love of God “without the agenda of turning them into Catholics.”
In an interview in Rome with CNA on Sept. 28, the bishop of Hong Kong, who will be made a cardinal in the consistory this weekend, spoke about his vision for evangelization in mainland China.
“I think it is important that we say that Pope Francis made a distinction. Evangelization is really to help people to understand the love of God — and the love of God without the agenda of turning them into Catholics — because that shouldn’t be the focus, as that focus would be very restrictive,” Chow said.
The cardinal-elect underlined that evangelization should help “them to come to understand our God means love, means goodwill and a better life.”
“Evangelization should be really coming to know God, who is love,” he said.
In Pope Francis’ travels to countries where Catholics are in the minority, the pope has made a distinction between “proselytism” and “evangelization.”
“Evangelization is essentially witness,” Francis told the Jesuits in Mozambique in 2019. “Proselytizing is convincing, but it is all about membership and takes your freedom away.”
During a Jan. 11. 2023, general audience, Pope Francis emphasized that evangelization and proselytism are not the same.

On Saturday, Oct. 7, the date on which the Church celebrates the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, the fourth edition of the worldwide Men’s Rosary will take place with more than 40 countries uniting in prayer.
The initiative originated in Poland and Ireland in 2018 and in just a few years has spread to other nations on different dates.
In Argentina, a pioneering country in this global crusade, the purpose is for all cities to pray on the same date. A major location will be the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires.
The first worldwide Men’s Rosary was held on May 28, 2022, and the second on Oct. 8 of the same year, with the participation of more than 150 cities on all five continents. In Buenos Aires about 2,000 people attended.
On May 6, the third time the prayer event was held, men from more than 40 countries prayed for the role of men in society to be valued once again and for the conversion of the entire world.
Segundo Carafí, one of the organizers of the initiative in Buenos Aires, said on that occasion that “the importance of this rosary lies in the fact that it is precisely men who want to bring back faith to the public sphere, praying to recover their own essence in a world that criticizes and attacks them.”
The purpose is to demonstrate that “faith is not just a woman’s thing and that the man, as a male parent of the family, the priest as such, is ready to fight in the defense of his most absolute essence as a man.”
Carafí shared with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, the prayer intentions of this new edition of the Men’s Rosary

An expert on anti-Christian persecution says that escalating jihadist violence in the African nation of Burkina Faso is producing the paradoxical effect of inducing lapsed Christians to return to religious practice.
Maria Lozano of the pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) described the phenomenon as “a beautiful message of faith.”
In a conversation with Crux, Lozano said she has had conversations with clerics in Burkina Faso who tell her that the people know that “their lives are in danger” and are therefore more motivated to revert to Christianity as a preparation for eternal life should the worst happen.
“They face terrorism, so they believe the best way out is to become Christians,” Lozano told Crux.
“It is through faith that they have their consolation, and through faith, they know they could have eternal life,” she said.
“It tells me a lot about the faith that these people have, and it says a lot about the fact that this life on earth isn’t the last. There is life after death, but sometimes we forget that. It’s a beautiful message of faith,” Lozano told Crux.
The same paradox of a Church that has continued to grow despite the persistence of those trying to annihilate it also has been underlined by Father Pierre Rouamba, the Prior General of the Missionary Brothers of the Countryside.
“It is truly striking to note that Christians, who had to some extent abandoned religious practice before the crisis, are returning to the faith at a time when the terrorists are doing what they can to extinguish Christianity,” Rouamba said in an interview with ACN.
“While the terrorists prevent Christians from gathering in churches, families get together in their homes to rekindle the flame of faith through catechism classes and joint celebrations when there are no priests,” he said.

