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_WORLD WATCH______________________________
________________Oceania_______________
Pope to stay home
Document on Oceania Synod to be released from Rome
Pope John Paul II
will promulgate his apostolic exhortation on Oceania from the Vatican on
November 22, rather than trying to travel to the Pacific region.
The apostolic exhortation will mark the completion of the work of the Oceania Synod, which was held in Rome in 1998. The Pope’s document will summarize the conclusions reached by the bishops, and the challenges facing the Catholic Church in that region.
In the past, after each synod of bishops from a particular region, Pope John Paul has traveled to that region to promulgate his apostolic exhortation.
Because of the Pope’s physical fragility, and the difficulties now involved in overseas travel, there had been considerable speculation around the Vatican as to whether the Holy Father would continue his ordinary practice.
After the African Synod of 1994, Pope John Paul made public his exhortation Ecclesia in Africa during his trip to Cameroon in 1995. After the 1997 American Synod (bringing together the bishops of both North and South America), the Holy Father launched Ecclesia in America during his trip to Mexico in 1999. And after the Asian Synod of 1998, he traveled to New Delhi in 1999 for the formal promulgation of Ecclesia in Asia.
The Oceania Synod, which included the bishops of Australia and New Zealand as well as the Pacific islands, met in Rome in November and December 1998. In fact the opening day of that Synod coincides with the date selected for the publication of the papal exhortation: November 22.
One last regional synod, the European Synod, concluded its meetings in Rome in October 1999. The Pope has not yet delivered his document to conclude that synod.
Back to Catholic World Report November 2001 Table of Contents