This research is the Master’s Thesis of the “Masters in Vincentian Studies” program of Sister María Isabel Vergara Arnedillo, current Visitatrix of the Spain-East Province of the Daughters of Charity. Due to its length we will publish it weekly in four posts.

Part One:
Synodality in the Church

To be a Christian is to live in communion with God, with all creation and with all human beings. Since the time that the Holy Spirit founded the Church, synodality was meant to characterize its way of being and living. Historically, however, the Church has not always lived in accord with this perspective. In the 20th century, the Holy Spirit, present in the Second Vatican Council, inspired the Church to return to being as God wants it to be, namely, the People of God on the move, walking together as brothers and sisters, equal through Baptism and yet sharing a diversity of gifts, ministries and services, and then placing all these gifts at the service of and in dialogue with humanity. Pope Francis, at the beginning of the 21st century, has taken up anew the teaching of the Council on the nature of the Church and has to set it in motion towards a new way of living a real and effective synodal life.

The world in which we live, and which we are called to love and serve, even with its contradictions, demands that the Church strengthen cooperation in all areas of her mission. It is precisely this path of synodality which God expects of the Church of the third millennium.[1] This is how Pope Francis expressed himself in October 2015 during this address on the occasion of the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the institution of the Synod of Bishops. Synodality has been part of the essence of the Church since the first centuries and it should be noted that in the fourth century St. John Chrysostom stated: Church and synod are synonymous.

Pope Francis continued and stated: What the Lord is asking of us is already in some sense present in the very word “synod”. Journeying together — laity, pastors, the Bishop of Rome — is an easy concept to put into words, but not so easy to put into practice.[2]

A synodal Church is a Church which listens, which realizes that listening “is more than simply hearing”. It is a mutual listening in which everyone has something to learn. The faithful people, the college of bishops, the Bishop of Rome: all listening to each other, and all listening to the Holy Spirit, the “Spirit of truth” (John 14:17), in order to know what he “says to the Churches” (Revelation 2:7).[3]

This way of being Church, which in its definition is clear, has not always been lived in this way.

Origins

Synodality is one of the expressions of the Ecclesiology of Communion since the Synod is the gathering of the Christian faithful who walk together and seek to renew the life of faith while listening to the Holy Spirit who interpellates, questions, invites the members to make decisions, to renew structures, to strengthen unity. Synodality is a trait that has accompanied the history of the Church even if it has not always been called by that name.

The notion of “communion” must be framed within the horizon of salvation history, God’s plan to bring men and women into communion with him and the event of the Incarnation of Jesus being the culminating moment in which God introduces men and women into the divine life. Christ testifies that salvation is realized through communion.

After the passion and death of Jesus, the Gospels narrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on what could already be called the “Christian community”. We can point to Pentecost as the birth of the Church (that is how it has been interpreted throughout history), and in this sense we can speak of its beginning as a communion that has in its midst the Spirit of the Risen Jesus. That communion is visible through the testimony of the group of the Apostles and those who were added to them, as noted in the book of the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2, 41-47).

According to Molina,[4]  for St. Paul, communion (koinonia) acquires its full meaning in the formula communion through participation. The Eucharist constitutes the Church as a community, all forming one body in the celebration of the memorial of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Molina adds: In synthesis, the New Testament understands by communion the two constitutive relationships of the Church: the vertical relationship – communion with God (through the acceptance of the revelation produced in Jesus Christ and participation in the Eucharistic memorial), and the horizontal relationship (communion of the believers among themselves -, fruit of the first and which, at the same time, is the possibility for the celebration of the Eucharist).[5]

In later years, the Fathers of the Church emphasize three means of ensuring ecclesial communion:

• Communion in faith: according to Molina, faith is, in the final analysis, the reality of communion between God and the human being, so it is understandable that faith is the basis of ecclesial communion.[6] The proclamation of the same faith is a condition for communion although it does not automatically ensure it nor do differences of opinion about it eliminate communion.
• Communion in the Sacraments: especially Baptism and the Eucharist.
• Communion in the administration of charity: faith in a loving God supposes the creation of a community based on love. The love of God is the communion of the three divine persons in which unity in diversity is given and therefore in this is sustained the being of the Church in its dialectic unity and diversity.