The German Bishops’ Conference convenes its plenary assembly on September 25, setting the stage for what promises to be a pivotal gathering amid a period of unprecedented tension within the Church in Germany – and with the wider Catholic Church.
On the official agenda for the gathering from Sept. 25–28 in the town of Wiesbaden are topics ranging from handling spiritual abuse to preparations for the upcoming Synod on Synodality in Rome.
However, overshadowing discussions are the profoundly divisive issues brought to the surface by the controversial German Synodal Way, particularly the blessing of same-sex unions – an issue that has seen acts of open defiance across Germany against clarifications from the Vatican.
At the centre of this maelstrom is Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, archbishop of Cologne, who faces mounting pressure from multiple fronts, including local media – and some clergy: In open defiance, several priests conducted an event blessing same-sex couples outside the iconic Cologne Cathedral September 21.

Thousands of Armenian Christians have fled their ancestral homeland in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh over the weekend and more are expected, the government of Armenia confirmed on September 25. “The mass exodus has begun,” Siobhan Nash-Marshall, a U.S. – based human rights advocate who has been speaking to witnesses on the ground, told CNA.
Nash-Marshall founded the Christians in Need Foundation (CINF) in 2011 to help Armenian Christians in the region, and in 2020 she started a school for children and adults in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Now, Nash-Marshall has received word from her school in Nagorno-Karabakh that “all is over” and that “people from all regions, all villages, are home-less” and without shelter, food, and water.
Hundreds of ethnic Armenians are sleeping in the streets and cannot even drink water because they claim it has been “poisoned by Azeris,” according to Nash-Marshall’s contacts.
Both former soviet territories, Armenia and Azerbaijan have been fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh for decades. With the backing of Turkey, Azerbaijan asserted its military dominance over Armenia in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, which ended in November 2020.
Though Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, is inter-nationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, the region is almost entirely made up of ethnic Armenian Christians.
Until last week, Armenians in the region claimed self-sovereignty under the auspices of the “Republic of Artsakh.”
On Sept. 19, Azerbaijan launched a short but intense military offensive that included rocket and mortar fire. The offensive, labeled “antiterror measures” by the Azeri government, resulted in the deaths of more than 200 ethnic Armenians and over 10,000 dis-placed civilians, according to the Artsakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The president of the Swiss Bishops’ Conference admits mistakes in dealing with abuse cases in the Catholic Church and advocates for the abolition of celibacy and the admission of women to the priesthood.
In an interview with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) am Sonntag External link, Bishop Felix Gmür also said that the Catholic Church has been active in the topic of abuse cases for a long time. The prevailing conditions must be questioned, the Swiss Bishops’ Conference president explains. In his view, the time is ripe to abolish celibacy and to allow women access to the priesthood.
In general, power in the Church must be better distributed, Gmür said. “I will lobby in Rome for the Church to decentralise.” A new sexual morality is needed, together with the possibility to make regulations regionally. Part of coming to terms with the situation is questioning the prevailing conditions. “Celibacy means that I am available to God. But I believe that this sign is no longer understood by society today,” says Gmür. “The time is ripe to abolish celibacy. I have no problem at all imagining married priests.”
The exclusion of women from priestly ordination should also fall, he says. “The subordination of women in the Catholic Church is incomprehensible to me. Changes are needed there,” Gmür said.

On September 15th, at least 11 Christians were massacred by terrorists loyal to ISIS in northern Mozambique.
According to Friar Boaventura, a missionary in the region, the killings took place in the village of Naquitengue, in the province of Cabo Delgado.
Since 2017, the area has been under regular attack from Islamic fundamentalists.
Friar Boaventura told Aid to the Church in Need that a local terrorist group that claims allegiance to ISIS arrived in Naquitengue in the early afternoon and summoned everyone in the village. They then separated the Christians from the Muslims, based on names and ethnicity.
And then, the missionary says, “[they] opened fire on the Christians.” The terrorists’ statement claimed that they had killed 11 people in the operation, but there may be more victims, and others are seriously wounded.
The attack occurred as “many people were returning to their communities,” so there is now a great feeling of insecurity.
“We must pray for our brothers, who are in so much pain,” the friar says. This call is echoed by Sister Aparecida Ramos Queiroz, who works for the Diocese of Pemba, and who told ACN that “only prayer can sustain us, because there is no end in sight for this conflict.”