'There is a difference with Pope Francis: he is just there wondering around and talking to people. He is very serious about collegiality. People feel freer and you can sense that in the atmosphere. 50 years on, we have got a lot to thank Pope Paul VI for'.
The Archbishop of Wellington, New Zealand, describes a pervading sense of hope and excitement among people in the Synod Hall: “I would say that overall there is a great sense of hope not that things are going to change immediately, but that at least we can talk about some of these issues that in the past we haven’t been able to talk about. Nine years ago at the Synod on the Eucharist I talked about the possibility of communion for the divorced and remarried and got a lot of criticism. Now at this Synod its being talked about openly by many, many people”.