One good thing about all these synods…
One thing about these regular major synods in Rome is that they stimulate book publishers. You will no doubt remember some of the books Ignatius Press published around the time of the two synods on the Family. I reviewed some of them under the deliberately humorous title “The Ignatius Press conspiracy to control the synods on the family”. Similarly, in the wake of the Amazon Synod, with its push for married priests, publishers have begun to release books on celibacy.
For example:
- The Case for Clerical Celibacy: Its historical development and theological foundations (second edition) by Alfons Maria Cardinal Stickler, new from Ignatius Press.
- Friends of the Bridegroom: For a renewed vision of priestly celibacy by Marc Cardinal Ouellet, new from EWTN Publishing.
New books on the diaconate (and the question of whether it can be opened to women, also agitated at the Amazon Synod) have not been so quick to appear, no doubt in part because the question is under study by Pope Francis at the moment. But Ignatius Press addressed this over fifteen years ago in at least two books:
