Vatican summit

Catholic church order will never be the same. After tens of thousands of listening sessions at the parish and diocesan levels on every continent, and two month-long gatherings of bishops and lay people in Rome in 2023 and 2024, the Roman Catholic Church says it is ready to be a synodal church – a church where every member’s contributions are welcomed and valued.

For Pope Francis, who issued a call for a Synod on Synodality in 2020, a synodal Church is an “open square where all can feel at home and participate.” It is a Church where all are part of decision making, not just the hierarchy.

The synod, which concluded in October with the final assembly in Rome from October 2-26, was the first to include lay people among the delegates. Usually, only bishops are invited.
But this synod had 96 laypeople included among the 368 voting delegates. Fifty-four of the laypeople were women – another first – along with 16 fraternal delegates from other churches.

The synod featured a different way of dealing with issues called “Conversations in the Spirit.” This process found delegates sitting 10 to 11 people at a table with a facilitator – including Pope Francis, who sat at a table with other delegates. This was unlike in the past, where the pope sat on a platform with bishops arrayed in front of him in rows listening to presentations.

During the first round of discussion each day, each delegate spoke for three minutes uninterrupted, after which the group paused for a time of silent reflection. In the second round, each person took a turn to say what stood out to them from what the others had shared.

After that, the group paused again before engaging in a more free-flowing discussion about what had emerged during the first two rounds. At the end a report was given from each table to the larger delegate body.

Transparency & accountability

The goal of the synod was not so much to come up with decisions but to create a new way to make decisions about the future of that Church that involved listening at every level from the Vatican to parishes around the world.

At the end of the assembly in October, delegates released a 51-page document of recommendations. Among other things, it calls for changes to the ways future priests are trained, promotes greater lay involvement in decision-making, and mandates greater transparency and accountability about how decisions are made throughout the entire Church.

It also recommends more frequent synods at the diocesan level to the ensure “regular consultation between the bishop and his people” and that worship services become more accessible to churchgoers by incorporating culturally appropriate music and other expressions
One thing the final document did not recommend was for women to be ordained as deacons – those who assist priests during worship, perform baptisms services and lead during funerals and weddings. This is something many women hoped would happen during the synod.

At the same time, the final document didn’t close the door to the possibility of female deacons. “The question of women’s access to diaconal ministry remains open” and that “discernment needs to continue,” it says.

One controversial topic that did not get any mention in the final document was a fuller welcome and affirmation of members of the LGBTQ community – something LGBTQ Catholics and their allies hoped might be addressed.

The document does state that some Catholics “unfortunately” continue to experience “the pain of feeling excluded or judged because of their marital situation, identity or sexuality.” This exclusion prevents them from pursuing “real and meaningful relationships” in the Church and hampers the Church’s witness.

The ordination of women as deacons – a step seen by some as the first step to becoming a priest – and LGBTQ are the subjects of two study groups that are to report to the pope next year.

One thing the document makes clear is that the synodal process “does not conclude with the end of the current assembly.” Local churches are asked to continue “their daily journey with a synodal methodology of consultation and discernment,” identifying concrete ways to implement the synod’s findings in dioceses and parishes.

Or, as Pope Francis put it in his concluding remarks, the synodal Church now needs its words “to be accompanied by deeds.”

“This Synodal Process . . . is intended to enable the Church to better witness to the Gospel, especially with those who live on the spiritual, social, economic, political, geographical and existential peripheries of our world.”
– From the Vatican’s official Synod on Synodality website