“We must first distance ourselves from everything that fundamentalism signifies, from believing that doctrine can’t be touched,” Bishop Alfredo De la Cruz of the Dominican Republic, who will take part in next month’s Synod on synodality, said during an online conference on the Synod.
Referring to the “protagonism of women,” he said that “the Church cannot turn its back on this entire movement, this growth, these victories of women. I’m going more specific. For example, in the case of the diaconate, we have to address priestly ministry.”
The prelate, appointed a bishop by Pope Francis in 2021, also said that the Synod will “have to address mandatory celibacy; we will have to address Communion to all those who participate in the Eucharist as a feast of the Lord and as a community of faith, because we say that Eucharist is the meeting place of all brothers. ‘Ah, I encounter my brother, but to one group I don’t give anything to eat’ and I leave them hungry,”