Cardinal Ryś: Synodality belongs to the Church like hierarchy

Würzburg - Synodality, hierarchy, collegiality: All of these belong together without contradiction, emphasises Polish Cardinal Grzegorz Ryśś. He also talks about the treatment of LGBTQ people and the situation of the Church in Poland.

Published on 29.11.2024 at 11:09 –

The Archbishop of Łódź, Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś, sees synodality as a constitutive feature of the Church from the very beginning. "Jesus gave his Church a constitution based on synodality, hierarchy, collegiality, the Petrine ministry and so on. All these dimensions belong together, there is no contradiction," said Ryś in an interview with the weekly newspaper "Die Tagespost" (current issue). Ryśś took part in both sessions of the Synod on Synodality in October 2023 and 2024.

The final document of the assembly speaks of the "heart of synodality", emphasised the cardinal. This is not a dispute about how power should be divided in the Church. "At the centre of synodality is the experience of the risen and living Jesus Christ. In order to experience him in this way, we must live in a community." Synodality is about transparency and accountability. Its goal is always evangelisation.

Teaching is one thing, behaviour is another

With regard to how the church deals with LGBTQ people, the archbishop sees the greatest challenge in pastoral care. "People who come to church need help to recognise how they should behave and how they should live." The Church is not changing its teaching on marriage and sexuality. "However, doctrine is one thing, and how you treat a person is another." Priests are therefore needed to accompany LGBTQ people "when they are struggling to be faithful to Catholic teaching".

For the current situation of the Church in Poland, Ryś recommends the concept of "relational conversion" developed by the Synod. In Poland, too, there is a decreasing number of vocations, churchgoers and young people attending religious education at school. The focus should therefore no longer be on the masses, but on the individual person. "In the late 70s, 80s and even 90s, if you announced that you needed an altar boy, there would be 50 applications. Now there are two. Nevertheless, it is a great opportunity to work with these two," the cardinal gave as an example. (mal)