#synod on synodality

Samantha Riedel at Them:

Catholic doctrine on gay and transgender people won’t change anytime soon, Pope Leo XIV reportedly told a biographer in his first public interview, saying the Church “must first change attitudes” across the board. Leo, who became the first U.S.-born pope last year, made the comments during an interview with journalist Elise Ann Allen for Allen’s biography Leo XIV: Citizen of the World, Missionary of the XXI Century, which was published in Spanish last September and will be reprinted in English this April. According to an excerpt from the biography published in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica earlier this month, Leo told Allen the Church’s stances on marriage equality and trans identity would not change in the foreseeable future.

“I must confess that the issue remains in the background of my thoughts because, as we saw at the Synod, within the Church any theme related to the LGBTQ reality is highly polarizing,” Leo reportedly told Allen, per an English translation of his excerpted remarks. “For now, in coherence with what I have already tried to witness and live as Pope at this moment in history, I try not to fuel polarization in the Church.” Leo’s comments about the Synod may have referenced the 2024 Synod on Synodality, which controversially excluded LGBTQ+ people by name from a document about welcoming people into Catholicism. Leo went on to say that he wanted to continue the legacy of his predecessor, Pope Francis, by welcoming people into the Church regardless of identity. “Everyone is invited in, but not as an expression or non-expression of a specific identity. I invite a person because he or she is a son or daughter of God,” Leo said in the interview. “Everyone is welcome, and we can get to know and respect each other. People want Church doctrine to change and they want attitudes to change: I believe that we must first change attitudes, before even thinking about changing what the Church teaches on a particular issue.”

By Courtney Mares

9 November 2024

For the first time in over a century, the historic Chair of St. Peter, a wooden throne symbolizing the pope’s magisterial authority, has been removed from its gilded bronze reliquary in St. Peter’s Basilica to be displayed for public veneration. 

Pilgrims and visitors can now behold this storied relic directly in front of the basilica’s main altar, just above the tomb of St. Peter, where it will remain on display until December 8, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.

According to Pietro Zander, Head of the Necropolis and Artistic Heritage Section of the Vatican:

"The last major public viewing of the chair occurred in 1867, when Pope Pius IX exposed the Chair of Peter for the veneration of the faithful for 12 days on the 1,800th anniversary of the martyrdoms of St. Peter and St. Paul."

It was the first time that the centuries-old wooden throne had been exhibited to the public since 1666 when it was first encased within Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s monumental bronze sculpture under the stained-glass Dove of the Holy Spirit window at the basilica’s apse.

Formally known as the Cathedra Sancti Petri Apostoli, or more simply as Cathedra Petri, the chair has held a revered place in Catholic tradition over the centuries, representing papal authority from St. Peter to the present.

“The chair is meant to be understood as the teacher’s ‘cathedra,’” art historian Elizabeth Lev told CNA.

“It symbolizes the pope’s duty to hand down the teaching of Christ from generation to generation.”

She explained:

“It’s antiquity [ninth century] speaks to a papacy that has endured through the ages — from St. Peter who governed a church on the run trying to evangelize with the might of the Roman Empire trying to shut him down, to the establishment of the Catholic Church and its setting down of roots in the Eternal City, to our 266th successor of St. Peter, Pope Francis.”

A Storied History

The wooden chair itself is steeped in history.

According to the Vatican, the wooden seat was likely given by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles the Bald to Pope John VIII in A.D. 875 for the emperor’s Christmas coronation in the old St. Peter’s Basilica.

A depiction of the emperor appears on the crossbeam of the chair, and its ivory panels illustrate the labors of Hercules along with other scenes from Greek mythology.

The informational sign near the chair in St. Peter’s Basilica informs visitors that “shortly after the year 1000, the Cathedra Petri began to be venerated as a relic of the seat used by the apostle Peter when he preached the Gospel first in Antioch and then in Rome.”

The Fabric of St. Peter, the organization responsible for the basilica’s upkeep, maintains:

“It cannot be ruled out that this ninth-century imperial seat may have later incorporated the panel depicting the labors of Hercules, which perhaps originally belonged to an earlier and more ancient papal seat.”

