Rome Newsroom, Oct 27, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).
On Saturday, Pope Francis made the unprecedented decision to accept the final document from the Synod of Synodality as authoritative Church teaching.
The 52-page text includes a theological reflection on the nature of synodality, which it says is the fulfillment of the reforms of Vatican II, as well as proposals for how to apply synodality to relationships, structures, and processes within the Catholic Church.
The end goal is to make the Church more effective at evangelization by making it more participatory and inclusive.
Here are answers to the big questions about the Synod on Synodality’s final document:
1. How did Pope Francis make this document magisterial?
Pope Francis immediately approved the final document after synod members voted on it. According to reforms he made in 2018, the Synod on Synodality’s final text is therefore part of his ordinary magisterium.
This decision is a break from previous practice, which usually sees the pope use a synod’s final document as a basis for drafting his own apostolic exhortation on the topic (think Amoris Laetitia after the 2015 Synod on the Family). The fact that a synod body whose membership was 27% non-bishops just produced a magisterial text will certainly leave theologians and canonists with much to talk about.
2. How does the document relate to Vatican II?
The document says that the Synod on Synodality was the product of “putting into practice what the council taught about the Church as mystery and the Church as people of God.”
Therefore, the document says, the synodal process “constitutes an authentic further act of the reception” of Vatican II, “thus reinvigorating its prophetic force for today’s world.”
3. What does the final report say about the role of women in the Church (including so-called “deaconesses”)?
The final text says that women “continue to encounter obstacles” in living out their “charisms, vocation, and roles” in the Church.
The synod calls for women to be accepted into any role currently allowed by canon law, including leadership roles in the Church.
Regarding the question of “women’s access to diaconal ministry,” the text says the question “remains open” and that “discernment needs to continue.” A separate Vatican study group is currently considering that topic, with its final report expected in June 2025.
4. What does the text say about “decentralization?”
The document calls for episcopal conferences to play a greater role in enculturating the faith in their local context and asks for clarification about their current level of doctrinal authority. However, it does emphasize that bishops’ conferences cannot override a local bishop’s authority nor “risk either the unity or the catholicity of the Church.”
The document also calls for more plenary and provincial councils, and for the Vatican to accept these bodies’ conclusions more speedily.
5. Does the text mention LGBTQ inclusion?
While it does condemn the exclusion of others because of “their marital situation, identity, or sexuality,” the text doesn’t use the term “LGBTQ.”
6. What does the final document say about changes in Church decision-making?
The final document calls for a “synodal” reform of canon law, including removing the formula that consultative bodies have “merely a consultative” vote. It calls for the greater participation of lay people in “decision-making processes” and to do so through new synodal structures and institutions.
Church authorities, the document states, may not ignore conclusions reached by consultative, participatory bodies.
7. What does the document say about the “sensus fidei”?
The document describes the “sensus fidei” as the “instinct for truth of the Gospel” received through baptism. It also notes that the people of God cannot err “when they show universal agreement in matters of faith and morals.”
Interestingly, the final document does not include additional language about the need for “authentic discipleship” to maturely exercise the sensus fidei, which was included in last year’s synthesis document and is found in an important Vatican document on the subject.
8. In what concrete ways might the Church change after the Synod on Synodality?
Depending on how it’s implemented, the synod’s final document could concretely impact everything from how bishops are selected to how governance decisions are made in parishes, dioceses, and the Vatican, with a greater emphasis on widespread consultation. It could also create new synodal bodies, like continental assemblies and a council of Eastern Catholic leaders to advise the pope.
9. Which paragraphs received the most pushback?
Over 27% of delegates voted against continuing to explore the possibility of women deacons.
Thirteen percent voted against the paragraph emphasizing the significance of episcopal conferences, which also appears to bind a bishop to decisions made by his conference.
Twelve percent voted against establishing a study group to look into making liturgical celebrations “more an expression of synodality,” including what may be a reference to lay preaching during the liturgy.
And 11% of delegates opposed the proposal to revise canon law “from a synodal perspective.”
10. One more time: What does synodality mean?
The final document describes synodality as “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 model of synodality, the document states, is Mary because she “listens, prays, meditates, dialogues, accompanies, discerns, decides, and acts.”
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Synodaling is not Catholic. Synodaling abuses the God-given authority of the hierarchy to destroy the God-given authority of the hierarchy. As such, Synodaling is a suicidal form of clericalism.
Did you mean to say The God Given Authority of The Faithful to anathema the unfaithful hierarchy who have defected from Christ’s Church and thus no longer have any authority?
* Canon 751 of the Code of Canon Law states that schism is “the refusal of submission to the supreme pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him.” Canon 1364 stipulates that the penalty for this crime is excommunication “latae sententiae,” i.e., automatically upon the commission of the offense.”
