Mary Betz discusses the challenges of synodality for the Church participating with Christ in mission.

The word “synodality” comes from the Greek synodos, which means walking the same path, or journeying together. The International Theological Commission’s 2018 paper, Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church affirms that synodality is “at the heart of the work of renewal that the Council [Vatican II] was encouraging”.

Brief History of Synodality

One of the earliest recorded Christian meetings was between Paul and Barnabas from the Antioch community and the “headquarters” Jerusalem community which included Peter and James. The Acts of the Apostles tells us that together with the Holy Spirit the whole community listened and agreed to Paul’s proposals for the Gentile mission.

Cyprian of Carthage (3rd century) wrote that while nothing should be done in the local church without the bishop, equally nothing should be done without the council of clergy or the consensus of the people.

Early synodal experience points to several critical principles of synodal assemblies: we must listen to one another; the issues focus on how the Church does mission; discern solutions together and with the Holy Spirit: and when we say “everyone” we mean the whole People of God.

Post-Constantine, Church councils did not include laity other than imperial or civil authorities. There were, however, gatherings of the faithful at local church level, and permanent synods live on in the Eastern Church.

The 16th-century Council of Trent solidified the idea of the Roman Catholic Church as an unequal hierarchy, with the bishops and pope as the “teaching Church” and “the faithful” as the “learning Church”. Local councils were convoked by some bishops, but “in keeping with the culture of the time”, these were not meant to involve the participation of all, rather “to pass on the council’s norms and dispositions”. Anglicans and many mainline Protestant Churches have made synods an ordinary part of church life.

Renaissance for Synodality

The International Theological Commission cites 19th-century thinkers Johann Adam Möhler, Antonio Rosmini and John Henry Newman, who taught that a fundamental element of Church — communion — required synodal practice on every level. Synodality requires faithfulness to the sensus fidei fidelium — the instinctive and unerring sense of the faith on the part of the faithful. This understanding was embodied in Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium.

Dioceses and parishes were invited to form Pastoral Councils, and Paul VI instituted a permanent Synod of Bishops in 1965. John Paul II noted in 2001 that “there is certainly much more to be done in order to realise all the potential of these instruments of communion … to respond promptly and effectively to the issues which the Church must face.”

Impelled by the Spirit of Vatican II, and in continuity with the “new evangelisation” focus of his predecessors, Pope Francis issued Evangelii Gaudium in 2013. His approach was visceral, calling on the Church to take on “the smell of the sheep”. He wanted the Church to follow Jesus in mission to the poor, sick, despised and overlooked, preferring “a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets”.

Francis asked: How can we remain shut up in our structures and comfortable habits “while at our door people are starving and Jesus does not tire of saying to us: ‘give them something to eat’?”

He dreamed of “a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the Church’s customs, ways of doing things … language and structures can all be suitably channelled for the evangelisation of today’s world rather than for her preservation”. To undertake its true mission, the Church must change.

Why and How We Are to Be Synodal

Francis’s 2015 address commem-orating the 50th anniversary of the Synod of Bishops, as well as his 2020 book, Let Us Dream, offer synodality (his own coinage) as the way we are meant to be a pilgrim, missionary Church. Synodality is faithful to our past and vital for carrying on God’s mission.

A synodal Church is a Church of participation and co-responsibility, so requires processes for involving the whole People of God. All the faithful must be consulted because “Quod omnes tangit ob omnibus tractari debet” — “What touches all must be approved by all”. Thus we have seen the faithful consulted in each diocese before the bishops met in Rome (Synod on the Family), in a region (Amazon Synod) and in a country (the Australian Plenary Council, convening now).

How, we may well ask, can all the faithful possibly agree on mission priorities and practices? A synod — whether at the level of parish council, diocesan council, country, or bishops — is not a parliament whose deliberations end in a majority vote.

In assemblies of the people, there will always be many discordant ideas, so each person must come with an attitude of humility, respect, openness, patience and readiness to listen.

Wisdom of “See, Judge, Act”

Francis likens listening to “seeing” in the familiar “See, Judge, Act” paradigm. When we listen deeply to all, with patience and open heart and mind, we acknowledge the reality of the situations and contexts in which others live, taking on the “smell of the other sheep”.

Drawing on his Ignatian training and experience, Francis names “judging” as discernment — a process of reflection and prayer which enables us to recognise God’s intent and invitations. This process is critical for synodality and requires living with uncertainty until the truth becomes clear. It is a familiar practice in spiritual direction and in religious congregations — one we all need to learn.

The third step, acting, can happen if the whole assembly, after listening respectfully and prayerfully to one another, agree. Often there are so many discordant voices that the discernment process ends in action only when there is a moment of wisdom or gift that Francis calls “overflow” — a breaking out of the confined banks of our thinking by a new rush of creativity. An overflow moment at the Synod on the Family came when a member remembered something Thomas Aquinas taught: “No general rule can apply in every situation.” Francis sees his role as pope as an encourager of “overflows”, not an arbiter prescribing top-down action.

Francis understands synodality, with its deep listening, discerning and trusting in the Spirit, as the way for the Church to rid itself of clericalism and paralytic polarisation. It can open us to God’s invitation to love and respect one another, and enable us to “flow out of [our] own ‘little lagoon’ into the broad river of reality ” (Let Us Dream) and reach out into the world with the compassion of Jesus.

The opportunity to let our wisdom flow out to the wider Church begins

this month (October), when

Francis will inaugurate the two-year preparation process for the 2023 synod:"For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission".

“Reference” persons in each diocese will facilitate opportunities for all to be involved in creating this new way of being Church.

This is all huge but, for Francis, it is just the beginning. He dreams that synodality will be the way of being not only for the Church, but for the whole world, to bring peace, justice and restoration to Earth. 

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 264 October 2021: 4-5