“Synodality” is a major theme of the Francis pontificate, but what the term means in its “Franciscan” register is not terribly clear. Vatican statements tend to talk around the meaning of the term, and bishops – many of them promotors and champions of synodality – will describe it in their own words.
But what does “Synodality” actually mean?
Historically, things called Synods have existed in some form or another pretty much since Apostolic times. The Council of Jerusalem was the first such gathering, and we know about that because it is the subject of an entire chapter in the Acts of the Apostles.
The Council of Jerusalem is frequently cited as the prototypical Ecumenical Council. It was admittedly very different in both scope and structure from both the Synods that occur regularly in the Eastern Churches and the diocesan Synods that used to be regularly held in the West.
Then, there is the Synod of Bishops established by Pope St. Paul VI after the Vatican Council II, which – not to put too fine a point on it – was never much more than a talking shop.
Whatever “Synodality” is under Francis, it isn’t any of those things. Occasionally, it seems as if Synodality may be a conglomeration of parts gleaned from each and from other modes and organs of Church governance in history.
“Synodality is the walking together of Christians with Christ and towards God’s Kingdom, in union with all humanity…with the desire for a Church that is closer to people and more relational – a Church that is God’s home and family,” said the Synod of Bishops last year.
“Synodality is a path of spiritual renewal and structural reform that enables the Church to be more participatory and missionary so that it can walk with every man and woman, radiating the light of Christ,” the statement added.
All that is rather airy and – let’s face it – only Francis himself knows what he means.
Many people – especially conservatives – are opposed to this talk of “Synodality,” thinking it is a Trojan Horse, meant to allow more progressive Catholics to push their agenda, at least in Europe and North America.
Lots of ink has been spilt in saying and arguing and explaining how any number of papal pronouncements and even official documents issued in the pope’s name or with some sort of papal approval are not ex cathedra statements – so-called because they come “from the chair” of St. Peter and according to Catholic dogma are therefore protected by the special papal gift of infallibility.
There’s a lot to be said for that, and for keeping it always in mind: Papal infallibility is tightly limited and virtually impossible to invoke by mistake.
Still, the Magisterium of the Church teaches Catholics to honor the views of the pope even when he isn’t speaking ex cathedra or even “officially.”
Beginning in the 20th century, “professional” Catholics from journalists to academics, public intellectuals and apologists have referred to the “Papal Magisterium” in a way that indicates the particular teaching of an individual pope.
Papal Magisterium in this sense is much talked about, but it seems it doesn’t always stick.
During his tenure Pope St. John Paul II was famous for his teaching of the “Theology of the Body.” He spent the first years of his pontificate speaking about this during his Wednesday audiences.
“[The] very sacramentality of creation, the sacramentality of the world was revealed in a way, in man created in the image of God. By means of his corporality, his masculinity and femininity, man becomes a visible sign of the economy of truth and love, which has its source in God himself and which was revealed already in the mystery of creation,” he said.
Several books were written about the pope’s words, and the “Theology of the Body” became a regular subject at Catholic Church’s around the world.
Then John Paul died, and Benedict XVI came to lead the Church, and he also had a unique teaching in 2009: Establishing a “Court of the Gentiles” for the Catholic Church, similar to the space within the Temple complex in Jerusalem where people who were not Jewish could worship the God of Israel.
“[We] must be concerned that human beings do not set aside the question of God, but rather see it as an essential question for their lives,” he said.
“I think naturally of the words which Jesus quoted from the Prophet Isaiah, namely that the Temple must be a house of prayer for all the nations,” Benedict said in a speech to Vatican leaders just before Christmas that year.
“They had to pray to the unknown God, yet in this way they were somehow in touch with the true God, albeit amid all kinds of obscurity,” he continued.
“I think that today too the Church should open a sort of ‘Court of the Gentiles’ in which people might in some way latch on to God, without knowing him and before gaining access to his mystery, at whose service the inner life of the Church stands,” Benedict also said.
Benedict called not only for interreligious dialogue but for “a dialogue with those to whom religion is something foreign, to whom God is unknown and who nevertheless do not want to be left merely Godless, but rather to draw near to him, albeit as the Unknown.”
Fast forward to 2025 and the twelfth year – coming up on the turn into the thirteenth – under Pope Francis.
The present pope has not exactly talked up the “Theology of the Body” – and in fact, Francis’s notion of “walking together” appears to have encouraged a rethinking of Christian sexual morality where Pope St. John Paul II used to explain the traditional Catholic teachings on sex and marriage.
As for the “Court of the Gentiles”, Vatican officials just turned it into a new forum and format for interreligious dialogue, mostly because “official” non-believers were not interested in forming a relationship. Benedict, in reality, was more interested in helping parishes find ways to meet “unofficial” non-believers where they are both geographically and existentially, but never mind.
Both John Paul and Benedict pushed these ideas, and they were speaking from the highest office of the Church, but we haven’t heard them pushed by the present pope.
Francis is now 88, and his push for a “synodal” Church is not really catching on.
“I am well aware that speaking of a ‘Synod on Synodality’ may seem something abstruse, self-referential, excessively technical, and of little interest to the general public,” Francis himself admitted shortly before a monthlong meeting in 2023 that was supposed to kickstart Synodality for the worldwide Church and culminate in another gathering a year later.
“[W]hat has happened,” Pope Francis said in late August of 2023, “is something truly important for the Church.”
For an institution that thinks in centuries, there’s no telling here and now what will stick and what won’t, what will be recovered or when.
For now, however, it is not unreasonable to suppose that “Synodality” may go the way of other recent “Papal Magisterium.”
Follow Charles Collins on X: @CharlesinRome
