In a statement expressing frustration at the 52-page report which was adopted in Rome by a two-thirds majority of the 368 delegates, Dr McAleese said, “Not one single thing has shifted even marginally.
“The final Synod report is one big wordy yawn signifying absolutely nothing,” she said, so much so that the Pope has decided not to issue a post synodal exhortation.
However, the final document did recommend an overhaul in the training of future priests, greater lay involvement in selecting bishops, expansion of women's ministries and a revision of church law to mandate greater transparency and accountability throughout the church.
Bishop Brendan Leahy of Limerick, who attended the Synod in Rome on behalf of the Irish bishops’ conference with Bishop Alan McGuckian of Down and Connor, said the document is not just about structural changes.
“The Synod is inviting us to move from a way of seeing Church in terms of a ‘pyramid’ structure – a Pope at the top, and then all the way down through bishops, priests, religious, lay people – to be more collaborative and participative, with a community focus, and where each one is valued for her or his specific gifts and roles,” Bishop Leahy explained.
But according to McAleese, anyone who thinks that the final document will energise the faithful to “new levels of ecclesial engagement and commitment is deluded”. She said only a Church committed to equality can do that. “The Catholic Church is manifestly not yet that,” she said.
Separately, Marianne Duddy-Burke, DignityUSA’s executive director expressed disappointment because the document “does not contain even a single explicit mention of LGBTQ+ people”.
Hofstra University research professor Phyllis Zagano, an expert on women deacons commented to The Tablet, “The fact that the primary paragraph addressing the possibility of women deacons received the most ‘no’ votes could indicate that the synod finds the time for ‘more study’ has ended and a decision must be made.”
She said, “There is abundant evidence of the sacramental ordinations of women as deacons in the Church, East and West, to the 12th century.”
Referring to the Orthodox Church’s return to the tradition, Dr Zagano noted that a woman was ordained as deacon in Zimbabwe in May this year.