We Are Beginning a Two-Year Process to Prepare for a Worldwide Synod of Bishops on Synodality

I write my own headlines.  So I can assure you I am not trying to be critical of Pope Francis’ latest call for a synod.  However, when they heard the theme of the synod, “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission,” some reporters on the Vatican beat complained, “A process about a process, what could be duller?”

Actually, this fourth synod, following synods on the family (in 2014 and 2015), on young people (in 2018) and on the Pan-Amazon region (in 2018) helps us to understand better how Pope Francis is trying to fulfill one of the reasons the cardinals elected him pope in 2013. They wanted him to practice more collegiality, bringing them more into the important decision making process of the church.  In convening synods, his predecessors had usually consulted only the heads of the Vatican dicasteries (departments) and other career Vatican prelates.  They then wrote out the agenda and the questions to be answered.  Bishop representatives from countries around the world were invited to the Roman synod to discuss these topics and vote on actions to be taken.  The pope then wrote his response to their conclusions.  It was a rather controlled process.

 Cardinal archbishops of the major dioceses throughout the world who elected Pope Francis believed they were closer to the people and should have more advice to contribute with regard to the people’s spiritual and material welfare.  Pope Francis answered by going further and having questionnaires sent to the dioceses of every country, soliciting questions from the people on the topic chosen for discussion.  

Then he invited to the Vatican synods lay men and women who were leaders on the topics being considered.  They were not given a vote but they could and did speak.  This time, Pope Francis has given a vote to a woman, Sister Nathalie Becquart XMCJ, who has been serving as the undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops.  

Pope Francis formally launched the process of the upcoming synod by celebrating a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 10.  The bishops of the world, according to National Catholic Reporter and Catholic News Service, were scheduled to begin the process in their dioceses after Oct. 17.  This diocesan phase is scheduled to go through April, featuring a consultation with local Catholics based on a preparatory document and questionnaire prepared by the synod office.  

The next step will be for the national bishops’ conferences to reflect on the results of the consultation with the laity and send their conclusions back to the Roman Synod office.  The final step will be the meeting of the bishops chosen to represent their countries at the general assembly of the Synod of Bishops for a Synodal Church in October 2023.  

I would imagine the pope will invite many laity, representatives of religious orders of men and women, clergy and lay theologians who played major roles in the process and one nun who will vote on the final document along with the official voting bishops who represent the countries of the world to the synod.  This would balance what Pope Francis did Oct. 9, the day before the inaugural Mass, when he invited to a day of reflection and prayer “representatives of the people of God, including delegates of the bishops’ conferences and related bodies, members of the Roman Curia, fraternal delegates, delegates of consecrated life and ecclesial lay movements, the youth council, etc.” (Catholic News Service).

For Pope Francis, synodality is an expression of all of us being the church, the people of God, as the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church defines us in the first and greatest of the four main documents of Vatican II.  The church is a visible sacrament of Jesus acting in our world.  He is acting through all of us, not just the hierarchy, not just the vowed religious, not just the ordained, but all of us, and especially the laity who create our society.  Everyone must play his and her part.  Everyone must have a voice in what our church does and becomes.  

A new book by Cardinal Michael Czerny and Father Christian Barone was published in Italy about Pope Francis’ vision of the social teaching of our church.  Pope Francis himself wrote an essay for the preface.  The English-language version, “Siblings All, Sign of the Times: The Social Teaching of Pope Francis,” will be published in 2022.  In it Pope Francis explains his vision of church simply and clearly: “The heart of the Gospel is the proclamation of the reign of God, in the person of Jesus himself, the Emmanuel, God-is-with-us.  In him, God brings his project of love for humanity to fulfillment, establishing his lordship over creatures and sowing the seed of divine life in human history, transforming it from within. We must never neutralize this social dimension of the Christian faith. The Gospel is about the kingdom of God (Lk 4:43); it is about (a) loving God who reigns in our world. To the extent that he reigns within us, the life of society will be a setting for universal fraternity, justice, peace and dignity.  Christian preaching and life, then, are meant to have an impact on society.”

The preparation for this synod offers great possibility for injecting new life into our Diocese of Baton Rouge.  We became a diocese in 1961.  The next year the Ecumenical Council of Vatican II began.  Our founding bishop, Bishop Robert E. Tracy thought it was wonderful, a fresh start for our world-wide church and a great opportunity for our new diocese.  The council lasted four years.  

Bishop Tracy ordered a diocesan wide program of adult education on each of the documents of the council as they were published.  And he made real the changes called for by each document.  

The interior of St. Joseph Cathedral was remodeled to meet the liturgical updating of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.  The laity became readers, communion ministers, altar servers, women too.  It was the first time women were allowed inside the altar rails, many of which eventually disappeared.

 Parish councils were established to give the laity their rightful voice.  

The Constitution on the Church and the Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity became concrete. Bible studies began in many parishes.  Catholics read and studied the Bible a well as the Council’s Constitution of Divine Revelation.  Catholics began inviting Protestant and Jewish friends to our parish churches and we went to theirs.  The RCIA was established to catechize converts to Catholicism.  We made real the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World.  Our people were excited and happy to be Catholic.

The same kind of rejuvenation of our diocesan church happened under our third bishop, Bishop Stanley J. Ott. He looked for something to bring our people together after a time of division.  He found it in an adult education program called “RENEW.”  Almost every church parish in our diocese sported signs featuring an evergreen oak as parishioners met in neighborhood groups of a dozen or so to learn about their faith and share fellowship and often good food and drink.  A lot of healing occurred, and a return to normalcy and fellowship.

Isn’t this the blessing that Pope Francis is trying to lead us to in his own encyclical “Fratelli Tutti” (“Siblings All”) and his wanting to unify us through the practice of synodality?     

Father Carville is a retired priest in the Diocese of Baton Rouge and writes on current topics for The Catholic Commentator. He can be reached at [email protected].