Synod of Synodality 2024: The presence of Latin America

This year, the Synod of Synodality has 80 members from Latin America. Of this total, there are 3 delegate presidents, 36 appointments from episcopal conferences and 2 heads of Vatican dicasteries.

In addition, there are 12 appointments made personally by Pope Francis, 3 members of the Ordinary Council and 13 experts. There is also a Latin American in the new “Commission for controversies.”

New appointments of Pope Francis

One of the most significant novelties of this second and last session compared to last year is the participation, at the request of the Holy Father, of Mons. Rolando Álvarez, Bishop of Matagalpa (Nicaragua) deported to Rome by the regime of Daniel Ortega.

This category is made up of those chosen directly and on the Holy Father’s own initiative. The bishop’s participation in this great event of the Catholic Church represents a change in the usual discretion that he has had since arriving in the Eternal City.

In addition to the Nicaraguan prelate, Pope Francis has personally named two new members from Latin America: Bishop Ricardo Basilio Morales Galindo, Bishop of Copiapó (Chile); and Mons. Dante Gustavo Braida, Bishop of La Rioja (Argentina).

Delegated presidents

Among the 9 delegate presidents of the Synod, there are also 3 Latin Americans. This is Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes, Primate Archbishop of Mexico; Mons. Luis Gerardo Cabrera Herrera, Archbishop of Guayaquil and president of the Episcopal Conference of Ecuador; and Sister María de los Dolores Palencia, Mexican nun.

In statements to ACI Prensa during the first session of the Synod, Cardinal Aguiar Retes stressed that the controversial topics surrounding the Synod of Synodality – such as the opening to the female diaconate, priestly ordination for married men or issues related to the community LGBT—“have not been a central issue,” but rather “have appeared peripherally, without any consequence.”

He highlighted on that occasion that, in his opinion, the Synod “will not enter into specific proposals on these topics, but rather they will continue to be studied in more depth by specialists in each subject.”

Among the list of future cardinals that Pope Francis will create on December 8 is Mons. Luis Gerardo Cabrera Herrera, Archbishop of Guayaquil, who will become the sixth cardinal in the history of Ecuador.

Bishop Cabrera, who was in Rome when he learned of his appointment on October 6, went so far as to affirm that a Synod without lay people and without women “es irreversible” and that the “single image of the circle demolishes the image of the pyramid.”

Referring to the arrangement of the tables in the Paul VI Hall, he highlighted that this image “invites the Church to open itself to listen, value and assume the spiritual and cultural wealth of other people and groups and, at the same time, to propose the message of Jesus without feeling superior to anyone.”

The Sister María de los Dolores Palencia, 75, is a Mexican nun who has helped migrants for more than 14 years at the Decanal Guadalupano Shelter, in Tierra Blanca, Veracruz.

The nun of the Congregation of Saint Joseph of Lyon described the participation of women in the Synod – where for the first time they have the right to vote – as an opportunity to “lay the way for future changes.”

Editors of the Instrument of Labor

Likewise, 3 Latin Americans have participated in the writing of the Instrument of Labor (working document), on which this last session of the Synod is based.

This is Sister Gloria Liliana Franco, Colombian president of the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious; and the theologians Fr. Carlos María Galli and Rafael Luciani, members of the advisory team of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council (Celam).

Asked what role women should have in the Church, Sister Gloria, a nun of the Company of Mary, responded who has always thought that “an eloquent image to project ecclesial plenitude is, without a doubt, that of a banquet, with a large, round table, in which everyone recognizes themselves as brothers, and no bureaucracy or clericalism overshadows the presence and to the action of a God who, without distinction of gender, calls the unsuspected into his Kingdom.”

“Ecclesial plenitude is possible, in a feminine key and where there are brothers. In this key, women are protagonists of the reform of the Church and not only in the Church,” he noted.

Likewise, during the October 2023 session, he referred to the Holy Spirit as the “Rain“, a feminine term used in the Bible that means “breath, breath, wind.”

Father Carlos María Galli is one of Pope Francis’ reference theologians and collaborator of relevant documents of his pontificate.

The Argentine priest, came to affirm that Pope Francis has “overcome” the pyramidal conception of the Church and that he even speaks “of an inverted pyramid, where the base becomes the summit”: the ministry of the bishops is at the service of the people of God.

Regarding the “reform of the Church”, Father Galli stressed that it is not only about changing the structure, but that “the reform or renewal of the Church consists of a change of attitudes in all the members of the People of God ”.

On another occasion, he condemned what he called “authoritarian theology.” and assured that Pope Francis “believes in processes and wants them to be irreversible.”

For his part, the Venezuelan theologian Rafael Luciani emphasized repeatedly that the structures of the Church need “a synodal review.”

Para Luciani, “synodality It is perhaps the most important epochal contribution that Christians can make to the rest of humanity.”

Cardinals of Latin America

Regarding the cardinals from Latin America who participate in the Synod of Synodality, Cardinal Pedro Barreto, Archbishop Emeritus of Huancayo (Peru), stands out; the Argentine Cardinal Víctor Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith; Cardinal João Braz de Aviz of Brazil, prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life; Cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodriguez Maradiaga, Archbishop Emeritus of Tegucigalpa and Cardinal Luis José Rueda Aparicio, Archbishop of Bogotá and Primate of Colombia.

During the inauguration of the Synod of Synodality 2024, Cardinal Víctor Fernández said that there is still no space for the female diaconate, although he reported on the study and deepening of a “more decisive” female presence in the Catholic Church.

In statements to ACI Prensa in September 2023, at the doors of the first part of the synod assembly, Cardinal Fernández pointed out that anyone who expects great changes in the Church as a result of the Synod “is going to be disappointed.”

The presence of the bishops of CELAM

Also noteworthy is the presence on this list of Bishop Jaime Spengler, president of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM), who will also be created cardinal next December.

The Synod of Synodality has, among others, the participation of Mons. Lizardo Estrada, general secretary of CELAM; and the Bishop of La Rioja (Argentina), Mons. Dante Gustavo Braida.

It should be noted that the Archbishop of Lima (Peru), Mons. Carlos Castillo, is also on the list of those designated by Pope Francis to receive the cardinal’s biretta. In January 2020, within the framework of the Archdiocesan Synodal Assembly, the future cardinal assured that “no one converts with the Tabernacle.”

Other members

Like last year, the Synod has the presence of Sister Xiskya Valladares, a Nicaraguan nun living in Spain.

Considered a “digital missionary,” Valladares spoke out in a video in favor of having priestesses in the Catholic Church, despite the fact that the Magisterium, Tradition, the Popes and other ecclesiastical documents specify that the Priestly Order is reserved for men.

Another novelty is that this year a “commission for controversies” is included, which includes Mons. Sergio Da Rocha, Metropolitan Archbishop of San Salvador de Bahía (Brazil).