After negative reactions: Synod office withdraws survey

The Vatican has withdrawn an online survey on synodality following negative reactions from several thousand users. As the internet portal "Crux" reported on Saturday, this was in connection with the Synod on Synodality, the second session of which will take place in Rome in October. In the survey published on Thursday morning, users were asked whether they believe that synodality as a path of conversion and reform can promote the mission and participation of all the baptised. The only answer options were "yes" or "no". According to the report, the negative answer received significantly more votes. According to the report, 88 per cent responded with "No" and only 12 per cent with "Yes". At that time, 6,938 people had voted on X and fewer than 800 on Facebook.

The poll was published on the official accounts of the Vatican Synod office on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook and was supposed to run for 24 hours, but was removed from both platforms with ten minutes remaining. According to "Crux", the Vatican's synod office did not comment on the reasons. Critics are now accusing the Vatican of a lack of transparency and see the withdrawal of the survey as a contradiction to the principles of synodality emphasised by Pope Francis.

The Synod on Synodality was launched by Pope Francis in 2021. After two years of local and continental consultations, the first session of the Synod on Synodality took place in Rome last October. At the second meeting next autumn, concrete proposals are to be drawn up for the Pope. The Pope can then make decisions on this basis. However, the decision by the head of the church to exclude controversial topics such as the diaconate for women from the synod and to set up ten study groups to deal with these issues was met with criticism. (mtr)