The Roman Catholic Church is developing and changing, often unexpectedly. Its Extraordinary
Synod at the end of 1985 was preceded by a series of disagreements between 'Rome', the Pope and the Curia, on the one hand; the local churches n Europe,
North America, South America and elsewhere, on the other. The Pope called the Synod to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council. Onto it, as onto a blank screen, were projected hopes and fears. Would the Synod be a device for the 'restoration of pre-conciliar values' which Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger thought necessary in a Church that
was-manifestly falling apart?' Or would it stress not the failure of the Council but the Church's failure to implement it, as the European bishops believed? During the following ten months many happenings, recorded in this book, including the dramatic papal visit to the Netherlands and Africa, and a forthright text of the bishops of England and Wales, contributed to that debate. The Synod looked set to be a moment of encounter. What actually happened there is set out
in the last part of this book.