Austen Ivereigh is a British biographer of Pope Francis who during the papal transition reported for The Tablet and commentated for the BBC. His most recent book is First Belong to God: On Retreat with Pope Francis (Loyola Press, 2024).
By dragging Benedict into schemes like Cardinal Sarah’s book about celibacy, the anti-Francis faction reveals deep flaws in the current emeritus papacy.
The synod on the Amazon will be remembered as the moment that bishops gathered in Rome asked the pope to ordain married men in order better to serve the poor.
What matters at the Amazon synod is not the imperative of universal consistency across all regions of the church, but the pastoral welfare of the People of God.