The organization of the Church as a community implies attending to the needs that arose at each moment without ever losing sight of its mission: the proclamation of the Gospel. In this way, the charisms that the believers received for the good of the whole community and the services (ministries) that the community institutionalized for the good of all arose. One needs the other and both are related to one another.

Vatican II

With the passage of time and beginning in the Middle Ages, the external aspects of communion became more developed while the reality itself (communion with God produced by the Holy Spirit and viewing the Church as communion) gradually became more obscure.[7] There was a shift from a sacramental ecclesiology to a more juridical one whereby the Church was viewed from the perspective of the hierarchy, the most visible means of achieving its unity. This continued until the twentieth century.

The most important ecclesial event in the Church during the 20th century was the celebration of the Second Vatican Council. It meant looking at the Church in a renewed way. The fundamental equality of all members of the Church, the role of all Christians in determining issues of faith, the importance of ecumenical dialogue and other issues were reflected in the documents that emanated from this Council, the most outstanding in terms of ecclesiology being Lumen Gentium and Gaudium et Spes.

Although the Council documents never used the word communion, it was not simply one of the guiding ecclesiological concepts of the Second Vatican Council, but was the primary concept.

From there, new forms of shared responsibility began to emerge at all levels of ecclesial life. There was a growing awareness that we are all Church. Some thought the Council went too far, others thought it fell far short. Kásper said: “The future of the Church has only one path: the one outlined by the Second Vatican Council, for it was the path shown by the Holy Spirit“[8] .

Communion does not designate the structure of the Church but refers to the authentic manner in which the Church comes and refers to the purpose for which she lives. It designates not its structure but its nature. The aggionarmiento of the Council consisted in placing in the foreground the mystery of the Church that can only be understood by faith, instead of maintaining the focus on the visible and hierarchical form predominant in recent centuries.

Synodality in the life and mission of the Church.

Since the first centuries, the word “synod” has been applied, with a specific meaning, to the ecclesial assemblies convoked on various levels (diocesan, provincial, regional, patriarchal or universal) to discern, by the light of the Word of God and listening to the Holy Spirit, the doctrinal, liturgical, canonical and pastoral questions that arise as time goes by.[9]

In today’s Church we speak of synodality as a constitutive dimension of the Church. Within the ecclesiology of the People of God, all the baptized have a common dignity and mission in exercising the variety and ordered richness of their charisms, their vocations and their ministries.[10] Synodality indicates the specific way of living and acting of the Church, which manifests and concretely realizes its communion in walking together, in gathering in assembly and in the active participation of all in its evangelizing mission.

In the year 2000, referring to the post Vatican II Church, John Paul II stated: Much has also been done … but there is certainly much more to be done, in order to realize all the potential of these instruments of communion, which are especially appropriate today in view of the need to respond promptly and effectively to the issues which the Church must face in these rapidly changing times.[11]

Pope Francis, basing himself on the Dogmatic Constitution, Lumen Gentium, emphasizes synodality from the perspective of the doctrine of the sensus fidei fidelium, in which all the members of the Church are active subjects of evangelization. Synodality is indispensable for the new missionary impulse in which the Pope wants to involve the entire People of God.

The synodal dimension of the Church expresses the character of all the Baptized and at the same time the specific role of the episcopal ministry in collegial and hierarchical communion with the Bishop of Rome.

As Carlos Schickendantz[12] says, it is a matter of promoting an effective synodality at all levels of the Church’s life (diocesan, regional, universal), of involving all people and finding its adequate translation in each and every institution. Synodality implies appropriate attitudes, special ways of proceeding, certain relational dynamics, precise juridical guarantees. He goes on to affirm that if it is true that synodality requires a personal conversion of believers — moral, pastoral and theological conversion. It is also true (and he quotes Saint Nocetas) that only a transformation on the level of the collective figure can adequately sustain a change in self-awareness.

