Does the Synod’s ‘Ecclesial Assembly’ Mirror Anglicanism’s Model and Undermine Episcopal Authority?

The newly announced synodal phase will begin at the local level in 2026, then move to national and international bishops’ conferences in 2027, before continuing with a continental evaluation in the first half of 2028 and ending with the ecclesial assembly.

As the Vatican begins a three-year implementation phase of the Synod on Synodality, is the process — already criticized for flirting with Protestant ecclesiology — moving ever more toward a model of governance alien to the Catholic Church?

On March 15, Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the General Secretariat of the Synod, announced that the “Accompaniment Process of the Implementation Phase of the Synod on Synodality” will culminate in October 2028, not in a synod of bishops but in something novel in Catholic Church governance: an “ecclesial assembly” where the “People of God,” made up of roughly equal numbers of bishops, clergy, religious and laypeople, will propose perspectives “for the entire Church.”

This is a notable departure from the previous assemblies of the Synod on Synodality where the majority of the votes were cast by bishops.

Cardinal Grech confirmed in an interview with Vatican Media that as the ecclesial assembly will be a gathering of the whole Church, it will be different in “nature and function” from a traditional Synod of Bishops, “which is and remains essentially an assembly of bishops.”

The goal of the implementation “journey,” he said, is to “help churches walk in a synodal style” and to ensure that “a true ‘conversion,’ a change in mentality,” has “time to take root in the Church’s practice.” The process also aims to strengthen “bonds between churches at national, regional, and continental levels.”

The Register contacted Cardinal Grech for comment on these concerns, but his spokesman said he was not giving interviews at this time.

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