Many people who oppose the idea of women as deacons fear that the potential candidates aren’t faithful Catholics. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

Having begun the process of synodality, we should not let the process go dormant until after the pope’s apostolic exhortation on the universal synod is released in 2024.

One year into a three-year global synodal process, we should not expect hot-button issues and their promoters to vanish, nor for public disagreements among Catholics to cease.

By listening we all walk together. Along the route of life we must encourage forgiveness but not exoneration.

“It is clericalism that prevents the church today from being missionary,” Bishop Cipollini said. “I have great hope that the synod on synodality can make clericalism collapse—perhaps not entirely, but at least in its major strongholds.”

Yes, the synod on synodality is off to a sluggish start, especially in the United States. But if we are brutally honest about what is broken in the church, we can still have a successful dialogue.