Rome & the World: thoughts from nun on bishops’ council • 3 points in Canada • soccer and synods

French nun Yvonne Reungoat is one of three women who will now participate in the selection process for new bishops, serving on the Dicastery for Bishops. The 77-year-old Salesian Sister was asked about these new responsibilities by the Spanish Catholic website Vida Nueva Digital. She explained that the presence of women in the Dicastery for Bishops is a necessary "step forward" in order to have "a shared vision and complementary sensibilities.” Women's sensitivity, she explains, is "based on intuition, on the attention to go a little further and to go deeper into reality.” According to Sister Reungoat, women must take their place in the Church and to do this, they must put forward their specificities, without "imposing themselves" but by taking advantage of "the cracks that exist." Regarding her new job, she considers that "the ideal bishop does not exist" and that he must above all be a "pastor close to the people entrusted to him." He must also have "the ability to listen," she insists, acknowledging that these responsibilities can be frightening and discourage candidates. 

Vida Nueva Digital, Spanish

Pope Francis’ trip to Canada is a “'penitential pilgrimage,' dedicated to indigenous Canadians but capable of speaking far beyond the country’s borders,” argues an article published by Italian press agency Askanews. The text highlights that the Pontiff’s determination to pursue this trip, despite his increasingly limited mobility due to his knee, shows how impacted he was by the indigenous delegations who came to visit him in the Vatican between March and April. During this occasion they shared the stories of abuse they suffered in the residential schools run by the Church and the forced cultural assimilation they had to endure. The article then explains there are three points that the Pope wants to develop on this trip. The first is that he wants to expand the recognition of the Church’s wrongdoings toward indigenous populations beyond Latin America, which is where he had focused up until now for example with the Synod on the Amazon in 2019, or with his apology towards indigenous populations in Bolivia in 2015. The second message highlights the close connection between “care for cultural diversity and care for the 'common home.'” Lastly, the trip is an opportunity to underline “the most authentic sense of evangelization,” meaning showing “a face of the Catholic Church that is far from a self-focused conception, attentive only to liturgy and canon law, but rather concerned, together with women and men of good will, with the common good.” 

Askanews, Italian

Every Monday and Friday afternoon Father Joseph Pham Huu Quang leaves his parish and drives his motorbike 30km to the Tay Loc stadium in Thua Thien Hue province, Vietnam. Wearing soccer sneakers and a blue t-shirt he discusses with other priests before their 90-minute training session. The 38-year-old priest and his teammates are part of the Clergy Hue team, one of the 20 who will compete in the National Synodal Cup, a soccer tournament organized by the Vietnamese bishops, which will take place from July to October. “Many priests said they now have renewed energy to do pastoral work since they began attending soccer sessions. They said they learn valuable lessons in synodality, that they follow what their coach asks of them, discuss plans together, work closely together, listen to one another and comfort one another when they are depressed,” UCANews reports. 

UCANews, English