Six months out from the second assembly of the Synod on synodality, two issues continue to dominate the discourse: Fiducia supplicans, the document on blessings for “irregular” and same-sex couples issued by the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith in December, and the continuing tensions between the Vatican and the German Synod.
Of course, the synodal process itself is at the center of both issues. But there’s a particular intensity surrounding the German Synod, dating prior to Francis’s opening of the global “synodal process” in 2021; it has the most advanced national synodal experience, has developed the most organized synodal reaction to the abuse crisis, and has generated the most concern among and warnings from both the Vatican and the pope himself, along with a series of outright scoldings.
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