Today the Synod of Bishops will convene for the first session of their fifteenth ordinary general assembly on “Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment”, which will run until the 28th of October. In the past, the daily deliberations and individual contributions of delegates were summarised and published by the Holy See press office, but this is no longer the case. An unwise decision, in my opinion, as it makes the entire process a secretive one. As outsiders, all we will have are rumours and the eventual final document. During the previous Synod we have seen what damage rumours can do, especially when they are neither confirmed nor denied in any clear way..
That said, there is always social media, and a number of Synod delegates are enthousiastic (or less so) users of those media. Below, I present a short (probably incomplete) list of delegates who use Twitter. It is mostly western prelates using the medium, with English being the dominant language. Other languages used are Italian, French, Spanish, German and Maltese.
- Pope Francis (obviously). As pope he convenes the Synod and acts as its president, although he delegates that duty to four delegate presidents. Pope Francis will not be commenting on the Synod proceedings, but offer prayers and short items to reflect on spiritually.
- Archbishop Charles Scicluna. Archbishop of Malta. One of three members of the Commission for Disputes.
- Bishop Robert Barron. Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles and CEO of Word On Fire.
- Bishop Frank Caggiano. Bishop of Bridgeport, Connecticut.
- Archbishop José Gómez. Archbishop of Los Angeles.
- Archbishop Leo Cushley. Archbishop of Edinburgh.
- Archbishop Eamon Martin. Archbishop of Armagh.
- Archbishop Anthony Fisher. Archbishop of Sydney.
- Leonardo Cardinal Sandri. Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches.
- Robert Cardinal Sarah. Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
- Kevin Cardinal Farrell. Prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life.
- Peter Cardinal Turkson. Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
- Gianfranco Cardinal Ravasi. President of the Pontifical Council for Culture.
- Gérald Cardinal Lacroix. Archbishop of Québec.
- Daniel Cardinal Sturla Berhouet. Archbishop of Montevideo.
- Blase Cardinal Cupich. Archbishop of Chicago.
- Carlos Cardinal Aguiar Retes. Archbishop of Mexico City.
- Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia. President of the Pontifical Academy for Life,
- Archbishop Peter Comensoli. Archbishop of Melbourne.
- Father Antonio Spadaro. Member of the Vatican Media Committee.
- Christoph Cardinal Schönborn. Archbishop of Vienna.
- Wilfrid Cardinal Napier. Archbishop of Durban.
- Luis Cardinal Tagle. Archbishop of Manila.
- Vincent Cardinal Nichols. Archbishop of Westminster.
- Carlos Cardinal Osoro Sierra. Archbishop of Madrid.
Not all of the prelates above use their accounts equally often or in the same way. For example, Cardinal Tagle only posts links to his ‘The Word Exposed’ Youtube catechesis talks, Cardinals Sturla Berhouet and Farrell mostly retweet, Archbishop Fisher hasn’t tweeted since February of 2017, and most use Twitter as a one-way channel. Among those who do respond to what their followers say are Cardinal Napier, Archbishop Comensoli (his Twitter profile picture at left) and Bishop Barron.
Other delegates, such as Philadelphia’s Archbishop Charles Chaput and Passau’s Bishop Stefan Oster, are active on Facebook, while Belgian Bishop Jean Kockerols keeps the youth of his country up to speed via a blog.
Several delegates have already shared their arrival in Rome, and it is these (such as Archbishop Comensoli and Bishop Barron) who will perhaps offer the best idea of what goes on in the coming weeks. That said, all we will get are glimpses, and no tweeting delegate will share what goes on in the debates. So, in this age of social media and high-speed communication, the Synod of Bishops remains firmly behind closed doors.
Pope Francis at work
Pope Francis also added to the College of Cardinals, as he called his 
While the document was broadly lauded, an ambuguous footnote led to much discussion. In November, four cardinals publised 
Bishop Antoon Hurkmans retired as Bishop of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, and in January he sent 
The annual procession in honour of St. Willibrord in Utrecht was criticised this year after the archbishop chose to limit its ecumenical aspect. I shared some thoughts 
In September, Cardinal Eijk was invited to speak at the annual assembly of the Canadian bishops, 
Then there was the 
There are persistent rumours that the reforms of the Roman Curia will soon enter a new phase as several councils will be merged into two congregations. And the preliminary steps for the new phase have already been taken in recent months.
