Church services will have a complaints book – Society

• Photo: CMTV

Patriarch, D. Rui Valério

The idea appears in the various proposals that make up the Synthesis Report of the reflection carried out in the Diocese of Lisbon in the period between the two sessions of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which ends in October this year in the Vatican.

The complaints book is a bold proposal, but it already exists in several parishes across the country and, for different reasons, in other Church bodies, such as solidarity institutions.In point six of the report, it is stated that “it is important to know how to listen to the voices of those who, in some way, feel excluded, such as reconstructed families, separated people or people with same-sex attraction”.As a way of welcoming the concerns of those who, as the report states, “feel excluded”, the rapporteurs put forward the idea of ​​creating, at the pastoral level, a complaints book or even a Church ombudsman’s office.
“It is necessary to overcome a certain discomfort that one feels when proposing something different. Communication within the Church and outside must be simplified and transparent”, the document reads.Father Ricardo Figueiredo, spokesman for the Patriarchate, told the Morning mail that “these proposals are in line with the transparency practices imposed, at the most diverse levels, by Pope Francis”.The document, like those of the remaining nineteen dioceses in the country and all the dioceses of the universal Church, now goes to Rome, where it will integrate a vast set of proposals, from which concrete directives for the Church will emerge at the synod level. It is assumed that this could occur in mid-2025.Patriarch wants the Church to be increasingly inclusive
D. Rui Valério’s appeal to the document’s rapporteurs was clear: the proposals should help “promote an increasingly inclusive Church”. The patriarch does not stop at so-called divisive issues. He proposes that evangelization takes into account the importance of digital media, that there is an increasing focus on the training of the faithful and candidates for the priesthood and that the IPSS be vehicles for combating poverty.