Italian academic predicts changes post Synod
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Renowned Italian theologian and author Massimo Faggioli provided valuable insights into the challenges and hopes of the Catholic Church during a two-week visit to Adelaide last month.
Professor Faggioli has lived in the United States for the past 16 years and is regarded as one of the world’s leading authorities on the modern history of the Catholic Church.
His visit was part of the ‘Mission Masterclass’ series introduced by Catholic Education SA this year and included a public lecture, an address to clergy and sessions with educators, parish leaders, diocesan staff from Adelaide and Port Pirie.
“His gentle though absolutely laser-like reflections on the synodal journey, Francis’ pontificate, the extremes we see in the church and in politics, and the indicative signs of challenge and hope for the future, have captivated a variety of audiences,” said CESA director of Catholic Identity and Mission Dr Jill Gowdie.
In an interview with The Southern Cross, Prof Faggioli said he believed synodality would continue after the papacy of Francis because “this is a Church that doesn’t have enough priests and religious to be run and governed like it used to be”.
“It’s not something that can be ignored or denied for too long,” he continued.
“The next Pope might have a different take on synodality but I think it cannot be put back into the bottle.”
“Like Vatican II, al popes had to implement that vision, it was not just John Paul XXIII’s personal project but something that inspired many people and made people realise that something needed to be done.”
Referring to the Instrumentum laboris, the key working document for the second session of the Synod of Bishops, Prof Faggioli said the two most significant themes were the role of women and allowing local churches to act in different ways at different times.
“The question of women is central, the document is very clear and honest about that,” he said.
“And the Church will have to implement some changes in local churches in different ways in different times, that’s what I think it says.”
While it was not clear whether Pope Francis would make an exhortation or “a document of some kind” after the assembly, Prof Faggioli said “something will continue to happen…that’s been said clearly”.
A proponent of female deacons, he expressed frustration at Pope Francis’ intransigence on the issue and said it was not on the agenda for the assembly.
However, he said “I think this is going to happen at some point.”
“I am in favour of women diaconate because it’s something that can be done, there’s no teaching or document of the Church against that.
“It’s a role women have had for some time without the title, and something that should happen earlier in some countries.”
Reflecting on his experience in Adelaide, he said: “I think that in terms of synodality more is happening than most other dioceses that I know or read about.”
“The Australian Church has been very active on this model path both because of the Plenary Council and initiatives taken after and in response to the Royal Commission…it has been an example of courage and of understanding that there is no status quo that can be sustained in the future,” he said.
“We need to imagine how this Church can be governed more with leadership of lay people, with women, it’s very complicated because some things must change first at the level of official teaching but there’s a lot that’s going on already.”
The author of more than a dozen books (it depends if you count the translations), Prof Faggioli visited Adelaide once before in 2017 at the invitation of the Australian Catholic University.
Since 2008 he has been a professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University in Philadelphia, where he lives with his wife Sarah, who is American academic, and their two children.
Prof Faggioli said he “wears his Catholicism lightly” in the United States where religion can be a polarising topic.
“I found it more in line with my character and personality to express Catholicism in ways that tend to be inviting, to raise questions, rather than a blunt proclamation, less combative and a more lived Catholicism,” he said.
“That’s a little bit part of Italian Catholicism, and also a safety mechanism against the hyper political nature of the intra-Catholic conversation in the US which tends to really frame you in a particular corner.”
This month his latest book, Global Catholicism: Between encounter and disruption, co-authored with an American colleague, will be released. It deals with the complexity of being one Catholic Church in a “very diverse” global world and how the role of the Vatican is changing in all this.
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