c. 2005 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ Back from his official vacation at the papal summer villa, Pope Benedict XVI convenes a worldwide assembly of bishops Sunday (Oct. 2) that many expect will set the contours of his young papacy.

As the first assembly of bishops, or synod, of Benedict’s pontificate, the meeting will be closely watched for indications of how the freshman pope aims to govern his bishops. Under John Paul, synods generally functioned as consultative bodies rather than decision-making ones, prompting calls for more “collegiality,” or power-sharing, between local bishops and the Roman Curia _ the Vatican administrative body that helps the pope govern.

Few fundamental changes are expected under Benedict. As John Paul’s chief doctrinal officer, he once dismissed the idea of granting more authority to the synod, saying there was no need for a “second Roman Curia.”

But some observers note that the particular timing of this synod, which ends Oct. 23, could allow it to shape the Roman Curia as never before.

Several curial cardinals are past 75, the official age of retirement, fueling expectations that Benedict will make a sweeping round of appointments. The most influential of these include Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the No. 2 Vatican official, who is 77; and the head of clergy, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, 76.

Before Benedict reshuffles his cabinet, however, more than 200 bishops from across the globe will have the new pope’s ear.

“What we’re going to have on the (synod) floor are (bishops) from local churches saying how they deal with the Curia and what their experiences have been,” said the Rev. Anthony Figueiredo, a theologian from Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J., who will serve as a special assistant to Benedict at the synod.

Figueiredo said he expects some bishops to speak “very openly” on how the Curia should be reformed. Critics of John Paul II frequently complained that Vatican bureaucracy ballooned on his watch, growing to more than 35 departments whose functions often overlap.

For the first time in synod history, Benedict has allotted time for open discussion by cutting back the minutes given to prepared remarks _ an innovation that many believe will spark more meaningful debate among the prelates.

Alberto Melloni, a church historian at the University of Modena in Italy, called the change an “unprecedented attempt to create better discussion” among bishops who are typically averse to taking sides.

“There’s room to perceive how the positions (of the bishops) are divided,” Melloni said.

Figueiredo said the pope’s theological and academic background makes him well suited for bare-knuckle intellectual debate.

Benedict “is not afraid to open the floor up to a more collegial church in the sense of dialogue,” Figueiredo said, because the new pope “finds himself in a very strong position. Obviously he’s supreme pontiff. But he’s also probably the major theologian of all the bishops in the world.”

Dedicated to the Eucharist, the synod was called by John Paul as a follow-up to his 2003 encyclical “Ecclesia de Eucharista,” which aimed to reinforce belief in the “mystery” of the Eucharist _ that Jesus Christ’s body and blood are literally present in the bread and wine taken at communion.

The synod working paper, or “instrumentum laboris,” notes that belief in the mystery of the Eucharist has faded among some Catholics, leading many to take communion while in a state of sin.

Addressing an issue that has been controversial in the United States and elsewhere, the paper states that Catholics who publicly support abortion or vote for politicians because they support abortion rights are unfit to receive communion.

The October assembly will be the 11th synod since the Second Vatican Council, the wide-ranging church reforms of the 1960s which originally instituted the synod.

Many observers have noted that, as a young theologian, Benedict served as a peritus, or theological expert, to Cardinal Josef Frings at Vatican II.

Frings, an outspoken critic of curial authority, was the council’s main proponent of decentralization and increased collegiality, and the then-Rev. Ratzinger is believed to have been the architect behind his proposals.

American bishops attending the synod include Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta, Bishop Donald Wuerl of Pittsburgh and Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., president of the U.S. Bishops Conference.

The pope has appointed Cardinal Edmund C. Szoka, president of the office governing Vatican City State, Ukrainian Catholic Archbishop Stefan Soroka of Philadelphia and Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop Cyril S. Bustros of Newton, Mass., to attend the synod.

MO/RB END RNS