By Russell Shaw, Catholic Exchange - Shared responsibility—the Synodality Lite of the 1970s you might call it—was all the rage in the heady days right after Vatican Council II. Meetings were held and documents published promoting the idea, and preliminary steps were taken by setting up pastoral councils of clergy, religious, and laity in dioceses throughout the country... As planners saw it, the capstone of this burgeoning superstructure would be a National Pastoral Council where bishops, priests, religious, and lay people could hammer out policy for the Church’s socio-political program at the national level.