Maltese Mario Grech becomes new secretary general of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican. What looks like a formality is a signal, not to be underestimated, for the Catholic Church to open up.
Silently, a baton has been passed in the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican. On Wednesday, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri relinquished his position as Secretary General. In the same ab. Pope Francis appointed the Maltese bishop Mario Grech to the post.
The change was expected since October 2019. At that time, just before the Amazon Synod, the pope made Grech pro-general secretary and thus Baldisseri's designated successor. As unexciting as the personnel matter is, the new man could also bring a new wind into the leadership of the Catholic Church.
Instrument of episcopal collegiality
As a permanent institution, the Catholic Synod of Bishops has existed since the end of the Second Vatican Council in 1965. Usually every three to four years at Ordinary General Assemblies, and in between on special topics or regions, delegates from the bishops' conferences, representatives of the Roman Curia and religious orders, and members appointed by the pope meet for several weeks of consultations in Rome.
Soon after taking office in 2013, Francis made it clear that he wanted to strengthen these assemblies, which in themselves have only an advisory function, as an instrument of worldwide episcopal collegiality. Baldisseri, appointed secretary general in September 2013, provided a more efficient and dialogue-oriented process with new organization and methodology.
The synods between 2014 and 2019
In terms of content, the very first synod, or more precisely a double synod on family pastoral ministry in 2014 and 2015, ventured into delicate topics. The cautious opening to remarried divorcees that Francis made in his subsequent letter, "Amoris laetita," created an intra-Catholic controversy that continues to this day.
Advantage for the pope: he can rely on backing from the world's episcopate for his pastoral reforms, some of which have drawn outrageous criticism from conservatives. In addition, Francis broadened the basis of opinion formation. After a 2018 synod on youth ies, he called the involvement of non-clergy and young people exemplary of a "synodal style" for the church. According to Peruvian Cardinal Pedro Barreto Jimeno, 87 people brought to the Amazon Synod in 2019.000 faithful to voice their concerns in preparatory events on the ground.
"For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission."
The course is set for more participation in decision-making processes. So the theme of the next bishops' meeting, postponed until October 2022 due to corona, is "For a synodal church: communion, participation and mission".
It may be that Baldisseri recently lacked the momentum of the departure. During last fall's synod, he squirmed in front of journalists to explain why religious men without priestly ordination, but still no religious women, are allowed as voting members. Francis accepted Baldisseri's resignation barely two weeks before his 80th birthday. Birthday. Am 29. September, the Tuscan cardinal would have lost his posts anyway.
Grech on Vatican ecumenical council since last July
Now Mario Grech is at the helm. The 63-year-old lawyer and canon lawyer, since 2005 bishop of the northern Maltese island of Gozo, showed himself on various occasions as a man after the Pope's own mind. In the migration debate, he condemned populism and, among other things, backed the German sea rescuers of Sea-Watch. While as recently as 2011 he condemned Christians who advocated for a legal possibility of divorce in Malta as "wolves in sheep's clothing," in 2015 he demanded a church approach to homosexual couples.
The Maltese Church's guidelines on the admission of remarried divorcees to Communion, co-authored by Grech, were published in the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano in January 2017 – a recommendation of sorts from the boss. Last July, Francis appointed him to the Vatican Ecumenical Council. In addition to Grech, Malta's Archbishop Charles Scicluna is also in a key Vatican position as an expert on abuse ies and associate secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. On both Maltese rests a lot of trust of the Pope.
Grech: "It is in these gray areas that we must search"
When an interviewer for the Malta Today newspaper asked him in 2018 about the old black-and-white thinking in the Catholic Church, Grech said he distrusted priests and Christians who thought they already had all the answers.
"Black and white continue to exist; but the gray area in between has grown. It is in these gray areas that we must look." Pope Francis would hardly have said it any other way.