This author exposes the need for the Church to undergo an effective synodal reform, which, although the Second Vatican Council had already proposed them, have not yet been carried out. He speaks of revising the doctrine of Sensus Fidei as expressed in Lumen Gentium, the renewal of the theological-pastoral concept of the episcopal ministry, the reformulation of the presbyteral ministry, the actualization, at all levels, of the theology of the laity, including their co-responsibility in discernment and their cooperation in the government of the ecclesial communities, as well as the just and adequate recognition of women in the life of the Church, the reform of the curia, etc…

Pope Francis has initiated many of these changes, but it is necessary that all Christians belonging to the Catholic Church personally assume and be co-responsible for this new way of living and being Church.

Synod on Synodality

On Saturday, October 9, 2021, the Synod on Synodality began in Rome. In the opening address he stated: I am certain the Spirit will guide us and give us the grace to move forward together, to listen to one another and to embark on a discernment of the times in which we are living, in solidarity with the struggles and aspirations of all humanity. I would like to say again that the Synod is not a parliament or an opinion poll; the Synod is an ecclesial event and its protagonist is the Holy Spirit. If the Spirit is not present, there will be no Synod.[13]

Francis wanted to emphasize that this synod is focused on three words:

[1] Communion: expresses the very nature of the Church.

[2] Mission: to proclaim and to spread among all peoples the Kingdom of Christ and of God and to be, on earth, the initial budding forth of that kingdom.[14]

[3] Participation: Pope Francis went on to state that  the words “communion” and “mission” can risk remaining somewhat abstract, unless we cultivate an ecclesial praxis that expresses the concreteness of synodality at every step of our journey and activity, encouraging real involvement on the part of each and all.[15] He then concluded by saying: this is not a matter of form, but of faith.  Participation is a requirement of the faith received in baptism.[16]

The Pope makes a clear call for the participation of all the baptized, since in the Church there are many members who still feel frustration and impatience in remaining on the margins of participation. He warns of the possible “elitism” of the presbyteral order that separates itself from the laity and adopts an attitude of “it has always been done this way and it is better not to change“.

The synod on synodality is a process of spiritual discernment to cooperate with the work of God, taking into account the times in which we live. It is a time of grace, a moment of encounter, listening and reflection.

Francis sees this synod as a moment of opportunity: to move structurally towards a synodal Church, to become a Church of listening, listening to the Spirit, to our brothers and sisters and to become a Church of closeness.

Sr Mª Isabel Vergara Arnedillo, D.C.

Footnotes:

[1] Pope Francis, Address on the Occasion of the 50th Anniversary of The Institution of the Synod of Bishops, October 17, 2015. https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2015/october/documents/papa-francesco_20151017_50-anniversario-sinodo.html

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Molina Diego M., Comunión [Communion], p. 31.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid., p. 38.

[7] Ibid., 41.

[8] Kasper, Iglesia como Communio [Church as Communion], p. 379.

[9] The International Theological Commission, Synodality in the Lift and Mission of the Church, March 2, 2018, #4. https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_cti_20180302_sinodalita_en.html

[10] Ibid. #6.

[11] John Paul II, Apostolic Letter, Novo millennio ineunte, January 6, 2001, #44. https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_letters/2001/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_20010106_novo-millennio-ineunte.html

[12] C. Schickendantz,, La reforma de la iglesia en clave sinodal: una agenda compleja y articulada [Church Reform from a sinodal perspective: A complex and articulated agenda].

[13] Pope Francis, Opening address to the Synod. October 9, 2021. https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2021/10/09/211009a.html

[14] Lumen Gentium, #5. https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html

[15] Pope Francis, Opening address to the Synod, October 9, 2021.

[16] Ibid.

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