Johathan Liedl, a reporter with The National Catholic Register, has written a very important article on one of the more influential theologians of the upcoming Synod on synodality in October. The article got some traction on social media early on but deserves heightened attention, which is why I wanted to comment on here.
The theologian in question is Rafael Luciani, a lay Venezuelan theologian who has been an advisor to the organizers of the Synod. Liedl gets right to the point and highlights the following:
The key, says Venezuelan lay theologian Rafael Luciani, is for the synod’s outcome to affirm a contested interpretation of Vatican II’s teaching on the “People of God” that has already been embraced in places like Germany, clearing the way for a more decentralized, less hierarchical approach to Church authority.
Luciani, a key theological adviser to the Vatican office organizing the synod and leading proponent of “synodality” more broadly, said in a July 23 interview with Katholisch, the German bishops’ news service, that although controversial topics like women deacons were no longer on the October assembly’s agenda after Pope Francis shifted them to separate study groups, the synod could still open the door to big changes.
In the interview, Luciani goes on to elucidate his interpretation of Vatican II’s teaching on the Church as the People of God, voicing high praise for the German “synodal way” and many criticisms directed at just about every other sector of the Church. He wants the Synod on synodality to adopt the German model and to export it to the universal Church. He also has sharp criticism of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI for having thwarted all attempts at implementing this ecclesiological vision.
Continue reading at Catholic World Report