Making world history
Dr Austen Ivereigh, journalist and papal biographer, was one of the people who took part in the collation of the global synod document Enlarge the Space of Your Tent, launched by Pope Francis in Rome on Thursday 27 October, 2022.
Lay people, religious, and clerics had previously gathered in Frascati, Italy, to synthesize the reports from the ‘listening phase’ of the synodal process around the world.
In this interview with Pat Coyle of Irish Jesuit Communications, Austen Ivereigh talks about the content of the document and the communal discernment process that those present engaged in, in order to produce it. He also wrote about his ‘insider’ experience in an article for the US Jesuit publication America.
He says he was keenly aware as their work unfolded that he was taking part in “The biggest consultation process in the history of the world … and the biggest ecclesial event of his lifetime.”
Austen Ivereigh was also a member of the synodal committee of the Catholic Church in England and Wales and Pat Coyle opens the interview by asking him to explain in simple terms the whole pathway of this synodal process to date.
Dr Ivereigh has written two biographies of the Pope, The Great Reformer; Francis and the Making of a Radical Reformer: and Wounded Shepherd; Pope Francis and His Struggle to Convert the Catholic Church. He had co-written with Pope Francis his latest book, Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future. And his doctoral thesis was on the church in Argentina – the Pope’s native home.