Synod on Synodality: How Will it Affect the Church? by F. Andrew Wolf Jr.

“…a new vision that overturns established practices.” – Synod on Synodality

The words above may well come back to haunt the Church. Last month, the Vatican concluded years of gatherings by bishops, clergy, and laity initiated by Pope Francis. The hierarchy within the Catholic Church calls it a “process”—more specifically—the Synod on Synodality. This multi-year series of meetings aimed to reconfigure how the Church operates by utilizing the model of a synod—one in which open dialogue and transparency are primary.

Synods have long served as consultative bodies of bishops, clergy, and laity assembled to consider significant concerns of Church discipline. However (and this is critical to understand) synods are not democratic, deliberative bodies that decide doctrine or discipline by ballot or any other means; they are purely advisory in their function. …