When presidents of bishops’ conferences and Eastern Catholic patriarchs gather in Rome next month to discuss Amoris laetitia, their meeting will have been organized largely by the Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops.
But the meeting is not a synod. And its thematic framework was originally published by the Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life.
The now-leading role that the secretariat has taken on in preparing for the meeting is part of what seems to be a growing influence of the Secretariat of the Synod under Pope Leo.
The Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops was created by Pope St. Paul VI in 1965, but it rose to greater prominence under Pope Francis, who convened several high-profile synods during his pontificate. In fact, before Francis’ 2022 reform of the curia, the Secretariat of the Synod was not even considered part of the curia, properly speaking.
Francis did not convene many extraordinary consistories of the College of Cardinals during his pontificate, but those he did convene were organized by the Secretariat of State, the traditional organizer of such events.
And when Francis held a special meeting — much like the one Leo is convening in October — on the protection of minors in the Church in 2019, he appointed a special committee of cardinals, bishops and experts to organize it.
In contrast, the Secretariat of the Synod has been involved in the organization of Leo’s two extraordinary consistories and is now behind the organization of the Amoris laetitia meeting, which will function much in the way a synod typically does, but without that label.
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