The Vatican (Still) Isn’t Listening, by Phil Lawler 

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture, March 21, 2025

Phil Lawler has been a Catholic journalist for more than 30 years. He has edited several Catholic magazines and written eight books. Founder of Catholic World News, he is the news director and lead analyst at CatholicCulture.org.

Another week, another demonstration—no, a series of demonstrations—that the Vatican still resists reform.

Begin with the announcement that the Synod of Synodality will be stretched out for another three years. As I remarked in my initial reaction to that news, “Even among those Catholics who have heard something about this Synod, the lack of enthusiasm is overwhelming.” This Synod has been advertised as an opportunity to listen to the voices of the faithful, and there certainly has been no outcry from the faithful for more of the consultation that has already lasted so many months. The disinterest of the average Catholic is palpable everywhere, it seems—except in Rome.

Were the world’s bishops clamoring for more discussion of synodality? If so, they were clamoring very quietly. The Synod of Bishops was seen by Vatican II as means of worldwide consultation with the successors to the apostles. But the bishops were not consulted before the Vatican announced that in 2008, the next expected full meeting of the Synod would be replaced by a “Synodal Assembly.” In this entirely new sort of gathering, bishops will only be included among the participants. So this will not be a consultation among the prelates who, by the grace of their episcopal ordination, have the charism for Church leadership….

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