The second session of the Synod on Synodality concluded at the end of October in Rome—but the work of the synod is far from over, with its implementation phase just beginning.
“Episcopalis Communio,” the 2018 apostolic constitution that updates and defines the structure of the Synod of Bishops, describes the implementation phase as necessary “to initiate the reception of the Synod’s conclusions in all the local churches” (No. 7). In the case of the Synod on Synodality, this reception will involve not only reading and understanding the synod’s final document but also developing and adapting norms and structures to give concrete form to its recommendations for dialogue, consultation and evaluation in the life of the church. That final document, having been approved and signed by Pope Francis, now “participates in the ordinary magisterium of the successor of Peter.”
The synod’s final document calls strongly for “participatory bodies” already provided for in canon law, such as diocesan synods and diocesan and parish pastoral councils, to be made “mandatory, as was requested at every state of the synodal process” because “a synodal church is based upon the existence, efficiency and effective vitality of these participatory bodies, not on the merely nominal existence of them” (No. 104).
The document also calls for these bodies to operate synodally in both their deliberations and their selection of members. The synod puts a particular focus on “greater involvement by women, young people, and those living in poverty or on the margins,” as well as lay Christians who are living their faith in the secular world, not just those who are employed in the internal work of the church (No. 106). It calls for greater lay participation in significant decisions within the church, including, as one example, a “greater voice in choosing bishops” (No. 70).
The synod’s attention to participation, however, is not just an update for organizational charts within the church—it is “putting into practice what the [Second Vatican] Council taught about the church as mystery and church as people of God, called to holiness through continual conversion that comes from listening to the Gospel” (No. 5). This conversion is not directed only to the internal life of the church—as an “authentic act of further reception” of Vatican II, it aims at “deepening its inspiration and reinvigorating its prophetic force for today’s world.”
Perhaps especially in places like the United States and Western Europe, where structures like pastoral councils are already relatively common, it is important to hear the synod’s call to ensure that consultation and dialogue are effective and not merely nominal. There can be a temptation for bishops, pastors and other church leaders to point at what is already being done as sufficient, as if the synod’s recommendations are aimed only at other parts of the church that need to catch up.
Even if it may have some participatory structures in place, the U.S. church’s engagement in the synodal process has been uneven. In October 2021, as the diocesan phase of the synod was beginning, America staff contacted every diocese in the country and found that only about half had appointed local synod coordinators as called for in the synod’s preparatory instructions. After the first general session of the synod, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the papal nuncio to the United States, addressed the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on Nov. 14, 2023, saying: “We must have the courage to listen to people’s perspectives, even when those perspectives contain errors and misunderstandings.” At the same meeting, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, the president of the conference, reflected on the “many synodal realities that already exist in the church in the United States” and said that new structures for consultation should “recognize and build on what is already present.”
As this editorial goes to press, preparations are ongoing for the Nov. 11-14 meeting of the U.S.C.C.B., where the bishops will receive updates and reports from members who participated in the synod. Just as the work of the synod did not conclude with the closing Mass of the assembly in Rome, neither should the conference’s engagement with the synod conclude with receiving reports from it. Instead, the conference should include as a recurring agenda item implementation of the synod’s recommendations, especially in regard to the effectiveness of participatory bodies, on both the parish and diocesan level.
There are significant opportunities for dioceses to learn from one another in this process, and in particular from those dioceses that have had an experience of renewal through a local synod. The theologian Catherine Clifford, a synod delegate, said at a press briefing on Oct. 5 that “the majority of dioceses in the world have not yet experienced a local synod, in the 60 years since the Second Vatican Council.”
All the structures and processes associated with the synod are meant to help the church listen to one another as members of the people of God. But even that is only a means to the more fundamental task of listening to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not calling the church to self-reflection for the church’s own sake but that it might be renewed for mission. As the synod’s final document recalls, “Synodality and mission are intimately linked: mission illuminates synodality and synodality spurs to mission” (No. 32).
Synodal listening requires much more than just summing up a variety of inputs and taking a kind of average of them. Nor can such listening be equated with a democratic process, in which a majority or even a supermajority ultimately wins out and sees its proposals enacted. The church has been learning this through the two general assemblies of the Synod on Synodality, in which an enormous variety of cultures and experiences were in dialogue and in which controversial topics were able to be discussed but not fully resolved.
The synod’s final document lays out the elements of ecclesial discernment, which involve both listening to the word of God in prayer and listening to each other, and then searching for a consensus “when ‘our hearts burn within us’ (cf. Lk 24:32), without hiding conflicts or searching for the lowest common denominator” (No. 84). That kind of discernment requires patience in cooperating with God, and comes as a gift of grace through the Spirit’s work within the church. While discussion and debate can help prepare the way for it, they cannot produce it by themselves.
As the church continues the work of the synod, let us pray for the patience to listen to each other, and to listen together to the Holy Spirit. As Pope Francis said in his final address to the synod, “The Holy Spirit calls and supports us in this learning, which we need to understand as a process of conversion.”
