SoS Sat Report: That horrible conservative Cardinal, that frightening feminist!

Th first of daily updates from the Synod on Synodality

SoS stands for Synod on Synodality, and will contain daily updates and analysis from the Synod. Read my preview of the Synod for free here

A two day Pre-Synodal Retreat opened on Monday morning at the Vatican, with most of the Synod delegates already present in Rome, with some more arriving tomorrow. Father Timothy Radcliffe, a Dominican Friar and former Master of the Order of Preachers, offered two reflections the first titled "Resurrection: Searching in the dark", and the second “The Locked Room.” Mother Maria Ignazia Angelini, Abbess of the Benedictine Monastery of Santi Pietro e Paolo in Viboldone, offered a reflection on "How to be a Synodal Church in Mission?: Thirst for God, hidden source of synodal dialogues." The day ended with Holy Mass offered at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica, by Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, SDB, Metropolitan Archbishop of Perth, Australia, whose homily touched on a similar theme to that of Mother Maria Ignazia.

I have provided links to the all these, and in this post I will pick out parts that I found interesting, whilst adding my own comments. Before that, the National Catholic Reporter broke the news that Pope Francis met on Monday with a group of activists for the female deaconate. The meeting took place in the library of the Apostolic Palace, and not in the Papal Apartment of said palace, so therefore did not appear on the Holy See’s daily Bollettino. From the reports of the meeting, which was organised by the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon, the aim was to