We come to our final section, after many stops and starts, of the instrumentum laboris document of the synod on synodality. One last question defines section B 3.5:
How can the institution of the Synod be strengthened so that it is an expression of episcopal collegiality within an all-synodal Church?
An important bit of history reminds us that synods were intended to be a regular feature of the Church about six decades ago. Was Vatican II explicit in initiating this? Perhaps not in so many words. But the post-conciliar efforts at building up the Church were not dependent on specifics from the Council. Much of the resistance to post-conciliar action misinterprets and misunderstands the purpose of the Council, and underestaimtes the importance of the input of pope, bishops, and really–any Catholic–to the ongoing effort to evangelize the world.
The documentation, 1965 and 2018:
With the Motu Proprio Apostolica sollicitudo (15 September 1965) St. Paul VI established the Synod as “a permanent Council of Bishops for the universal Church”. He thus accepted the request of the conciliar assembly to ensure the participation of the Bishops in care for the whole Church, specifying that “this Synod […] like all human institutions, can be improved upon with the passing of time”. With the Apostolic Constitution Episcopalis communio (15 September 2018) Pope Francis contributed to this hoped-for “perfecting”, transforming the Synod from an event configured as an assembly of Bishops to a listening process unfolding in stages (cf. Art. 4), in which the whole Church and everyone in the Church—People of God, College of Bishops, Bishop of Rome—participate more fully.
Two further points on this topic:
a) The Synod 2021-2024 is clearly demonstrating that the synodal process is the most appropriate context for the integrated exercise of primacy, collegiality and synodality as inalienable elements of a Church in which each subject performs its particular function to the best of its ability and in synergy with others;
First, I am not sure how clear it is among some Catholics. Some believers are at home with a top down exercise of Church. But only as long as they agree with it. The ideal, as stated here, is that all members of the Body can offer their charisms for the good of the mission. And an important reminder: the mission is always more important than the institution, and especially its peripherals.
The pope has a job:
b) It is the responsibility of the Bishop of Rome to convene the Church in Synod, calling an Assembly for the universal Church, as well as to initiate, accompany and conclude the related synodal process. This prerogative belongs to him as the “visible principle and foundation of unity both of the bishops and of the multitude of the faithful” (Lumen Gentium 23);
Thoughts?
Catholic Sensibility 