Before returning the chair to its place within Bernini’s monumental reliquary, Vatican experts will conduct a series of diagnostic tests with the Vatican Museums’ Cabinet of Scientific Research.

The ancient seat was last removed and studied from 1969 to 1974 under Pope Paul VI but was not shown to the public.

The recent restoration of Bernini’s works in the basilica, funded by the Knights of Columbus in preparation for the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year, made it possible for the chair to be moved from the bronze sculpture in August.

Pope Francis got a sneak peak of the relic in early October and a photo of the moment — showing him sitting in a wheelchair before the Chair of St. Peter — quickly went viral.

Afterward, the pope requested that the relic be displayed for public veneration.

Francis ultimately decided that the Chair of St. Peter — a symbol of the Church’s unity under the instruction of Christ — would be unveiled for the public at the closing Mass for the Synod on Synodality.

“Pope Francis has been exceptionally generous to the faithful about displaying relics,” Lev said.

“He brought out the bones of St. Peter shortly after his election, he had the Shroud of Turin on view in 2015, and now he has taken the Chair of Peter out for veneration in the basilica.” 

“In our virtual age, where much confusion reigns between what is real and what is not, Pope Francis has encouraged us to come face to face with these ancient witnesses of our faith and our traditions.”

Feast of the Chair of St. Peter

The Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, celebrated each year on February 22, dates back to the fourth century.

St. Jerome (A.D. 347–420) spoke of his respect for the “Chair of Peter,” writing in a letter:

“I follow no leader save Christ, so I enter into communion with … the Chair of Peter, for this I know is the rock upon which the Church is built.”

As Pope Benedict XVI explained in a 2006 catechesis:

“‘Cathedra’ literally means the established seat of the bishop, placed in the mother church of a diocese, which for this reason is known as a ‘cathedral.”

“It is the symbol of the bishop’s authority and in particular, of his ‘magisterium,’ that is, the evangelical teaching which, as a successor of the apostles, he is called to safeguard and to transmit to the Christian community,” he said.

When a bishop takes possession of the particular Church that has been entrusted to him, he sits on the cathedra, Benedict explained:

“From this seat, as teacher and pastor, he will guide the journey of the faithful in faith, hope, and charity.”

“The Church’s first ‘seat’ was the upper room, and it is likely that a special place was reserved for Simon Peter in that room where Mary, mother of Jesus, also prayed with the disciples,” he added.

Benedict XVI described Peter’s ministry as a journey from Jerusalem to Antioch, where he served as bishop, and ultimately to Rome.

He noted that the See of Rome, where Peter ultimately “ended his race at the service of the Gospel with martyrdom,” became recognized as the seat of his successors, with the cathedra representing the mission entrusted to Peter by Christ.

“So it is that the See of Rome, which had received the greatest of honors, also has the honor that Christ entrusted to Peter of being at the service of all the particular Churches for the edification and unity of the entire people of God,” he said.

Bernini’s Baroque Masterpiece

Bernini’s monumental reliquary for the chair, commissioned by Pope Alexander VII and completed in 1666, is one of the most iconic artworks in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Bernini encased the wooden relic within a bronze-gilded throne, dramatically raised and crowned by a stained-glass depiction of the Holy Spirit, symbolized as a dove, surrounded by sculpted angels.

The bronze throne is supported by massive statues of four doctors of the Church — two from the West, St. Augustine and St. Ambrose, and two from the East, St. John Chrysostom and St. Athanasius.

It is symbolizing the unity of the Church through the ages, bringing together the teachings of both the Latin and Greek Church Fathers.

And at the top of the throne, cherubs hold up a papal tiara and keys symbolizing papal authority.

On the chair itself, there are three gold bas-reliefs representing the Gospel episodes: "consignment of the keys" (Matthew 16:19), “feed my sheep” (John 21:17), and the "washing of the feet" (John 13:1-17).

The ongoing restoration of Bernini’s monument at the Altar of the Chair, along with the recently finished restoration of the baldacchino, is significant not only in light of the 2025 Jubilee Year but also the upcoming 400th anniversary of the Consecration of the Current St. Peter’s Basilica in 2026.

Benedict XVI said:

“Celebrating the ‘Chair’ of Peter means attributing a strong spiritual significance to it and recognizing it as a privileged sign of the love of God, the eternal Good Shepherd, who wanted to gather his whole Church and lead her on the path of salvation.”

