In the Vineyard :: August 28, 2024 :: Volume 24, Issue 9
Synodality in Action
Praying, discussing, and discerning together are keys to the growth of synodality in our Church. They will not happen by accident, or by waiting for others to open the path. We must be the pilgrims who practice synodality and spread it among others.
At VOTF, we began this journey a few years before Pope Francis invited the global Church to a Synod on Synodality. We called it The Bridge Dialogues, and we worked with the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests (AUSCP) and FutureChurch to bring the practice to all our members. You can still find the models we used, which are just as valid today, on the VOTF website. They focus on clericalism—another concern Pope Francis warns against.
Today, in a continued collaboration with AUSCP, we invite you to practice synodality following the method established during the Synod meetings in Rome last October. Our Conversations in the Spirit, hosted by our own Synod working group and the AUSCP Vatican II working group, will cover religious liberty this year: How do we understand the human right to religious liberty, as taught in Dignitatis Humanae from the Vatican II Council? What are the implications for a synodal Church that teaches religious freedom as a right but also says that all religions are not the same?
Please join us for one of our August sessions: TODAY Aug. 28 at 8 pm (Eastern). Here’s the formal invitation with the two questions we will discuss. It’s important that we have lay and clergy together exploring the questions and hearing each other’s thoughts. So, please invite friends to register and join us. Invite your pastor. Invite your neighbor. Invite your relatives. It’s a big tent, bring everyone!
To register directly:
August 28, Wednesday, 8 pm Eastern, 7 pm Central, 6 pm Mountain, 5 pm Pacific
We hope to see many of you there!
Celebrating Saint Phoebe
September 3rd is Saint Phoebe’s Feast Day.
You probably would not have known that since it was replaced by the Memorial of Pope Gregory the Great in 1969. Phoebe has been hidden from us in other ways, too. At no time during the Church’s liturgical year will you hear Saint Paul’s description of her as our sister, a benefactor and the only woman in the New Testament described as a deacon (diakonos). Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans 16:1-2 is not included in any of the yearly or weekly readings in the Lectionary.
But she is no longer a forgotten woman.
The academic contributions of theologians and historians have supported the evidence of women deacons up until the 12th century. In the past ten years two commissions were established to study the topic and Pope Francis charged synodal Study Group# 5 to continue the work. And since our earliest days, VOTF has been actively participating in emerging efforts to promote the roles of women in ministry.
For two years, in collaboration with our partners in Discerning Deacons (discerningdeacons.org) we have supported virtual St. Phoebe Prayer Services on the third day of every month. Our VOTF Women’s (and Men’s) Emerging Voices “Continental Deacon Circle” offered one on April 3, 2023.
Women have been inspired to speak of their heartfelt calls to diaconal ministry; webinars have provided educational speakers; women have offered testimonies as witnesses of diaconal ministry; and synodal Conversations in the Spirit, both virtual and in person, have welcomed women and men to listen, pray and discern together!
Despite the rejection of the topic of women deacons in the closing of the Synod on Synodality, there is still reason for hope. The Instrumentum Laboris makes space for the importance of women’s roles in the section titled “Sisters and brothers in Christ: a renewed reciprocity.” Paragraphs 13-18 recognize the relevance of the transformation of structures, based on the full equality of baptism, for co-responsibility in the service of Christ’s mission. Women will be present at the Synod and will continue to respond to the
promptings of the Holy Spirit for necessary reform.
September 3rd is a special day honoring all women everywhere. You may already be engaged in planning a prayer service, a theological reflection, a synodal gathering, prayers, bulletin inserts or icons that expand devotion to Saint Phoebe. If you are, thank you for your work and inspiration.
If you were unaware of these opportunities and you want to be part of them, you are invited to join us. And if so moved, you are welcome to plan your own celebration, inviting your parish or a community of friends. The work is already organized for you and accessible in the “Quick Guide to St. Phoebe Day” on the Discerning Deacons’ website. It is the most comprehensive website for background information, resource material and templates for everything from bulletin inserts to prayers to a fully planned service.
Please share the Good News proclaimed by St. Paul and tell others about St. Phoebe.
Join us in asking for the guidance of the Holy Spirit through the intercessory prayers of St. Phoebe. In the words written by Australian Sister Elizabeth Young, RSM, let us pray:
God of Vision,
You see beyond our horizons and enlarge our tents.
You draw us into communion, participation and mission.
Inspired by St. Phoebe, our Deacon forbear in faith,
may we hear the cries of those who suffer,
discern our response with the Holy Spirit,
and reach out in ministry
to share the Good News with all creation.
