Rearranging the Deck Chairs, by Francis X. Maier

It’s tempting to simply ignore the upcoming Synod on Synodality’s second session, despite its importance for the Francis pontificate.  But that would be a mistake.  Bishops and other attendees will gather in Rome this October for discussions based on the Synod’s latest instrumentum laboris, or working document, released last month.  The session will bring to an end an elaborate, three-year series of global consultations on the meaning and potential application of synodality to Church life.  Insightful reviews of How to be a synodal Church in mission – the synodal text – have already appeared on this site.  But the material is too problematic to exhaust with just those commentaries. Thus, these thoughts.

Synods of bishops (from the Greek words sun, “together,” and hodos, “way”) have an ancient pedigree.  They declined in the West as the papacy grew in influence but were revived in the wake of Vatican II.  In their modern, Roman incarnation, their main value has been advisory, providing counsel to the pope on doctrinal and pastoral issues, and building fraternity among bishops internationally. …