What would you tell the Synod on the Family if you had just three minutes?
Archbishop Mark Coleridge and Bishop Eugene Hurley are preparing to address the Synod in Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, albeit very briefly, after lodging a petitio loquendi.
In a blog on the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference website Archbishop Coleridge said the three-minute limit could pose a challenge for some bishops.
“It’ll be interesting to see how well the bishops stick to the three-minute limit,” he said.
“It won’t be easy and a few could have the mike turned off on them – which bishops aren’t used to.”
He also shared his impressions of the first morning session of Synod, including the arrival of Pope Francis.
“About five minutes before we were due to start at 9am, in sauntered the pope just like any other member of the Synod,” he wrote.
“Once upon a time, the pope would enter only when everyone else was in the Hall and would be greeted by courteous applause.
“But with Francis it’s different: he just strolls in, mingles with the mob, shakes a few hands, exchanges a few words… The style has certainly changed.
“It’s strange because neither John Paul II nor Benedict XVI was at all a pompous man; but they were middle Europeans of a certain vintage and they had about them an instinctive courtliness. But not Pope Francis; he’s more instinctively one of the mob.”