In the Holy See's brand-new press room, freshly inaugurated for the Synod on Synodality, members of the assembly file in every day to talk to journalists. The press does not have access to the discussions that take place behind closed doors in Paul VI Hall, and these “briefings” are supposed to give them “controlled” access to the major issues driving the assembly.
While these reports tend to be a little tedious, they at least have one great merit: giving a voice to representatives of the Catholic Church in suffering countries.
In recent days, Bishop Mounir Khairallah, Maronite bishop of Batroun, Lebanon, gave a poignant account of his experience of forgiveness in his country, which has suffered from conflict and crisis for 50 years and is now being bombed by the Israeli army.
Read an interview with him here.
It’s a dramatic moment for a man whose parents were murdered when he was 5, and who is now trying to appease the appetite for vengeance among Lebanon's Christian population, fed up with the humiliations and decadence of their country.
“Unfortunately, the world is silent or gives the green light to all this violence because there are too many political and economic interests that have nothing to do with Christian values,” he lamented.
Communion, mission, and participation
At his side was another shepherd of a people who have faced hellish circumstances for years: Archbishop Launay Saturné of Cap-Haïtien, Haiti.
He spoke of the permanent insecurity that reigns in his country, the result of the total failure of the public authorities, who have abandoned entire swathes of territory to gangs.
To escape, entire populations have to migrate into the interior of the country, he explained. This was again the case on October 3, he reported, after a massacre left 70 people dead and led to the destruction of many homes.
This reality “has a negative impact on the Church,” he said. He acknowledges that Haitian pastors often find it difficult to carry out their mission in this ongoing turmoil.
The values of the current Synod — communion, mission, and participation — “are essential,” the archbishop emphasizes. “We want to pass them on to new generations” to give them a taste for a “democratic culture,” he explains.
Archbishop Saturné also took the opportunity to remind journalists that the Haitian bishops have called on the authorities to speed up the transition to new elections, and on the international forces present in the country to assume their responsibility to protect.
The role of the “Global South”
On another day, Archbishop Inacio Saure of Nampula, Mozambique, spoke of the dramatic situation in his country, devastated by war and natural disasters.
“People are suffering a great deal today, and are left to fend for themselves,” he explained.
He stressed the role of the Church with the young population in this sort of situation. Young people may tend to distance themselves from the Church, but we can change this by involving them in the life of the Church, he said. He expressed his desire to get things done “with young people, for young people, and by young people.”
These words found a profound echo within the assembly, where the Pope hears daily testimonies from pastors and leaders of these struggling Churches.
“We're finding that the global South is playing an increasingly central role in our conversations,” said Canadian Catherine Clifford, a member of the Synod who spoke at one of the conferences. In her view, the Synod must move forward by listening to the “least of these.”
