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Synod Diary: Sixty Days That Shook the Church
Paperback
Religion General General Christianity
ISBN13: 9780809157112
Publisher: Paulist Press
Published: Jan 1 2026
Pages: 144
Weight: 0.35
Height: 0.40 Width: 5.30 Depth: 8.00
Language: English
Modeled on John Reed's celebrated Ten Days that Shook the World, his lively chronicling of the October 1917 Russian Revolution, is a journal and commentary on and during the high point of the Bergoglio papacy-the October 2023 Synod on Synodality.
Higgins has an introductory chapter that contextualizes the Synod and explains why it's special and potentially transformative. The book also contains a day-by-day record of personalities, crises, behind-the-scenes politics, lapses, triumphs.
Endorsements
Like an ecclesiastical Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Higgins searched the aulas of the Vatican and walked the cobbled streets of Rome in search of clues and sources who would piece together what was really going on behind locked doors in the Vatican. This book is a remarkable achievement in doing that, but also a wonderful record written in colorful prose of an event that to the outsider was presented by the Vatican in awkward and uninviting language, or 'ecclesiastical bafflegab' as Higgins describes it. It's 'unputdownable'
--Garry O'Sullivan, publisher and editor, The Irish Catholic and The Synodal Times, Dublin, Ireland
In this erudite yet accessible work, Dr. Higgins provides us with a most helpful prelude outlining the background to the 2021-2024 Synod of Bishops on the themes of communion, participation, and mission. His diary entries, from his vantage point as an 'external observer' to the discussions going on in the synod hall, provide helpful insights into the deeper implications of the Synod for the Catholic Church, especially moving forward from the legacy of Pope Francis into the Petrine ministry of Leo XIV. All in all, delightful and insightful in equal parts!
--Raymond Lafontaine, episcopal vicar, Archdiocese of Montreal, table facilitator at the 2024 Synodal Assembly
Michael W. Higgins has been an administrator and teacher at several Canadian and U.S. Catholic colleges and universities. Currently he is Basilian Distinguished Fellow of Contemporary Catholic Thought, St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, and Distinguished Professor of Catholic Thought Emeritus at Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT. He has authored or coauthored numerous books, including The Church Needs the Laity: The Wisdom of John Henry Newman, and, with Kevin Burns, Impressively Free: Henri Nouwen as a Model for a Reformed Priesthood and Genius Born of Anguish: The Life and Legacy of Henri Nouwen.
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