After a difficult year in which he underwent surgery and suffered periodic illness, there was another flurry of concern in November over the health of Pope Francis, who turned 87 this month. Suffering from acute bronchitis, the pope cancelled his trip to the Cop28 summit in Dubai, and twice asked an aide to read out his remarks at weekly audiences in the Vatican.
Ahead of the most important year in the recent history of the Catholic church, well-wishers must hope that the temporary loss of voice was not an ominous portent. Next autumn, the biggest ecclesiastical listening exercise ever undertaken by a pope will come to a contested climax. Dwarfing in scale the modernising second Vatican council in the 1960s – the last great progressive moment in the history of the church – Francis’s “synod on synodality” has canvassed the views of millions of parishioners on every continent over its future. In the autumn, an interim report described this unprecedented exercise as a “radical call to build together … an attractive and concrete church in which all feel welcome”. Next year, following a final conference in Rome, it will be down to Francis to flesh out the detail of what that means.
