African Cardinal Says ‘Fiducia’ has Discredited Synod on Synodality

An Africa cardinal who recently led the continent’s bishops in rejecting blessings for same-sex couples has now lashed out at the timing of the Vatican document that opened the door to such a move, calling it “damaging” to the synodal process convened by Pope Francis. Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo said that because the Dec. 18 release of Fiducia Supplicans, which authorized non-liturgical blessings of the persons involved in same-sex relationships, came between the two Synods of Bishops on Synodality, it created the misleading notion that the document was the fruit of synodal discussions. ...“In the first session, the synod dealt with all these issues, but the synod did not decide,” Ambongo said. “So the publication of this document, between the two sessions of the synod, was seen by most people as if it was the fruit of the synod, when it had nothing to do with the synod.”