Synodality, an ideal of government for Pope Francis

2/12/2020, 8:16:19 PM

Pope Francis no longer wants the synods to be parallel Roman assemblies, but to actively nourish the most important decisions of the Church.

Synod on the Amazon, on the family, on young people ... The least visible reform of Pope Francis, but perhaps the most important, is that of " synodality". Or a revision of the governance of the Church on the model of the Christian Orthodox Churches which are governed by "synods". The patriarch, elected by the synods of bishops, cannot in fact make any decision without the approval of his Holy Synod.

The Catholic Church, however, has lost this sense of collective decisions. It was the mark of the first Christian communities. Over the centuries, a more centralized and pyramidal decision-making system has emerged, inspired by the legal matrix of the Roman Empire. A national episcopal conference, for example, yet an assembly of bishops, has no hierarchical power over a bishop. The latter refers directly to the Pope, his only hierarchical superior.

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Against this centralism, Vatican Council II (1962-1965) wanted to reconnect with this lost " synodality ". Starting