Synodal Reflections
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Proposed canon law changes forget ecclesial movements
The proposed changes to the Code of Canon put forward by the canon law commission of the Synod on Synodality have now been published. Here are a few, brief initial comments.
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Ecclesial associations and movements in a synodal Church
Reflections on the Synod on Synodality Study Group 6 Final Report and Iuvenescit Ecclesia
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Catholic school leaders and politics
For the last 120 years, Catholic teaching has insisted that leaders of Catholic organisations cannot simultaneously engage in party politics. Was this policy followed at Catholic Schools NSW? If not, why not?
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Blackclad in a Roman heatwave
At 8.30 this morning, I saw an Italian bishop dressed in black walking down the hill towards the Vatican where I guess he works. His face was already red in the rising heat of a day that’s going to be around 37°C.
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Serving, educating and representing lay people in the Church
Next year, 2027, will be the 60th anniversary of Cardijn’s death, as well as of the Third World Congress on Lay Apostolate and the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life – a perfect opportunity to reflect on how the Vatican II vision of lay apostolate has developed (or not).
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Shaking hands with the pope
On Thursday 21 May 2026, Pope Leo addressed 200 leaders of international Catholic lay movements, associations and communities in the Vatican’s Synod Hall. But did he listen to them?
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Apostolicam Actuositatem: Vatican II’s least read document
The Synodality Study Group on the cry of the poor and the earth highlights the importance of formation. Yet if fails to mention Apostolicam Actuositatem, the Vatican II document that speaks the most about that subject.
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The fight for a lay senate… in Rome
This video is extracted from a report by Australian delegates from the International YCW World Council in Bangkok in 1965. It illustrates that lay leaders were already battling to build a church based on fraternal not paternal dialogue between clergy and laity.
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Lay apostolate vs lay ministry according to AI
What is the difference between “lay apostolate” and “lay ministry” as interpreted by current AI Large Language Models?
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Synod Final Document: Initial reactions
There are many angles to explore in the Synod Final Document. Let’s see what it says about the role of lay people, their mission and vocation – their lay apostolate – and the role of the lay apostolic movements
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Lay movements challenge Synod to prioritise lay apostolate
At a special Mass celebrated in the Domitilla Catacombs in Rome, fifty lay leaders from thirty countries working with international lay apostolate movements adopted a declaration addressed to participants at the Second Session of the Synod on Synodality.
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What of the 99%?
The Australian Cardijn Institute has published its submission to the Second Assembly of the Synod on Synodality focusing on the mission and vocation of lay people.
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Lay apostolate & the lay apostolic movements
This is a talk prepared for a Pax Romana ICMICA webinar on 27 April 2024 on “The lay movements in the new ecclesiology of the new Synodal Church.”
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The Synod’s missing associative dimension
When Saint (Pope) John XXIII called Vatican II in 1959, he looked upon it in a traditional sense as a council of bishops. Not even the Preparatory Commission on Lay Apostolate included a single lay person.
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Where are lay people in the Synod docs?
A new set of preparatory documents for the 2nd Session of the Synod on Synodality has been published. Let’s look at how they understand the role of lay people.
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See judge act or spiritual conversation?
What method should dioceses and Church bodies use in the process of synodal discernment? Should they follow Cardijn’s “see-judge-act” process that has become a staple since Vatican II? Or what about the Ignatian-inspired “spiritual conversation”?
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Synodal boundaries for dioceses?
Below I am reposting an article I wrote for the old CathNews CathBlog in 2011 on the issue of the size of Melbourne Archdiocese in particular and the failure to heed an exhortation from the Vatican II to review its boundaries.
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Youth “ministry” or “pastoral practice”?
In Australia and other anglophone countries, the term “youth ministry” has emerged since Vatican II to describe the Church’s work with young people.
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From Laudato Si’ to Laudate Deum
In one of the most powerful and hard-hitting documents of his pontificate, Pope Francis has challenged humanity to address the “indubitable impact of climate change” on “our suffering planet” that he fears will devastate the lives of people around the world, and particularly the poorest.
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Saints of the Global South
I count three Italians, one Spaniard, one Pole and one Canadian on today’s list of six decrees presented by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints and promulgated by Pope Francis.
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Retrieve the (movement) history of co-responsibility
Warning that clericalism is not the only things preventing the development of a more synodal Church, Chicago priest, Fr Louis Cameli, who is Cardinal Cupich’s delegation for formation and mission, has called for “a retrieval of history of co-responsibility in mission lived out in the past.”
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The clericalisation of the Dicastery for Laity
Working on the archives of International YCW pioneer, Marguerite Fiévez, who was a member of the original Council of the Laity established by Pope Paul VI in 1967, I located a complete list of the 29 members and consultors of that original Council.
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Simple, practical synodality
This is the video of a webinar on synodality hosted by the International Movement of Catholic Students (IMCS) Asia-Pacific and the International Youth Training Centre in Chiang Mai, Thailand on 16 December 2023.
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An alternative model for a Vatican Council of the Laity
Prior to Pope Paul VI’s January 1967 motu proprio, Catholicam Christi Ecclesiam, establishing the Council of the Laity and the Pontifical Study Commission ‘Justice and Peace’, much discussion and consultation took place regarding the model for the new structures.
Interested in more?