I have been reflecting on the Gospel for this past weekend, and Pope Francis’ Synod in Rome.
In the parable of the King’s wedding feast for his son, Matthew 22:1-10, Jesus tells the story of the King inviting guests to the wedding feast. Upon receiving the first invitation, the formally invited guests refuse to come to the feast. So, the King sends servants out with a second invitation. This invitation is either ignored by those invited, or they expressed their indignation at being invited by torturing and killing those whom the King had sent with the invitation. Angered at their refusal and the maltreatment and murder of his servants, the King sends his army to destroy all those who were invited. The King then orders his servants to go the highways and byways, the alleys and the streets and invite ALL, most of whom were poor and neglected, vulnerable and forgotten to the wedding feast. And ALL are welcomed by the King and enjoy the feast.
POPE FRANCIS’ WORLDWIDE SYNOD
What Pope Francis I is doing with the Synod in Rome is inviting all to this worldwide Synod, to hear the voices of not just the hierarchy of the Church but to listen and to empower, and encourage the laity, men and women, to speak openly and honestly about the state of the Church and how it meets and does not meet their spiritual needs. This is reminiscent of Pope John XXIII’s Ecumenical council, Vatican II, in which Pope John invited not just Roman Catholic bishops to the Council, but invited bishops of ALL Christian denominations to attend. Pope Francis’ Synod and Pope John’s Vatican II share one vital thing in common, both are INCLUSIVE, welcoming ALL to speak and confer.
OPPOSITION TO THE INCLUSIVITY OF POPE FRANCIS
Clearly, many bishops, mainly conservatives and those entrenched in the corrupted Roman Curia at the Vatican, were bitterly opposed to Pope John’s Vatican II. Similarly, there are bishops and priests in the United States and elsewhere, including five very vocal Cardinals, namely, Walter Brandmueller (Germany), Raymond Burke (United States), Robert Sarah (Guinea), Juan Sandoval (Mexico), and Joseph Zen (Hong Kong), who are bitterly opposed to everything Pope Francis is doing and are working to undermine his teachings and his desire for the Church to be inclusive.
These cardinals, bishops, and priests do not want the inclusive Church of Pope Francis, but rather the closed, exclusive Church of Pope John Paul II, and Pope Benedict XVI, who spoke of an exclusive, smaller and more faithful Church. This conservative ecclesiastical vision of the Church is in complete opposition to the teachings and the ministry of Jesus, who welcomed all to the Reign of God.
A PRE-DATED MODEL OF HOW THE SYNOD CAN WORK IN A CATHOLIC PARISH
As I reflected on this Gospel reading, I thought especially of the former St Stephen’s Catholic Church in South Minneapolis, whose parish mission stated that the Church was a large circus tent under which all were welcome. The vitality of St Stephen’s when I was assigned there was found in the diversity of people, from those who were developmentally disabled, to those in the LGBTQ+ community, to ex-offender, to former priests and religious, to the homeless, to the Latino community, and to disenfranchised from society and other faith traditions, in other words, the exact milieu of Jesus when he was doing his earthly ministry.
St Stephen’s at that time, predated the Synod of Pope Francis. Every year we would have a parish wide meeting at which parish leadership would listen to the concerns, the needs, and interests of ALL in the parish. This work at inclusion was the driving force that made this parish, at that time, so vital and so successful as a church and its outreach to the poor and disenfranchised of South Minneapolis. It was the vision of this community that created St Stephen’s Human Services (now a part of Agate) with all its services to the poor and the homeless of South Minneapolis. (Note: this model of how to do Church continues in the Spirit of St Stephen’s Community).
THE PARALLEL OF THE PARABLE WITH THE SYNOD IN ROME AND IN ALL DIOCESES
There is a direct parallel to this parable to what is happening in the Roman Catholic Church worldwide, and and what is suppose to be happening in the Roman Catholic Church in the United States.
Are our dioceses and our parishes inclusive in welcoming all to the Roman Catholic Church regardless of whether they are LGBTQ+, ex-offenders, other cultures and races, homeless or disenfranchised, and disabilities? Or do we find our diocese and parishes excluding those who don’t look like us, or worship like us, or whose sexual orientation is different from us, or whose culture and race differs from us, or those who are questioning their faith and are seriously searching for God in their spirituality? I am finding more and more of our parishes with the leadership of priests less inclusive of all, and more exclusive and non-welcoming.
For me, it is clear that those who oppose inclusion in the Roman Catholic Church, like Burke, Sarah, Brandmueller, Yen, and Sandoval, and clergy like them, are similar to those who were invited to the King’s feast, and either rejected the invitation altogether or ignored the invitation.
THE SYNOD IN THE ARCHDIOCESE
Is the synod being rolled out in this Archdiocese truly welcoming and empowering the baptized laity of this Archdiocese, giving them a voice in how our parishes are run? Or, is it all for show, paying lip service to the intent of Pope Francis? In other words, is the intent of the hierarchy of this Archdiocese to give people a real voice in the church, or just give the faithful an illusion of being inclusive and having a voice in our church, with the Archdiocese pursuing its own exclusive agenda, controlling, stymieing dialogue, and silencing all which it does not want to hear? Given the past history of this Archdiocese and by own personal experience, I think it is more the latter than the former.
As a former president of the Deacon Council, we spent a whole year of 2000 doing a self-study of the diaconate. We spent a lot of time in meetings with all the deacons and their wives at the bequest of Archbishop Flynn. When the conclusions of the deacons were given to Flynn, and Flynn found the conclusions did not match what he wanted, he squashed and basically condemned the self-study. Many deacons remember the meeting when the diaconal community presented the findings to the Archbishop Flynn and his chancery entourage, the night of Easter Monday, or what we later called Black Monday. Flynn’s rejection was vicious and brutal and all of our work condemned and suppressed.
This same thing has happened time and time again in this Archdiocese in other matters. As much as I wish this synod would be different, I cynically believe that an honest dialogue with the hierarchy of the Archdiocese will not happen, and the real spiritual needs of the people of this Archdiocese will either be ignored or dismissed by the hierarchy.
CONCLUSION
The hierarchy of the Church had better reflect on this parable. Jesus’ parable of the Wedding Feast clearly states that God’s Reign is not a closed, exclusive invitation, but the invitation to God’s Reign is open to all. Jesus clearly states that those who hold themselves exclusive and reject the invitation to the wedding feast, will similarly find themselves excluded from the Reign of God. Whom the hierarchy rejects, God accepts!
