When Pope Leo XIV spoke from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica on the day of his election he said: “we want to be a synodal Church.” The significance of this depends, of course, on how Pope Leo understands synodality. The notion of a Church that is One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic – and now Synodal – isn’t clear to most, because synodality is a largely unknown concept. Its meaning will emerge as Pope Leo guides the “synodal path” with the help of the General Secretariat of the Synod. That secretariat’s latest contribution to the ongoing definitional saga is not encouraging.
If you’re wondering about the purpose of the Synod on Synodality, the General Secretariat, in Pathways for the Implementation Phase of the Synod 2025-2028, has provided this answer: “to build a synodal Church.”
If you are also wondering what synodality is, Sr. Nathalie Becquart, XMCJ, Undersecretary of the Synod Secretariat, answered in a recent interview:
I often quote an Australian theologian who was at our Synod, Ormond Rush, who states “Synodality is the Second Vatican Council in a nutshell.” And all our documents, and still in these pathways, in the Final Document, highlight that what we are doing is really referred to the vision of the Second Vatican Council. We can say synodality is the way to understand the ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council in this stage of the reception of the Council. So, it’s nothing else but just continuing the reception of the Second Vatican Council. Because the council is not yet implemented everywhere, in a way.
Nowhere in the Council documents, however, is such an idea put forth.
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