*
* Furthermore, “Canon 188 §4 states that among the actions which automatically (ipso facto) cause any cleric to lose his office, even without any declaration on the part of a superior, is that of “defect[ing] publicly from the Catholic faith” (” A fide catholica publice defecerit“).
Well commented GF 😉
Irrefutablely true imho.
God bless,
MCN
What the document portends is what it doesn’t say. For example, on 4 Decentralization “it emphasize[s] bishops’ conferences cannot override a local bishop’s authority nor risk either the unity or the catholicity of the Church.”
There are no identifiable parameters that isolate what constitutes unity and catholicity and what would override them.
Similar ambiguity is seen in 8 Church Change, “the synod’s final document could concretely impact everything from how bishops are selected to how governance decisions are made in parishes, dioceses”, and 7 Sensus Fidei describes as “instinct”. It speaks to a loosely knit sense of universality akin to the earlier expressed inverted triangle. A flattened peoples Church.
This is a disturbing document. The Reformation comes immediately to mind; the “instinct for truth of the Gospel” did not deter Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, or Knox (and certainly not Henry VIII).
It seems this final document of the Synod and accepted by the pope is so demonstrably faulty, that it boggles the mind. Am I missing something or is it everything I have ever studied about Catholicism is false?
Catholicism is True, therefore this document must be false.
I think it is important to understand that the purpose of ‘Synod of Synodality’ was to make the Church non-offensive, ideally indistinguishable from the world. It is trying to make the Church in the world’s image. “Inclusiveness, mutuality etc.” thus replace the words of Christ which are a consuming fire. To put it bluntly, everything that does not serve “the united world” agenda must be muffled.
If one keeps that purpose in mind, he cannot be surprised with an encouragement to change Mass (Liturgy) FOR THE PURPOSE of expressing more synodality. A proposition or perhaps even a mandate here uses the absolute value (worship to God and receiving His Body and Blood) as a mere tool for a relative value, of “synodality”. Synodality thus becomes bigger than God and takes His place. By the way, this is a hidden idolatry. Synodality in a place of God is “we”(humans) in a place of God.
Another point of the document supports that primacy of “we” over the very focus of Christian faith:
“Synodality is the walking together of Christians with Christ and towards God’s Kingdom, in union with all humanity.”
One cannot walk in union with those who reject Christ. If they can, it is only possible via making Christ a relative value and “walking together with all humanity” the absolute value. No true Christian can accept this.
That’s said, there are real issues in the Church which must be dealt with. However, if they are proposed to deal with via pushing Christ/God aside one can be certain that a proposition does not seek the good of His Church members, of the Church as a whole and of the whole humanity.
All this sounds like is institutionalizing the “Susan from the Parish Council” busy body types who really feel the need to make their “voices heard”(as though our entire civilization hasn’t had to groan under their voices for the last 60 years).
Whether it was Concilarism in the late Middle Ages or whatever this is, it may sound good in the theory to reign in lax or corrupt clergy but the reality is that these types who want greater oversight are almost always worse.
Although the results of the Synod on Synodality seem, on the surface, to be minuscule, they are not. Our current pope has quietly announced the most drastic result—the structures created in the Synod on Synodality shall continue to rule our Church. We are from now on members of a Synodal Church–a globalist “Synod-on-Synodality” type of Church in which the timeless truths of the Catholic Faith are twisted and scrapped in favor of nonCatholic, heretical Modernist drivel: i.e., times-conscious, trendy untruths, created in the chaos of fickle human social, political, and religious preferences—turning God into an image and likeness of Us!
So what is a practicing Roman Catholic to do?
How do we in the pews continue forward?
Jesus IS the Eucharist; i therefore choose to veil as an outward sign of my homage to Him (and a rejection of my former past of rebellion) and now will i be singled out as not being in “synodal unity” because i choose to receive on the tongue and long for the Communion Rail once present in even the Novus Ordo Masses? Yet our local parishes are oft unwilling to hear ideas of how to promote Our Faith (that will ultimately increase revenue & vocations) claiming they want our Time & Talent, but in reality wanting nothing more from we parishioners than our Treasure. It is a confusing time: the Vatican listens to non-practicing outsiders on Church Issues but Local Parish Hierarchy often does not want to hear from long time devoted parishioners on how we see that straying from the Truth, the finances have dried up—because people will not $upport falsehood cloaked in “spirituality.” Kinda a no-brainer. But i digress; back to my original question: What does the local lay parishioner DO? I refuse to get sucked in to the “Relativistic Church” yet i love The One Holy Catholic Alostolic Church Jesus Christ founded upon Peter, the rock. Where else would we go, Lord?
Don’t panic.
Do penance well.
Ask the Lord to give God glory.
Be of good cheer.
Stay awake.