so, for example, in areas like the amazon, where there is a drastic shortage of priests, i think we will hear calls for women to be ordained as deacons. and then in different parts of europe, on the other hand, we may hear calls for gay couples to receive a formal church blessing. i think the key thing, though, is that those local discussions, those local ideas, will then be fed through to national bishops, and i think the key question in terms of whether we will see actual change is whether the bishops feel able to take some of those more radical solutions to the vatican in two years time. and has this been broadly welcomed in principle, or are there some opponents even at this early stage, harry? well, this is part of pope francis wider reforming agenda, and it s certainly not universally popular. he wants the church to be less hierarchical, more, as he puts it, synodal , more consultative, more listening to ordinary lay catholics, and that s certainly
i think there are a couple of reasons why this is significant. first of all, the catholic church is a very hierarchical institution, so cardinals sit above bishops who sit above priests, and so this is a real shift towards consulting lay and ordinary catholics as to the church s future direction. the second reason why this is significant is it opens up the discussion all sorts of thorny issues that the catholic church faces. so, for example, as you mentioned, the possibility of women being ordained as deacons, a possibility of blessings for gay couples, it throws all those issues up into the air. and i suppose the big question is could this lead to change? i guess there s no guarantee of that, is there, in this process? no, well, as one bishop said to me this week, it depends on what the people say. i think what we ll find is very different solutions and very different opinions coming from different catholics around the world. remember, there are 1.3 billion catholics around the world.
the possibility of women being ordained as deacons, a possibility of blessings for gay couples, it throws all those issues up into the air. mary ring is from the grass roots organisation root and branch which says it is committed to reform of the catholic church. she described why it s important members voices are listened to by the synod. that is completely the question and thatis that is completely the question and that is why the small group of us, we are only small, have taken the step of saying we don t have to wait. if we wait for the bishops to do it it could be a long, long time. catholics can do it for themselves now and we have a responsibility to educate themselves and we also have a responsibility to support those bishops where we can. we just had a very successful synod with over 50
of thousands of victims, laid bare in one explosive report. its language stark, itsjudgement grim. for a long very time, it says, the french catholic church showed complete even cruel indifference to those who suffered abuse. the report estimates the number of child victims 0f sexual abuse at the hands of priests, deacons, monks, or nuns at 216,000. if non clergy are included, that figure rises to 330,000 a third of a million children. translation: there was, above all, a catalogue - of negligence, failures, silence. an institutional cover up which appeared systematic and on which the commission came to a unanimous conclusion the church did not see, did not hear, did not know how to pick up weak signals. the investigators analysed decades of church archives,
who suffered abuse. the report estimates the number of child victims sexual abuse at the hands of priests, deacons, monks, or nuns, at 216,000. if non clergy are included, that figure rises to 330,000 a third of a million children. translation: there was, above all, a catalogue - of negligence, failures, silence. an institutional cover up which appeared systematic and on which the commission came to a unanimous conclusion the church did not see, did not hear, did not know how to pick up weak signals. the investigators analysed decades of church archives, court records, and testimony from victims. most abuses happened in the 1950s and 1960s, too long ago for anyone to be prosecuted now. one of those who testified was this priest.