Synodality, Reform, and the Roman Catholic Church of the Third Millennium

A new path forward is being proposed and prepared for the Roman Catholic Church, and this path has a name. It is called the Synodal Path and is, according to a recent book by Rafael Luciani, a new way of proceeding in the Catholic Church. In other words, Synodality is a new way of doing church. It is a new ecclesiology. It is not merely a new ecclesial model, but “is a new mark, a novel ecclesial hermeneutics that reconfigures the identities and relationships among all ecclesial subjects” (Synodality: A New Way of Proceeding in the Church, Paulist Press 2022, p. 29). The etymology of the word synodal suggests walking together, and the synodal path envisions everyone in the Roman Catholic Church journeying together; laity, priests, and even the Bishop of Rome. This is the Roman Catholic Church that is envisioned for the third millennium. “The reference to the third millennium is key to the interpretation of Synodality, because it represents the overcoming of a pyramidal and hierarchical institutional model…” (p. 26).

Indeed, the Synodal Path is a correction to what Luciani suggests is an institutional failure on the part of the Roman Catholic Church. The failure is due to abuses produced by the hierarchical and clerical structure of the Church. This structure has created a systemic problem that has permitted rampant sexual abuse along with innumerous financial scandals in the Church (see p. 9). The result has been a lack of trust in the Roman Catholic Church and its leadership and structure. Luciani thus concludes: “We are faced with an ecclesial culture that needs reform” (p. 11). For clarification on reform Luciani cites an address by Pope Paul VI to the Roman curia in 1963: “This reform pays homage to tradition by seeking to strip away all its outdated and defective manifestations in order to render it genuine and fruitful” (p. 1). Reform, therefore, is rooted in the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church and is a more updated and relevant expression of the Church’s tradition. 

The synodal path represents this much-needed reform and represents a more complete definition of the Church. It also resolves the problem of clericalism by inverting the power structure of the church. According to the Synodal Path the baptized of the Church no longer exist to implement the will of the magisterium, but the magisterium exists to implement the will of the Christifedeles, to which the entirety of the Roman Catholic Church belongs. It is not, however, a matter of simply inverting the hierarchical pyramid. It is instead integrating the bishops and the pope into the totality of the people of God as part of the faithful (chapter 5 explores this concept). Such reform reconfigures the Church “into an ecclesial ‘we’, where all subjects, from the pope to the laity, are equals and articulated in a communion of faithful with the same responsibility regarding the identity, vocation, and mission of the Church” (p. 3). This creates a missionary impetus for the entire church, which is a recurring theme in Pope Francis’s encyclical Evangelii Guadium (The Joy of the Gospel): “In virtue of their baptism, all the members of the People of God have become missionary disciples” (EG, 120).

Under his pontificate Pope Francis has inaugurated a new phase of the implementation of Vatican II. This phase is rooted in the ecclesiology of the People of God, and according to Luciani, finds its impetus in Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium, which places a heavy emphasis on the People of God (see chapter two of LG). This reconfiguration is to be implemented by the Synodal Church. “Such Synodal reconfiguration of the Church is necessary for the conversion of an institution that has been exceedingly self-referential; the Church, by moving away from its own center, will represent more fully the people who mediate the voice of Christ” (Luciani, p. 143).

While certain aspirations of the Synodal Path being proposed by Pope Francis seem admirable, it presents several concerns for the evangelical church. Let us briefly consider two. Firstly, until reform comes through submission to the authority of God’s Word, true reform can never occur. The Protestant Reformation was a submission to the Word of God, not to the tradition of the Church. The reform suggested by the Synodal Path is a reconfiguration of how the Roman Catholic Church operates. It is not, however, a call to a new Scriptural hermeneutic for the Church. Very little Scripture is cited in Luciani’s book, but it is replete with citations of Magisterial documents. Pope Paul VI’s idea of reform which pays homage to the tradition of the Church, and that is cited by Luciani, summarizes this well. If Scripture is under tradition, or even equal to it, the Church cannot know true reform and the Synodal Path will simply be the next chapter in the developing doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church.

Secondly, the Synodal Path falls in line with the long-standing Catholic teaching that attributes too much credit to humanity. In this case the Christifedelis, and therefore those who are to decide the direction of the Synodal Path, are identified and invited to participate on the basis of baptism. Luciani cites Lumen Gentium 31 to underscore this point: “These faithful (the laity) are by baptism made one body with Christ and are constituted among the People of God; they are in their own way made sharers in the priestly, prophetical, and kingly functions of Christ; and they carry out for their own part the mission of the whole Christian people in the Church and in the world.” This is problematic, however, because there are vast numbers of baptized Catholics, (or Christifedeles) in the world that are cultural Catholics at best and that do not practice their faith (this is also present in the Protestant Church). Francis’s description of them as “missionary disciples”, solely based on baptism, is misleading and over ambitious. The direction of the Synodal Path will be unpredictable and unreliable as long as the Christifedeles are defined by baptism alone. The Synodal Path has already produced clear examples of this.

Reform takes place when God’s Word reigns supreme and when the people of God live in constant submission and obedience to it. The tradition of the church can be helpful in many ways for the building up of the church, but it can never be equal to or supersede the authority of Scripture. Baptism is certainly an important expression of faith in Christ and is a sign of death to sin and new life in the risen Lord. Furthermore, it is a right requirement for entrance into the body of Christ, which is the church. It is not, however, an end in itself. Left alone it is not a good measure of one’s faithfulness. If it were Paul would not have warned the Galatians about abandoning the gospel (Galatians 5:7). The Christian life is about fighting the good fight, finishing the race, and keeping the faith (2 Timothy 4:7). While salvation is assured for those who trust in Christ as Lord and Savior (1 John 5:13), baptism alone is not a sufficient indication of salvation. The Synodal Path, therefore, will lack true reform and will suffer from clear direction. Let us pray that this will change and that true reform will take place.