Yes, Synod doings continued on Saturday.

Saturday morning’s interventions. Some highlights:

First, From Cardinal Szoka, retired of the Archdiocese of Detroit.

The fIrst Synod I attended was in 1983. In the last 15 years, I have participated in every Synod except one. In the fonnal presentations during the disceptatio generalis, there seemed to be a pattern of speaking that doesn’t change much from one Synod to another. In my humble opinion there seems to be a tendency, with some exception, to speak in formal and general tenns, without focusing on the specifIc problems and possible, practical solutions.

I think: that the interventiones liberae every evening, are much more productive because they focus on specifIc problems and offer possible solutions.
In my own opinion, the core problem for the consideration in this Synod is with our priests and ourselves as bishops. About 55 years ago, I read a book called "Keepers of the Eucharist" by William Henry Schaefers, no longer in print. It is a book for priests as those who celebrate the Eucharist. From an ascetical and spiritual point of view, it is one of the best and most inspiring books I have read on the priesthood. It emphasizes the great gift and dignity of the priesthood – the greatest gift God could give to a man. The love for the Eucharist and its centrality to the life and faith of our people depends to a great extent on the priest – his own faith, the life he lives, his prayer life, the simplicity of his life, his willingness to bring his own sacrifIces to the Mass and the manner in which he celebrates the Holy Eucharist

The Archbishop of Addis Abbaba:

I do not have the statistics of these Christians who go to Saudi Arabia, Yemen, the Gulf States, and other Muslim majority countries. They are in the hundreds of thousands. Only in Beirut, there are more than 20,000 Ethiopians working there. We are grateful for Caritas Lebanon for the help it gives to these Christians.
Before they go to the Muslim countries, they are forced to change their Christian names into Muslim ones and, especially, the women have to dress in Muslim attire. Once they reach their destinations, their passports are taken from them and they suffer all kinds of abuses and exploitations. Many are forced by the situation to become Muslims.
They are forced to go to these Muslim countries because of the poverty of their own countries, and because the doors of other Christian countries are closed to them. We know that many African Christians die crossing parts of the Sahara desert or get drowned in the Mediterranean Sea attempting to go to Christian countries in Europe and America.
It is poverty which is forcing them to give up their Christian heritage, their Christian culture, and even their human dignity.
They are denied their right of expressing their religion: the celebration of the Eucharist, and the Sunday Mass. It is one of the religious persecutions of the modem times.
I request the Synod Fathers, especially those working in Muslim countries where poor Christians go in search of employment, to extend their pastoral care to these Christians and to ask the Muslim governments to respect the religious freedom of the Christians.

The bishop of Ponce, Puerto Rico, echoes a theme: catechesis, catechesis, catechesis:

Today we hear about the loss of the sense of sin.
Many Catholics are very far away from being able to render or give account for their own faith, such as St. Peter proposes in his first letter: “and always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you have”.
On the other hand, it is not possible to love that which is not known. And not having the knowledge of the Church, the Eucharist, or of Christian faith, it is difficult to be able to love the Church, the Eucharist and that same Christian faith.
Catechesis is what is required. It seems to me that we suffer from lack of catechesis. I have the impression that no solid and deep catechesis is in progress. Our people are grateful and hungry for catechesis, that the truths of faith be explained to them.
The absence of catechesis and religious formation can perhaps also explain the facility with and reason for which some of our faithful go to other denominations and religious sects, drawn by the fireworks that a pseudo-religious science offers them, because they were not illuminated in time with the light of the Gospel through an adequate and good catechesis.

Much more, she said for the umpteenth time, statements that while not being the most exciting in the universe do give an excellent sense of the Church’s global mission in a complex world.

A bit of summary from Zenit