Finding solutions within the bounds of basic Catholic principles could be crucial to the success or failure of the synod
FOR BOTH admirers and critics, the personal authority and moral legacy of Pope Francis will be hanging in the balance this month. On October 6th he will invite a gathering of bishops, men and women from religious orders, indigenous people and secular experts to think boldly about a remote but ecologically sensitive corner of the Earth: the endangered rain-forests which cover swathes of Brazil and eight other countries.
As arguments between the pope and his hard-line critics grow louder, the forthcoming synod is emerging as a kind of high-noon moment. The very design of the meeting, almost ignoring national boundaries, is disruptive. It empowers progressive figures like Bishop Erwin Kräutler, an Austrian-born missionary who led a vast, forested Brazilian territory for over 30 years, at the expense of better-known clerics who wield power in big cities.
As for the Americans who have found a leader in Cardinal Burke, many are unhappy with the radical economic view that underpins the synod: one that blames greedy extractive industries and agri-businesses based in the northern hemisphere for the felling and burning of trees whose existence is crucial to the planet.
In another sharp rejoinder to his American opponents, and an obvious hint at the abuse scandal which has affected clerics of all ideological shades, the pope said some were using a “rigid” ideology to mask their own personal failings. In the style of a man past caring about conservatives, he recently gave an audience to an American Jesuit, James Martin, who favours a friendlier Catholic stance towards gay people.
Although Pope Francis has catalysed the process, the synod is the culmination of a powerful grass-roots movement which has been under way for decades, Mr López says. By challenging excessive consumption and waste, he adds, it is uncovering and beginning to reverse errors committed by the Catholic church over the centuries.
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