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Making world history
Articles, Talks, Interviews Austen Ivereigh Articles, Talks, Interviews Austen Ivereigh

Making world history

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.

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Latin America’s first continent-wide church assembly: Here’s what happened.
Articles, Interviews Austen Ivereigh Articles, Interviews Austen Ivereigh

Latin America’s first continent-wide church assembly: Here’s what happened.

At the end of November I spent a week in Mexico at the invitation of CELAM, the umbrella body of Latin-American bishops’ conferences, to attend the region’s first “Ecclesial Assembly,” in which a 1,000-strong mix of bishops, clergy, religious and lay people gathered to discuss the pastoral priorities of the Church in the post-Covid era.

I was interviewed about why I had come (in Spanish) shortly after arriving, gave a 3-minute reflection to the assembly (here, at 37’25, also in Spanish), and, after returning took part in a podcast for America magazine, which later published the following article with my reflections (including some criticisms) of a remarkable and important event.

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7 sources of Pope Francis’s dream of a synodal Church
Talks Austen Ivereigh Talks Austen Ivereigh

7 sources of Pope Francis’s dream of a synodal Church

A lecture I gave on 8 December to the Irish Institute for Catholic Studies at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, in which I identify 7 “sources” of Pope Francis’s dream of a synodal Church: Acts of the Apostles, the Church’s first millennium, the Spiritual Exx of St Ignatius, Vatican II, Celam/Aparecida, the sex abuse crisis and Covid-19.

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Speak Boldly, Listen Carefully: Inside the synod
Articles Austen Ivereigh Articles Austen Ivereigh

Speak Boldly, Listen Carefully: Inside the synod

In Rome for the opening of the global "synod on synodality" on October 9-10, I was fortunate to be in the synod hall for the addresses — including Pope Francis’s — and attended some of the commissions’ meetings. In this substantial article for Commonweal, I take a wide-angled view of the process as a bid by Pope Francis to re-infuse the diocesan Church with "synodality" as best preserved in the religious orders. READ HERE.

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The Spirit in the Assembly
Articles Austen Ivereigh Articles Austen Ivereigh

The Spirit in the Assembly

In this article for Commonweal, I write about the most far-reaching event in the Catholic Church in my lifetime, which officially gets its start next month (October 2021). It is Pope Francis’s boldest move yet, potentially the most transformative moment in Catholicism since the Second Vatican Council. The two-year “synod on synodality,” launched in Rome on October 9 and in dioceses worldwide a week later, is set to mark Christianity forever. So why do so few appear to have noticed?

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