Weaving the synodal Church. New threads and the entire story

ABSTRACT In September and October 2023, the Catholic Church in Belgium faced another significant media crisis related to sexual abuse. This time, it was not so much about new facts, but victims of abuse told their stories candidly in a televised documentary. Telling their story destabilised and challenged many of the Catholic Church’s narratives once again. Although many reactions focused on past failures, it was also noted that the Catholic Church is currently striving to be more synodal, to walk with people, to allow people to tell their own stories, and is not yet successful in doing so. This article analyses the Catholic Church’s inability to incorporate diverse narratives into its story and, using the metaphor of Penelope’s weaving, aims to offer a new approach to the story of the Catholic Church becoming more synodal by adding new threads and removing harmful ones from the ecclesial fabric.