The synod on synodality began a few days ago. “The path of synodality and the path that God expects from the Church of the third millennium”: this is the programmatic commitment already proposed by Pope Francis in the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the Synod of Bishops. Synodality, in fact, Francis affirms, “is a constitutive dimension of the Church”, so that “what the Lord asks, in a certain sense, is already all contained in the word synod”.
An important document recently produced by the International Theological Commission (2 March 2018), entitled “Synodality in the life and mission of the Church”, offers significant food for thought in this regard.
The document, in particular, intends to offer some useful lines on the theological study of the meaning of this commitment together with some pastoral orientation on the implications that derive from it for the mission of the Church. The introduction refers to the etymological and conceptual data necessary to clarify in a preliminary form the content and use of the word “synodality”, to then contextualize the significance and novelty of the teaching that is offered in this regard by the Magisterium in the wake of the Council Vatican II.
In essence, the document undertakes in the first two chapters to respond to the need to deepen the theological meaning of synodality from the perspective of Catholic ecclesiology in harmony with the teaching of Vatican II. In the first, we go back to the normative sources of Sacred Scripture and Tradition to highlight the roots of the synodal figure of the Church in the historical unfolding of Revelation and to highlight the fundamental characteristics and specific theological criteria that define the concept and regulate its practice.
In the second, the theological foundations of synodality are proposed in conformity with the ecclesiological doctrine of Vatican II, articulating them with the perspective of the pilgrim and missionary People of God and with the mystery of the Church as communion, with reference to the distinctive properties of unity, holiness, Catholicity and apostolicity of the Church. Lastly, the relationship between the participation of all the members of the People of God in the mission of the Church and the exercise of the authority of Pastors is deepened.
The third and fourth chapters, on this basis, intend to offer some pastoral guidelines: the third, with reference to the concrete implementation of the synodality at the various levels, in the particular Church, in the communion between the particular Churches in a region, in the universal Church; the fourth, with reference to the spiritual and pastoral conversion and to the community and apostolic discernment required for an authentic experience of the synodal Church, appreciating the positive reflections in the ecumenical journey and in the social diakonia of the Church.
And it is precisely on the fourth chapter, entitled “Conversion for a renewed synodality”, that we intend to briefly dwell here.
The document, in particular, highlights how pastoral conversion for the implementation of synodality requires that some paradigms often still present in ecclesiastical culture be overcome, because they express an understanding of the Church not renewed by the ecclesiology of communion. Among them the document contemplates: the concentration of responsibility for mission in the ministry of Pastors; insufficient appreciation of consecrated life and charismatic gifts; the scarce appreciation of the specific and qualified contribution, within their sphere of competence, of the lay faithful and among them of women.
In this sense, the great challenge for the pastoral conversion that follows for the life of the Church today is to intensify the mutual collaboration of all in evangelizing witness starting from the gifts and roles of each, without clericalizing the laity and without secularizing the clerics, avoiding in any case the temptation of excessive clericalism which keeps the lay faithful on the sidelines of decisions.
“Walking together – Pope Francis teaches – is the constitutive path of the Church”. May the synod on synodality really achieve this goal.
