UNITED STATES
Crux
By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor February 3, 2015
Just a day before America’s big game, Pope Francis set the stage for the Vatican’s equivalent of the 2015 Super Bowl by confirming 48 prelates as members for October’s Synod of Bishops on the Family, after they had been chosen by their bishops’ conferences around the world.
It’s not yet a complete lineup; other bishops’ conferences still have to submit their picks. In addition, the pope presumably will appoint the heads of Vatican offices as members of the Oct. 4-25 summit, and also will make a handful of personal picks.
Looking only at Saturday’s crop, however, one point already seems clear: There’s absolutely no reason to believe the 2015 Synod of Bishops will be any less contentious than last year’s edition, which featured a vigorous, and occasionally nasty, back-and-forth over issues such as homosexuality and divorce.
On the contrary, the forecast for October seems to be for storms every bit as intense as those that erupted during the synod last fall. If anyone wondered whether Pope Francis might try to “stack the deck” in advance this time around, Saturday’s confirmations clearly seem to refute that idea.
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