On October 2-27, 2024 the second and final session of the XVI Synod of Bishops of the Catholic Church on the topic of synodality was held. The result of this second assembly was a document entitled “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission”. This document has already been translated from Italian into several other languages.
The work of the second session was preceded by two days of spiritual retreats for proper preparation of all participants. On October 2, in his welcome speech, Pope Francis emphasized the need to remember the spiritual aspect of any church event or gathering, primarily as a prayer pilgrimage to a more harmonious unity of the faithful in Christ and the Holy Spirit.
The pontiff outlined his basic idea as follows: “We are called, like a pale moon that reflects the light of Christ our sun, to take up, faithfully and joyfully, our mission to be for the world a sacrament of that light, which is not our own… Let us not forget that the Spirit is harmony. Let us think of the morning of Pentecost. There was tremendous disorder but he brought harmony to that disorder”.
The document itself emphasizes the connection with the Second Vatican Council, which became the seed for the current synod: “The Synod 2021-2024 continues to draw on the energy of that seed and develop its potential. The synodal journey is in fact putting into practice what the Council taught about the Church as the Mystery and People of God, called to holiness through a continuous conversion that comes from listening to the Gospel. In this sense it constitutes a true act of further reception of the Council, prolongs its inspiration and relaunches its prophetic power for today’s world” (§5).
As in the case of the document adopted at the first session of this council, the participants voted for each of the points of this document. Thanks to this, one can see which topics turned out to be the most controversial. These include the topics of continuing to study the possibility of women’s sacramental service as deaconesses (more than 27% of delegates voted against), expanding the meaning of the bishop’s conferences (13% voted against), establishing a research group that would consider the issue of making liturgical services “more expressive of synodality” (12% voted against), proposals to review canon law “from a synodal point of view” (11% voted against).
It is worth noting that this Synod is the sixteenth in a series of Synods of bishops held since 1967. At the same time, it became the first Synod, in the session of which almost a third of the 364 delegates with the right to vote were chosen directly by the Pope from non-bishops – among them lay people, priests, consecrated persons and deacons, 54 of them women.
Another striking gesture was that this document was not given consultative status for the Pope to produce later his own document, as was the case usually before. Instead, it automatically became a part of the teaching staff of the Catholic Church, which drew criticism from conservative ranks. Here it is fair to talk about the opposition of two images of the Church authority. For conservative Catholics, the Pope is called to be the voice of God amid the chaos of the life, while Pope Francis himself seeks to unite and mobilize the available forces among the various groups of faithful of the Catholic Church.
As a whole, during the pontificate of Pope Francis, the term “synodality” is increasingly used, which is probably influenced by the Orthodox theology. This can be seen, in particular, from the document “The Bishop of Rome”, adopted in July 2024, which we wrote about on our website (https://www.academic-initiative.org.ua/en/2024/11/30/bishop_of_rome/).
For Pope Francis himself, this is a reason to involve wider circles of the faithful into the church life and management – especially women and lay people in general, as well as various groups rejected according to the canonical prescriptions of the Catholic Church. In particular, during the speech at the beginning of the second session, the Pope expressed the hope that the Holy Spirit will guide the participants of the meeting, as He guided the disciples of Christ – “’to give an answer, after a journey of three years, to the question how to be a synodal Church in mission’. I would add ‘merciful’”.
The document of the Synod in English can be found at the link https://www.synod.va/content/dam/synod/news/2024-10-26_final-document/ENG—Documento-finale.pdf
It is worth reminding that a year ago, our website analyzed the results of the first session of this Council – https://www.academic-initiative.org.ua/en/2023/11/24/synod_in_rome/.
