As the Maltese say, “iż-żmien ma jistenna ’l ħadd!” (Time doesn’t wait for anyone!). The diocesan process ‘One Church, One Journey’, and the first phase of the Synod on Synodality are bound to share this experience.
Let’s start with a chronology of events. On March 2018, the International Theological Commission published its document ‘Synodality in the life and mission of the Church’. The commission cautioned that the idea of the Church as “synodal” by nature is something novel and requires “careful theological clarification”! This notwithstanding, come November 2019, Pope Francis insisted: “Synodality is a style, it is a walk together, and it is what the Lord expects from the Church of the third millennium.” With this pastoral mindset the tables were turned: synodality as a way of being a Church took priority. Synods are good but static events, dated both in their start and closure. Synodality is dynamic, it is a not an event but a mode of being.
March 7, 2020: The Vatican announced that a synod on synodality with the theme: “For a synodal Church: communion, participation and mission” will start in October 2022 – a date quickly postponed to October 2023.
June 7, 2020, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity: Archbishop Charles Scicluna launched the document ‘One Church, One Journey’, inviting the Maltese Church to embark on a process of renewal with a four-year lifespan: 2020-2024.
Today, July 17, 2022. Two years have already come and gone! The laity and the clergy are getting the impression that ‘One Church, One Journey’ is either journeying as slow as a molass or that it has already sunk.
One Church, One Journey is either journeying as slow as a molass or it has already sunk
‘One Church, One Journey’ made great and praiseworthy promises; one chief promise, in line with the old maxim, revived Congar (1958) “quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari et approbari debet” (what touches all must be approved by all), was this:
“All parishes, schools, religious congregations, lay movements, ministries of service, and every other Catholic entity in Malta are being invited to participate, in their own unique way, in this process of ecclesial discernment towards pastoral reform. Thus, ecclesial renewal will flourish organically, in all sectors of the Church, not because it is imposed from above, but as it unfolds in many pockets.”(p4).
To date, the “all... are being invited to participate” remains a chimera. How many laity, clergy and religious were given the concrete possibility to participate? I am aware that a number of ad hoc groups were consulted. However, as the Preparatory Document of the Synod (par 30: III) asks: “Who speaks on behalf of the Christian community, and how are they chosen?”
This scenario applies to the first phase of the Synod on Synodality, whose report ought to be sent to Rome by August 15, 2022. How does the quote above: “not because it is imposed from above” tally with the fact – I have it in black on white – that the great majority of the theologians and philosophers of the Faculty of Theology have not been consulted at all? Extrapolate this to the people in the pew.
As former UK health secretary Sajid Javid warned the House of Commons in his resignation speech on July 6, 2022, “not doing something is an active decision”.