Cardinal Sarah and Bishop Toso have been reassigned, but that leaves several other prelates without a clear place to go. For now at least. Candidates for the position of Prefect of the new congregation would, in my opinion, be Cardinal Peter Turkson (pictured), who now heads the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, or possibly Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, who is now the president of the Health Care council. Both are about the same age (Turkson is 66, Zimowski 65) and about the same number of years in the Curia behind them. The other option for both of them is a return to their native country, something that Pope Francis seems to prefer. In Ghana, Cardinal Turkson’s native country, the only vaguely likely option is a return to the Archdiocese of Cape Coast, where he was archbishop from 1992 to 2009. Cape Coast’s current Archbishop, Matthias Nketsiah, turns 75 in 2017. Not a very likely prospect, in my opinion.
In Poland, where Archbishop Zimowski (pictured) comes from, there is the enticing option of Kraków, which should become vacant very soon. Cardinal Dziwisz, the current archbishop there, turns 76 in April. Solely judging from these options, Cardinal Turkson would seem to be more likely to remain in Rome and head a new Congregation for Justice and Peace.
Again, there are two most likely candidates to head this new congregation: Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko (pictured), President of the Council for the Laity for the past twelve years; and Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Family Council. Again both are the same age (69), but Cardinal Rylko has far more Curia experience (12 as opposed to 3 years). Should Cardinal Rylko be appointed to his native Poland, there really is no other place for him to go than Kraków, and we already have the option of Archbishop Zimowski going there. Two other Polish archdiocese which will fall vacant within the next few years, Warmia and Przemysl, really don’t have the stature and history for an experienced Curial cardinal. Then again, nothing is set in stone in these matters.
Yesterday the Holy See published the list of participants in the upcoming Synod of Bishops on the family. Of course, there are the usual suspects: the heads of the Roman Curia departments, the standing members of the Synod and the presidents of the world’s bishops’ conferences, with the latter being default participants in an Extraordinary General Synod, which this one is. Pope Francis has had a personal touch in the selection of several participants; noteable among those are Cardinal Kasper, to all appearances a theologian much appreciated by the Holy Father, but also the vast majority of cardinals he created in his first consistory of last February.
From a local point of view it is interesting to see that no less than four participants come from Belgium, while there is only a single one from the Netherlands and a mere two from Germany. Belgium sends Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard,which was expected as he is the president of the Belgian bishops’ conference, but also his predecessor, Cardinal Godfried Danneels (pictured), as well as Father George Henri Ruyssen of the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome. Additionaly, Metropolitan Athenagoras, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Belgium, attends as a “fraternal delegate”.
Today, Peter Cardinal Turkson apologised for showing, last Saturday, the Youtube video I share below, to the Synod of Bishops. Many Synod fathers had asked questions about why they were shown this and on whose request. Many objected to its contents, with officials of the Council of Bishops’ Conferences of Europe stating that it was based on faulty statistics and premises. They would provide the Synod with accurate numbers on Europe’s population and religious make-up.
As next year major Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelisation slowly creeps closer, the Holy See appoints prelates to make sure the entire affair proceeds smoothly. One of the more important jobs, certainly the most visible, is that of Relator-General, in essence the spokesman for the Synod.
The latest name on this list, appointed to be the Relator-General for the 2012 Synod, is that of Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington DC, United States (pictured at right having a laugh shortly before his elevation to cardinal last November). 
Another important role in the Synod is that of the Secretary, who records the goings-on of the Synod and as such plays a vital role for the Relator-General too. Appointed for that job is Msgr. Pierre-Marie Carré (left), the archbishop of Montpellier, France. Msgr. Carré has been an archbishop since 2000, first of Albi, and since May 2010 as Coadjutor Archbishop of Montpellier. In June of this year he took over the reins from Archbishop Guy Thomazeau.
In Caelo et in Terra 