What about the clergy without a voice?

“What about the non-voiced clergy!!!!” a priest exclaimed to me when I shared with him my posts on the lack of representation of lay movements at the forthcoming Synod on Synodality.

Excellent point that is also taken up by Massimo Faggioli in his latest article in La Croix International:

https://international.la-croix.com/news/signs-of-the-times/what-the-list-of-synod-members-tells-us-about-the-current-state-of-the-church/18127

“There are very few parish priests and permanent deacons, those who are the frontline workers on synodality,” Faggioli notes.

“But a problem is how one is to choose clerics who are representative of their confreres,” he notes.

This is certainly an issue but not necessarily of greater difficulty than choosing a bishops from among the more than 5000 living bishops around the world.

What’s more priests in many countries do have organisations of their own. Indeed, in Australia there are at least two, namely the (more progressive) National Council of Priests of Australia and the (more conservative) Australian Confraternity of Catholic Clergy.

The USA has an Association of Catholic Priests as does Ireland.

Indeed, there’s even a French-based international Apostolic Union of Clergy.

The real issue appears to be the reluctance of the Holy See (Pope?) to provide for elected participants who are not bishops.

Will we see change?

Stefan Gigacz