US Catholics express hope, tempered expectations as synod begins
Faithful gather in St. Peter's Basilica during a vigil prayer attended by Pope Francis, left, ahead of the start of the Synod of Bishops, October 1. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Last year in September, it seemed to many US Catholics that the church might be on the precipice of profound transformation.
The Synod of Bishops was about to meet at the Vatican to discuss the results of a multiyear global listening effort. Termed synodality, the process gathered input from laypeople and clergy to promote dialogue and a renewed sense of mission and surfaced thorny topics, including women’s ordination, LGBTQ relationships, clergy sexual abuse, and priestly celibacy.
The assembly allowed groundbreaking, open conversation at the Vatican about LGBTQ people, and the meeting for the first time included laypeople, including women, as voting members alongside bishops. The shifts made US church reform advocates hopeful, and traditionalists fearful, that the synod would prompt significant changes in the church’s approach to gender and sexuality.