I thought this might be of general interest.

I gave a presentation at the 23rd Annual Conference of Notre Dame's De Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture a few months back, and someone asked me to work the talk into a full paper. I've just finished that, and posted it on Academia.edu here.

Here's the abstract:

In an article interviewing Catholics in Pittsburgh. CW for religious homophobia.

‘One of the things [Ken] Pruszynski appreciates about the congregants at Dignity [an LGBTQ affirming Catholic org] is their seriousness about the Eucharist, or the sacrament of communion in which Catholics receive bread and wine to honor Jesus’ death. When he comes to Mass, he seeks a spiritual experience. He finds that at Dignity. “I’m stubborn,” he said, laughing. “Maybe the church left me behind, but I didn’t leave the Catholic Church behind.” He also takes refuge in his sense that local Catholics’ views on sexuality and church doctrines aren’t the same thing. “If it was put to a vote in a city like Pittsburgh,” he said, “I think we would be accepted.” 

Jamie said people frequently ask her questions like, “Why not just leave the church?” She feels “conflicted.” She has had good as well as bad experiences in the church, and she’s a fan of Catholic Social Teaching, a tradition focused on human dignity. Then again, the Catholic Church is aging, and when she’s actually participated in church reform efforts or social action groups, she’s been frustrated.

“There was so much pushback to even the most moderate changes that I just sort of stopped believing that the church wanted to change anything,” she said. At this point, she’s not regularly attending Mass. However — and although she sometimes questions it — she does still identify as Catholic. She’s had a Catholic education. She’s studied Catholic theology. If she feels she’s Catholic, she said, no one has “the right to take that away.” “Like, they can’t unconfirm me,” she said. “The bishop is not any more important than I am.” James Nusser, a 54-year-old Episcopalian who also worships with Catholic congregations, has grappled with his identity as a gay person of faith in several different religious institutions. At one Episcopal congregation where he served as the groundskeeper, a new priest came in and, during worship, fired the LGBTQ members from their roles, preaching that “the gays were an abomination.” He had the landscaping that Nusser had carefully planted and tended, including memorials to deceased members, ripped out. It felt like “my heart was ripped out,” Nusser said. “It took some years to heal.” Nusser has also witnessed homophobia in Black faith communities. Although Nusser is white, his late spouse was a Black man who was HIV positive. Nusser and his spouse would travel to Black churches doing HIV/AIDS education. Some churches refused to have them, Nusser said... Still, for him, the question of whether to forgo faith altogether doesn’t really feel like a question at all. He sees his faith as something that starts not with him or any institution, but with God. “How can any human resist the call of God?” he said. “Once you've been baptized and you've had that Spirit given to you, it's not something you can turn away from.”

...When Nusser looks around at churches in America, he senses the fastest growing ones are not LGBTQ-affirming. That’s “the scary part for me,” he said. He sees people coalescing around hate, not love.

If the Catholic Church were to change its stance, he thought, it would surely take decades — probably spanning multiple Popes’ terms. Still he doesn’t think it’s impossible. He offers his own experience with the trans community as evidence. For many years, he was transphobic: “I avoided trans people because I didn’t understand them,” he said. That changed when he got a chance to listen regularly to the stories of people from his church who were going through gender affirmation. “Like, the scales fell off my eyes,” he said, citing a biblical passage. If church leaders would look LGBTQ Catholics in the eye, listen to their stories, and repent for the harm they did, he thinks the church would look different...’

Photo of James Nusser, an older white man with a white goatee sitting outside and smiling at the viewer.

Being Catholic and LGBTQA+ is complicated, but there are resources out there. Wander through my #queer and catholic tag for more posts like this one.