May we proclaim your Reign, in which all are kin,
welcomed with healing and hope.
May our Church lead and serve in the spirit of Jesus,
who raised up those bowed down.
God of Vision, light our way that all might shine.
St. Phoebe, pray for us.
Amen.
Providence’s Bishop Henning to Replace Cardinal O’Malley
Pope Francis has appointed Most Rev. Richard Henning, Bishop of Providence, Rhode Island, as the 14th Archbishop of Boston. Bishop Henning will succeed Archbishop Sean P. O’Malley, who has served as Archbishop of Boston since 2002.
Known for his pastoral care, commitment to social justice, and dedication to ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, Henning’s appointment marks a new chapter for the Archdiocese of Boston.
When asked what he would say to Catholics who have left the Church “over their disgust of the institution’s handling of the clergy-sex-abuse scandal,” Bishop Henning replied, “My message to them is: I’ll listen to their pain, their woundedness.”
He noted that much of the abuse occurred during his formative years. “I certainly lived through that as well. When these crimes and sins were committed, I was also a child. I’m grateful to God that I was not affected by it personally, but people in my generation were,” he said. “I think those survivors deserve a listening heart.”
He added:
“If there are Catholics who are scandalized, I understand why they’re scandalized. It’s scandalous and certainly painful for me over the course of my life. But it has not made me lose my faith in God or my faith in the possibility of reconciliation and new life, even in the midst of what may feel devastating. So I would say to them that if I have failed you, if a leader in their Church has failed you, I’m so sorry, but God has not failed you. God is still with you. And it would be tragic for you to lose your relationship with God, the blessings that flow from that because of my actions or failures. But at the end of the day, all I can do is listen and hope and pray with the person, I think.”
Read 11 Things to Know About Boston’s New Archbishop-Elect Richard Henning, here.
To learn more about Bishop Henning, read, Bishop who helped reenergize the Diocese of Providence will soon head to Boston, here.
The Francis and Ann Curran Center for American Catholic Studies 20th Annual Rita Cassella Jones Lecture on Women and US Catholicism
Voice of the Faithful Focus News Roundup
Mercy Sr. Theresa Kane, prominent advocate for women’s rights, dies at 87
Mercy Sr. Theresa Kane, who fought for decades for the equality of women in the Catholic Church — famously publicly challenging the pope on the issue — died Aug. 22. She was 87.
In 1978 she became president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). That position gave her the honor of what would become Kane’s signature public moment: greeting Pope St. John Paul II during his visit to the United States in 1979. During her remarks, which were televised and before an audience of 5,000 sisters, Kane told the pope, “The church, in its struggle to be faithful to its call for reverence and charity for all persons, must respond by providing the possibility of women as persons being included in all the ministries of our church.”
Her comments ignited a firestorm of controversy. Read more from The Global Sisters Report, here.
Abuse crisis in the Catholic Church shows no signs of abating
Clerical abuse has been in the news again lately. For more than two decades, horrific stories of abuse and coverup have been a mainstay of the news in the English-speaking world and beyond. The most recent round of stories raises the question of whether the church will ever really address the root of the problem. Read more from Crux, here.
William Marx: Pope Francis’ words on literature, which go against the Church’s tradition of censorship, are revolutionary
“Often during periods of boredom on holiday, in the heat and quiet of some deserted neighborhood, finding a good book to read can provide an oasis that keeps us from other choices that are less wholesome.” This excellent piece of advice wouldn’t have come as a surprise if it had been written by Bernard Pivot or Oprah Winfrey. Yet it is the opening of the unusual “Letter of His Holiness Pope Francis on the Role of Literature in Formation,” which was published in the middle of the Olympic Games and went almost unnoticed.
The pontifical document is nonetheless a major event for all lovers of literature. Although it is aimed at the Catholic world, its significance goes far beyond the problem of priestly formation it initially targets. Educational leaders, including those in secular education, will find much to ponder. Read more in Le Monde, here.
Pope Francis’ August Prayer Intention: For Political Leaders
In his prayer intention for the month of August, the Holy Father invites the faithful to join him in prayer “that political leaders be at the service of their own people, working for integral human development and the common good, taking caring of those who have lost their jobs and giving priority to the poorest.”
Watch here.
Comments?
Please send them to Siobhan Carroll, Vineyard Editor, at Vineyard@votf.org. Unless otherwise indicated, I will assume comments can be published as Letters to the Editor.
Reminder: Please notify office@votf.org if you change your email address