Massimo Faggioli

The Vatican's new guiding document for the Synod of Bishops is honest and hopeful, not definitive, says theologian Massimo Faggioli. 

The case involving Jesuit Fr. Marko Rupnik recapitulates and casts a light on new dimensions that have emerged in the Catholic Church's abuse scandal in recent years. I want to highlight 10 dimensions that I see.

The synodal process is a mature fruit of Vatican II. But this will be a failed promise if the synod on synodality fails to address the abuse crisis, especially in the Catholic Church, as one of the signs of our times.

Commentary: Even though it's not a new concept in church history, synodality is a new term for most Catholics. But help is on the way, in the form of a massive online course led by experts — lay and clergy, men and women.

Commentary: The only way to end the manipulation of the Vatican's position by the Russian state and Russian Orthodox Church media is to stop producing actions and statements that can be interpreted to feed Russian propaganda.

Commentary: There is a parallel between the rejection of the Second Vatican Council and the relationship between the U.S. church and Pope Francis. Opposition to Francis is rooted in the opposition to Vatican II.

Book review: The Education of a Historian, the just-published memoir by influential Jesuit Fr. John W. O'Malley, helps readers understand some enormous differences between Catholicism in the mid-20th century and today.

The Catholic Church enjoyed a bit of a renewed honeymoon with the global media after the May 21st announcement of the "synodal process 2021–2023." But the love fest lasted only about a week.

Commentary: This global synodal process is not only ambitious, it is also risky because of its different phases — local, national/continental and central — that will highlight the radical differences in local churches.

Commentary: A key factor for the future of synodality is the relationship between Christianity and the different social and political traditions around the world, in a community as global as the Catholic Church today.

Commentary: The Word on Fire Vatican II Collection responds to the new "rad-trad" enemies of the council. But the book's extreme centrism only deepens the problem of connecting Vatican II teaching with today's church and world.

Commentary: Synodality is the biggest wager Pope Francis has made for the Catholic Church. But if it is to be a key aspect of Catholicism, we need to keep in mind that at some point, there will be another pope.

Commentary: Conservative bishops and their allies, especially in the United States, continue to overshadow their more progressive confreres in putting forth a vision for the Catholic Church.

Commentary: Pope Francis' push for synodality inside the Church coincides chronologically with the rise of populist leaders and the crisis of democracy on the outside.

Commentary: George Weigel makes three faulty assumptions when criticizing the 2018 Vatican-China agreement, the most important diplomatic success of Pope Francis' pontificate.

Commentary: There are signs that the Catholic Church's response to the sexual abuse crisis is now getting at deeper, institutional questions. A unique example that could bring encouraging news has come from Australia.

Commentary: What does it mean for the community not to gather for Mass for some weeks? What is the meaning of vulnerability and how different can it be in different countries and societies? What does it mean to practice radical hospitality in the time of a pandemic?

Commentary: The symbolism of the "emeritus" retiring in a monastery in the Vatican meant very little for those Catholics for whom Benedict XVI never really retired.

Commentary: The mutual estrangement and alienation between the institutional Catholic Church and academic theology, in the long run, will endanger theology more than the institution.

Book review: With his last book, Archbishop John R. Quinn strikes a balance in the conflicting interpretations of the First Vatican Council and its teaching on infallibility.