They have produced a 45-page booklet which presents its account of the discussions of the first stage of ‘listening and discernment’, held in many parts of the world, and it is one of the most incoherent documents ever sent out from Rome…”

4. The so-called "Marian principle" is often attributed to Hans Urs von Balthasar, who developed it in the context of his ecclesiological writings. The Swiss theologian based the "Marian principle" on Mary's "fiat" at the Annunciation (cf. Lk 1:38), as her complete openness to the Word, as one who has "the will to make her own being, withdrawing into openness, the field of a possible encounter between human need and divine grace." Although Mary's total and active "fiat" to the Word of God is "unrepeatable in its perfection," Balthasar ultimately sees it not as a "private event," but as something that the Mother of God "pronounced 'on behalf of the whole human race'." 5. While Balthasar speaks of the universal dimensions of Mary's "fiat," he considers Mary as the model of the Church's response to God's will: "The Church begins with the yes of the Virgin of Nazareth, which synthesizes the faith of Israel and brings it to an immeasurable completion: unreserved readiness to accept, in complete freedom, which makes available the entire spiritual and physical fruitfulness of woman." Mary is a "real symbol" of the Church because of her form of active faith and her availability to God, which is normative for the whole Church, and she is "the interior figure of the communio" of the Church. Her permanent and continuous role in relation to the Church allows us to speak of her "fiat" not only as an event, but also a principle in relation to the Church. 6. If Mary represents a "principle" characterized by the reception of the Word of God, for Balthasar, Peter represents a second principle, linked to the exercise of office and ministry in the Church. In particular, the Swiss theologian sees the "Petrine principle" as an indication of the ministerial and hierarchical dimension established by Christ in Peter, which he identifies as a "masculine ministry, received by Peter . . . from the 'Prince of pastors,' Jesus, to feed his flock." 7. For Balthasar, the link between these principles and femininity and masculinity, respectively, is not accidental, as the theologian explains: "just as the incarnation of the Word required the yes of a woman —who represents in embryo an ecclesial communion— so the human figure of the Word corresponds to its realization in an objective and social, 'institutional' form that remains accessible over time" — a role associated with Peter. 8. Although distinct, according to Balthasar, both "principles," the Marian and the Petrine, are indispensable and "complement each other and highlight their true purpose." For this reason, he can affirm that "Mary and Peter are two real symbols of the one and only Church." Not only are both necessary but, importantly, the Basel theologian affirms that Mary's faith, "who loves and hopes in her feminine availability to the divine, divine-human Spouse, is coextensive with the masculine principle inserted into the Church, of ministry and sacrament." However, the Swiss theologian clarifies that, in the order of holiness, the Marian dimension has priority: "The Marian element in the Church embraces the Petrine without claiming it for itself."

9. Although the "Marian principle refers fundamentally to the whole Church, in some writings Balthasar explicitly links this principle also to questions concerning the roles of women and men in the Church. While he classifies the tasks of leadership and "the authority of consecration and absolution" as "masculine," the Swiss theologian considers the Church itself to be "feminine, Marian," with "a perfectly feminine fruitfulness." 10. With this, he argues that "the priest, as male, stands in the realm of Peter: he shares in the mission of the apostle, which is to represent the Lord before the Church and the community (which are 'feminine' in gender)." However, even in this case, Balthasar is clear that the "Marian principle" still takes precedence, since "in the Gospel, Peter's role becomes relevant much later than Mary's; the origin of the Church does not lie in the calling of the Apostles, but in the little room in Nazareth, when the Son's yes to the Father became one with the mother's yes to the incarnation of the Son." 11. For Balthasar, this is linked to the way she lived her "fiat" from the Annunciation and throughout her life, and to her motherhood towards the Church. In the unique role she plays in the life of the Church, Mary teaches the apostles how to fulfill their role in fidelity to Christ. For this reason, "she does not need to give us any special sign to make us look to the Son rather than to her: her spirit of dependence manifests this. She is therefore able to show the apostles themselves and their successors how it is possible to be at once a fully effective presence and a 'service fully accomplished.' For the Church was already present in her before men were invested with office." 12. Therefore, Balthasar clarifies that, when considered from this perspective, it can be understood that the "Petrine principle" serves to guarantee unity and ensure the sacramental mediation of that holiness which the Church already possesses in its Marian form: "As an envoy, he is destined for the holy, loving, Marian Church," and even in that case he adds that "Peter remains a member of the Marian Church." From this, we can see the fundamental contours of the two Balthasarian "principles," which serve to highlight, on the one hand, Mary's perfect receptivity and motherhood of the Church, and, on the other hand, the office and institution carried out by Peter and his successors.