Audimus

Why do we listen to those from other faiths? What distinguishes synodal listening from dialogue? To help us explore this area we speak with Cardinal Michael Fitzgerald, a member of the Missionaries of Africa, known as the White Fathers. He graduated from the Gregorian University in 1965 with a doctorate in theology, and in 1968 with a degree in Arabic from SOAS, the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London. He was appointed secretary, and later president of what would become the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.In 2006 he was appointed as the apostolic nuncio in Egypt and delegate to the League of Arab States, from which he retired in 2012. Seven years later Pope Francis appointed him Cardinal.

Listening to someone is the means of recognising their worth and inherant dignity. But many of us don't know how to listen to those whose manner of expression differs from our own. Those who may be neurodiverse, those who have special educational needs or those who have a condition which affects their cognitive or communicative abilities. How can we better listen across these apparent barriers? Joining us today is Sr Carino Hodder OP, a member of the Dominican Sisters of St Joseph.

Jan Nowotnik was ordained as a priest in the Archdiocese of Birmingham in 1998. He is currently the Director of Mission and the National Ecumenical Officer at the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales. He was a non-Bishop member of the October 2023 Synod in Rome. He has also recently completed a PhD at the Angelicum in Rome, where his thesis explored the ecclesiology of the local Church at Vatican II and the post-conciliar magisterium.

Two key words in the Catholic Church today are “listening” and “learning” – this is especially true in the recent flurry of documents on Synodality. Pope Francis has defined a synodal Church as a listening Church. And in the Instrumentum Laboris, the working document prepared ahead of the meeting of Bishops in Rome this October, we read that a Church committed to listening means a Church that is “humble [and that] has much to learn”. But what does listening mean in an ecclesial context? What does the Church need to learn and from whom? More concretely, how can Catholics around the world be better in the actual practice of spiritual listening and learning? To discuss these questions and more, we are joined in this podcast by Kevin Gary. Kevin is a Professor of Philosophy at Valparaiso University in the United States. Much of Kevin’s work focuses on the philosophy of education, and he has recently written a book that I think is just fantastic: Why Boredom Matters: Education and the Quest for a Meaningful Life. It’s published by Cambridge University Press.