Word: synods
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Rome last week was almost as busy with ecclesiastical affairs as it had been during the Second Vatican Council. At the Vatican Palace, about 200 bishops from all over the world ended the second week of a month-long synod convened by Pope Paul. Near by, at the Pius XII auditorium, more than 2,800 Catholic men and women assembled for the Third World Congress for the Lay Apostolate, a kind of summit conference of leading lay leaders...
...mood of the two gatherings was markedly different. Shrouded in secrecy, the bishops at the synod have so far been debating issues that are relatively far removed from the real concerns of most Catholics: reform of canon law and doctrinal aberrations. So far, the most concrete result of the synod has been a suggestion to create an international theological commission that would review questions regarding doctrine...
Delegates to the eight-day congress are spending most of their time at workshops dealing with such general topics as the conflict between generations, the family-a subject that has already led to a discussion of birth control-and world economic development. Like the synod, the congress has no legislative authority over its church and can only make recommendations to the Pope. But some Roman observers were betting that Paul VI might get at least as much good advice from the congress' laymen as from the synod's bishops...
Quintet of Questions. Meetings of the synod will take place in the Vatican's "Cantina delle Teste Rotte" (Cellar of Broken Heads).&* Two of three presiding officers at the meetings-William Cardinal Conway of Ireland and Pericle Cardinal Felici, the secretary-general of Vatican II-are generally regarded as conservatives. The agenda ignores the two most bothersome issues facing the church today-priestly celibacy and birth control. Instead, the bishops are expected to focus on a quintet of less pressing questions: canon-law reform, updating doctrine, seminary renewal, mixed marriages and liturgy...
Papal Will. Although the ground rules for the synod limit discussion to the five picked topics, it is not impossible that the agenda will be broadened. The 182 attending bishops include a strong representation of renewal-minded prelates, some of whom have already indicated that they want the floor thrown open for debate on other issues. Whether they succeed depends largely on the mind and will of Pope Paul, who now seems to have recovered sufficiently from his prostate condition so that an operation may not be necessary until after the synod ends next month. Unlike an ecumenical council, which...