As the last session of the Synod on Synodality continues its second week, an interview published on Tuesday gives more insight on Pope Francis’s vision of the role of synodality in the Church today, and highlights some of the inherent tensions between the use of synods and the power of the papacy in modern Catholicism.

Speaking to Jesuits in Belgium on September 28, Francis said Eastern Christians have not lost synodality, but the Western Catholics “have lost it.”

In the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches, synods of bishops are responsible for the election of new bishops and the establishment of inter-diocesan laws within each province. Eastern Catholic Churches also use synods for such purposes.