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7 sources of Pope Francis’s dream of a synodal Church
A lecture I gave on 8 December to the Irish Institute for Catholic Studies at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, in which I identify 7 “sources” of Pope Francis’s dream of a synodal Church: Acts of the Apostles, the Church’s first millennium, the Spiritual Exx of St Ignatius, Vatican II, Celam/Aparecida, the sex abuse crisis and Covid-19.
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‘The Hour of the People: Pope Francis and the post-Covid moment’
A lecture I was invited to give by Zoom to the Archdiocese of Boston’s Social Justice Convocation on November 13, 2021. I was given a warm welcome by Cardinal Sean O’Malley and Fr Bryan Hehir gave a thoughtful response. At the heart of the talk is what I describe as a shift in Francis’s reading of the signs of the times following the outbreak of the pandemic. From a sombre view of the direction of history prior to March 2020, the Pope began to discern a new hope in what he saw as an awakening “from below” of fraternity and solidarity in the world. I see Let Us Dream, his address to the popular movements and his calling of the global synod as signs of what I call “the hour of the people”, and spell out some of the implications for the Church’s pastoral ministry.