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Synod on the Family
NCR Preview - The leader of the umbrella group for some 600,000 global Catholic women religious has said that in the wake of this month's Synod of Bishops the women are called to carry forth the pastoral work that the official church is sometimes not able to do. Sr. Carmen Sammut — who participated in the Oct. 4-25 Synod as one of 32 women who took part in non-voting roles alongside the 270 prelate-members — said the women religious should engage with people church institutions may not even know need help.
NCR Preview - The discussions at the ongoing Synod of Bishops have shown a clear difference in mindsets between the prelates considering issues of family life and ordinary Catholics looking to the gathering in hopes for changes in church pastoral practice, one of the non-voting participants in the event has said. U.S. Sacred Heart of Mary Sr. Maureen Kelleher said there is a clear cultural divide between bishops' and laypersons' points of view.
"One of the things I appreciate very much being in the synod is the universality — the whole world is there," Sr. Carmen Sammut says. "The groups are made up to have very big differences, to have very different backgrounds."
The United States sister chosen by Pope Francis to participate in next month’s synod on the family says the issues bishops and cardinals will wrestle with are the same she deals with everyday. Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary Sr. Maureen Kelleher is a Legal Aid attorney in Florida, where most of her clients are farmers and immigrants.
