At Synod on Synodality, pope says Church needs new ways for bishops to be ‘synodal’

Pope Francis addresses participants of the first meeting of the full assembly of the Synod on Synodality on Oct. 2, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Vatican City, Oct 2, 2024 / 14:05 pm (CNA).

At the first meeting of the full assembly of the Synod on Synodality on Wednesday, Pope Francis said a bishop’s ministry should include cooperation with laypeople and that the synod will need to identify “differing forms” of the exercise of this ministry.

That bishops, laymen and laywomen, priests, and religious are all synod delegates was an intentional choice, the pontiff said in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall on Oct. 2, and it “expresses a way of exercising the episcopal ministry consistent with the living tradition of the Church and with the teaching of the Second Vatican Council.”

“Never can a bishop, or any other Christian, think of himself ‘without others,’” he continued. “Just as no one is saved alone, the proclamation of salvation needs everyone and requires that everyone be heard.”

“Differing forms of a ‘collegial’ and ‘synodal’ exercise of the episcopal ministry” in dioceses and in the universal Church, Francis said, “will need to be identified in due course, always respecting the deposit of faith and the living tradition, and always responding to what the Spirit asks of the Churches at this particular time and in the different contexts in which they live.”

The Synod on Synodality reflects this “inclusive understanding” of a bishop’s ministry, the pope underlined, adding that bishops and laypeople must learn how to better cooperate in the Church going forward.

Pope Francis in his speech addressed the more than 400 participants in the second session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of Bishops on the first day of the Oct. 2–27 Vatican gathering on synodality. The 2024 meeting has 368 voting members (delegates), 272 of whom are bishops and 96 of whom are not bishops. Among the 96 non-bishops, about half are women.

The first general gathering, or “congregation,” as it is called, was dedicated to opening greetings by Pope Francis and Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes as well as introductory speeches from synod leaders Cardinal Mario Grech and Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, SJ.

During the three-and-a-half-hour meeting, delegates also watched informational videos about the synod including videos presenting the 10 theological study groups and a canonical commission formed by Pope Francis.

In his remarks, the pontiff assured that the presence of non-bishop delegates at a Synod of Bishops does not diminish or put limitations on the authority of individual bishops and the college of bishops. “Rather, it points to the form that the exercise of episcopal authority is called to take in a Church that is conscious of being essentially relational and therefore synodal,” he said.

“Harmony is essential,” Francis emphasized, noting that there are two dangers to avoid: the danger of becoming too abstract and the danger of “pitting the hierarchy against the lay faithful.”

Earlier in the day, Pope Francis became the first pope since 1974 to view a historic relic of the chair of St. Peter.

The wooden chair believed to have belonged to St. Peter, the first pope, is usually encased inside the massive chair monument created in the 17th century by sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini and located on the furthest back wall of the apse of the Vatican basilica over what is called the “Altar of the Chair.”

The relic was last removed from the Bernini monument for study from 1968–1974. It has been removed now during restoration work.

The chair is a symbol of the primacy of the pope. Pope Francis was able to view the important relic in the Ottoboni sacristy of the basilica after Mass was celebrated in St. Peter’s Square for the start of the second session of the Synod on Synodality on the morning of Oct. 2.

The October 2024 gathering is the last part of the discernment phase of the synodal process begun in 2021.

Recalling the focus of the monthlong meeting, which is to reflect on how to be a Church in mission, the pope added that the Church also needs to ponder how to be more merciful.

He also recommended synod delegates read Dante Alighieri’s sonnet “Vita Nuova” to meditate on the virtue of humility.

“We cannot be humble apart from love,” he said. “Christians ought to be like those women described by Dante Alighieri in one of his sonnets. They are women who grieve the loss of their friend Beatrice’s father: ‘You who bear humble semblance, with eyes downcast, showing sorrow.’”

“I encourage you to meditate on this fine spiritual text and to realize that the Church — ‘semper reformanda’ — cannot pursue her journey and let herself be renewed without the Holy Spirit and his surprises without letting herself be shaped by the hands of God the Creator, his son, Jesus Christ, and his Holy Spirit,” Francis continued.

On Oct. 1, the eve of the synod, a two-day retreat for synod participants at the Vatican concluded with a penitential liturgy in St. Peter’s Basilica.

At the prayer service, which more than 500 people attended, cardinals, bishops, religious, and laypeople shared testimonies and asked forgiveness on behalf of the Church for sins, including the sin of abuse or sins committed in war.

Pope Francis in his reflection said the Catholic Church must first acknowledge its sins and ask for forgiveness before it can be credible in carrying out the mission Jesus Christ entrusted to it.