View from Rome

An extraordinarily frank and open discussion between Pope Francis and a group of young adults was broadcast during Holy Week. It provided a striking example of what a synodal dialogue looks like.

This was far from a stage-managed conversation. The Pope sat down with 10  Spanish-speakers aged between 20 and 25, including Catholics, Christians from other denominations, non-believers and a Muslim. They didn’t meet in the Vatican but in Pigneto, a traditionally working-class suburb of Rome now popular with young professionals. The encounter was filmed as a documentary, The Pope: Answers, and broadcast on Disney+. 

No topic was off-limits. The Pope was asked if he was paid a salary (No), if he had a mobile phone (No), and if he ever wanted to be in a relationship (“I was in a relationship before I entered the seminary. But then I chose celibacy”). He was challenged (on abortion and the ordination of women) and even rebuked (on the Church’s handling of clerical sexual abuse). Sometimes he sat and listened, before intervening with a reflection. He made some bold admissions. “We Christians haven’t always had a mature catechesis regarding sex,” he said, adding that its catechesis in this area “is still ‘in nappies’.” Francis told Celia, who identifies as non-binary, that those who use the Bible to promote hate or exclude LGBTQ Catholics are “infiltrators” using the Church to promote their own ideologies. 

It wasn’t just the content but the format that felt like a synodal gathering. At the end, the Pope thanks the group and says: “I learned a lot from you.” Their dialogue, he adds, was a “path of the Church”. 

The documentary’s release comes six months before the first of two synods on synodality summits in the Vatican. Some worry because the synod has been throwing open the sort of messy and complex topics which the young people and Francis discuss with such candour in Pigneto; others welcome it for at last making such open and honest conversations possible in the Church. 

The Vatican’s synod office stresses that the process has not ended at the local level. It is now up to dioceses and parishes to implement the “synodal reforms” in areas which don’t need Rome’s approval. One sign that the synod is not a one-off event is the launch of the School for Synodality, which will offer resources and support for renewal to Catholic communities in England and Wales. The directors are Avril Baigent, pastoral ministry adviser for the Diocese of Northampton, and Chris Knowles, the founder of “Synod Fruits”. It is initiatives like these, along with the Pope’s discussion with young people – free, unfiltered and modelling the Church in listening mode – which shows the synodal process is starting to bear fruit.

The Holy See’s agreement with China has come under increased strain after Bishop Joseph Shen Bin, formerly the Bishop of Haimen, was installed as the new Bishop of Shanghai without Vatican consent. The details of the accord, which have never been made public, are understood to give Beijing the power to nominate episcopal candidates but give the Pope the final say over who is appointed. Bishop Shen’s move comes a few months after Bishop John Peng Weizhao was installed as an auxiliary bishop in Jiangxi, a diocese the Holy See does not recognise. 

Critics of the deal were quick to pronounce it dead. The reality is more complicated. Last week, a Chinese foreign affairs spokeswoman said that “China and the Vatican are in communication” over the latest appointments and that Beijing is “ready to maintain contact with the Vatican side to uphold the spirit of the agreement”. Bishop Shen and Bishop Peng were both initially ordained to the episcopate with the Holy See’s mandate and the latest appointments were transfers to new dioceses. 

While its patience is being tested, the Vatican seems to be willing to play the long game. It has said very little about Bishop Shen’s appointment. In a 2017 interview with the “Vatican Insider” website, Bishop Shen talked about distinguishing between “matters of faith” and “economic and administrative matters”. The bishop, who is president of the government-approved Catholic Bishops’ Conference, added: “Jesus says we must be as cunning as serpents and as simple as doves.”  

As Francis delivered his Easter Sunday Urbi et Orbi message, Cardinal Ernest Simoni, 94, stood on his left. The Albanian cardinal survived the brutal communist regime of Enver Hoxha, despite being condemned to death twice and being sentenced to 28 years of hard labour, which he spent working in a mine and then a sewer. To celebrate Mass, he would use bread he had baked himself and grapes he had crushed with his hands to make wine. When the Pope visited Albania in 2014, he was moved to tears by the testimony of the then Fr Simoni. Two years later, he made him a cardinal. 

Today, Cardinal Simoni lives in Florence, where he often talks about his experiences in Albania, and the importance of forgiveness, which, he says, is what “brings Jesus into the world”. He is a living witness to Easter hope.