Addressing the European assembly of the Synod on Synodality, Cardinal Mario Grech—the secretary-general of the Synod—has given a strong indication of the Vatican’s plans for the worldwide assembly.
In a homily preached during Mass at Saint Vitus cathedral in Prague on February 8, Cardinal Grech prayed that “our endeavour not become an exercise in exclusive distinction, between those who are in and those who are out.” Yet he also cautioned against a tendency to “blur the distinction between what is within the Catholic tradition and what is outside.”
Some commentators have read Cardinal Grech’s homily as a rebuke to the German bishops, whose “Synodal Path” calls for dramatic changes in Church teaching and discipline. But the cardinal does not call for reject-ion of those proposals. On the contrary he welcomes the tension between the radical proposals of liberal bishops and the conservative calls for clarity. He suggests that the tension will remain when the work of the Synod is done.
The German bishops and their liberal colleagues call for the development of an “inclusive” Church, which would downplay (if not eliminate) moral teachings that offend the sensibilities of the secularized Western world. Tra-dition-minded Catholics respond with a demand to clarify those teachings, to ensure that the Chu-rch does not stray from perenni-al truths. The cardinal, in his homily, nods to both sides of that dispute.
Cardinal Grech sends a reassuring message to conservative Catholics: “The Synod is not there to destroy distinctions, to destroy the Catholic identity.”