Implementation and visions of the synodal process
Innsbruck, March 28th, 2022 (KAP) The results of a mood survey among Tyrolean believers on the universal church synodal process should be taken seriously and – as far as possible under canon law – implemented at the level of the Innsbruck diocese. Church officials emphasized this in the weekend edition of the Tiroler Tageszeitung. Magdalena Pittracher, women’s officer in the diocese of Innsbruck and also coordinator for the synodal process there, named equal rights for women as a central concern in the course of the survey, which resulted in more than 1,000 responses from around 2,000 people. Uschi Teißl-Mederer from the professional association for pastoral professions and Klaus Heidegger, chairman of the Catholic Action, also spoke in interviews about implementation and visions.
Young women in particular are frustrated that their lives and those in the church are “drifting so far apart,” Magdalena Pittracher said, according to the newspaper. The coordinator reported on the diocesan survey, the results of which were “representative” and the participation “higher than expected” was also important to many men. The wishes deposited with the church leadership would now be passed on and “attempts would be made to start implementing what is possible under canon law in the diocese,” said Pittracher.
Teißl-Mederer also urged that the findings of the process should not disappear in a drawer. She reported to the “Tiroler Tageszeitung” about a survey in spring 2021 within her professional community, which turned out to be very similar to the current one. “One should think about various creative forms of leadership in parishes, so that all believers can contribute their charisms,” advised Teißl-Mederer. This is an opportunity and not just a necessary consequence of the lack of priests.
The Innsbruck KA chairman and religious educator Klaus Heidegger considers it important that the structural reforms regarding the sacraments reach the Vatican. A “re-evaluation of church offices away from clericalism” is necessary. Pastoral assistants should be allowed to baptize and hospital chaplains administer the sacrament of anointing. According to the theologian, more gender justice also means that women can also become deacons, priests or bishops. Compulsory celibacy must fall, and a “life-affirming sex doctrine” must take hold. According to Heidegger’s “vision”, same-sex couples should also be married.
How the process goes
The results of the diocesan survey on the synodal process were discussed at a pre-synodal meeting in the diocese of Innsbruck – as in other dioceses. Bishop Hermann Glettler saw “the broad spectrum of ecclesiastical vocations in our diocese depicted”. Different positions and expectations of “the church” should not be paralyzing. Episcopal vicar Jakob Bürgler, who is responsible for the synodal process in the diocese, was “particularly pleased that so many people continue to experience the church as a strong point of reference for their lives, that they want to put their heart and soul into it and struggle for a revised church”.
The many critical responses to clericalism and equality issues “affect me,” Bürgler continued. The renewal impulses supported at the pre-synodal meeting would be “fed into the further deliberations of the diocesan instructions”.
An official document is to publish the results of the survey and record the action goals developed from them. A ten-page synthesis will then be forwarded to the Bishops’ Conference for the worldwide synodal process. In addition, the Diocese of Innsbruck will probably publish its official diocesan submission in April 2022 on its website at www.dibk.at/synode publish.