Malaysia’s new cardinal, Sebastian Francis of Penang, has said the upcoming Synod of Bishops on Synodality ought to be an open process in which all issues are discussed without fear, and warned against using labels that cause division. Speaking to Crux, Francis said of the synod, “as long as we don’t get into la-bels, and we don’t get into trying to divide,” things will be fine.
“We are not looking for easy, simple solutions to whatever issues might be out there in the Church, but we are looking for a way of being Church itself…a Church that is open to welcome anyone, everyone, and deal with all the issues without feeling threatened by any issues,” he said.
It is the culmination of a multi-year process that began with a broad consultation and the dio-cesan level in October 2021 and continued with discussion at the continental stage, and it marks the first of two universal gather-ings based in Rome to conclude the process. The final discussion will take place next year, in October 2024, following a year of reflection and discussion on the results of this year’s meeting.
In his conversation with Crux, Francis discussed the October synod as well as the Church in Malaysia, Pope Francis’s atten-tion to the continent, the upcom-ing World Youth Day in Seoul, and a potential papal visit to India next year.
“I’d just like to tell him that I affirm the three things he men-tioned to me in (his) letter: That universality is not unifor-mity, and uniformity is a tempta-tion, it’s a weakness and may even be a sin; and telling us what he would want from us, from me, is both the enculturation of faith of the universal Church and the evangelization of cultures. I am one with him, one with the Holy Spirit who has inspired him to remind us of these essentials. For the rest, well, come what may.”