Pope Francis has asked the October synod to focus not on single issues but on one key question: “How to be a synodal church in mission?”

“I do not think that the present anxiety about recognizing the ‘gay’ Catholic is unlike the first-century anxiety regarding the Gentiles becoming Christians,” Jesuit moral theologian James F. Keenan writes.

“I’m just curious,” sociologist Tricia Bruce told OSV News. “I come with questions. I don’t come with an agenda or something that I’m trying to do or get out of this.”

The greatest gift the church can give to our youth is to better serve their parents. This would begin with listening to us.

They will continue to focus on the theme: “For a synodal church: communion, participation and mission.”

We will have to endure the current flawed translation of the Roman missal unless liturgists, priests and people in the pews support the synod’s call for change.