Article from Catholic Culture
(photo: Edward Pentin / National Catholic Register)

On October 17, participants in the first session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops discussed working groups’ reports on the Synod’s third topic: “Co-responsibility in Mission: How can we better share gifts and tasks in the service of the Gospel?” (module B2).

The confidentiality surrounding the reports of the working groups has helped make the current Synod the least transparent one in recent decades. During the pontificates of St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican routinely published the Synod fathers’ interventions (speeches). Under Pope Francis, that practice ceased—significantly decreasing transparency—but the Vatican still published the reports of the working groups. The current Synod’s rules forbid participants to discuss even their own interventions.