The Search for Synodality| National Catholic Register

Ten days out from the conclusion of the October 2024 synodal assembly, and nearly five years since Pope Francis first announced the Synod on Synodality, is there now a consensus on what “synodality” means? 

Over the years, increasingly one heard that synodality meant a “new way of being Church.” It could hardly be more important, then, to know what it meant.

At the conclusion of the October 2023 synodal assembly, it was somewhat awkward that the final report called for greater study on what exactly “synodality” meant. Three years of work on the issue had not achieved a good understanding of the term. So further study was called for, and the Holy Father set up a study group to work on the matter. That study group will report in June 2025, so this year’s monthlong assembly met without a definition at hand. 

It became evident that the assembly intended to remedy that unsatisfactory situation. So a definition was provided — several in fact. 

And it turned out that synodality does not mean a “new way of being Church” at all, but actually what the Church has always been. Indeed, the final report said “that synodality is a constitutive dimension of the Church.” 

No synodality, therefore, no Church. And where the Church is, synodality already reigns. 

Happily, the final report noted that there had emerged a “fruitful convergence regarding the meaning of synodality.”

“Synodality is the walking together of Christians with Christ and towards God’s Kingdom, in union with all humanity,” the document noted, including all members of the human race in synodality (28).

“[Synodality] consists in reaching decisions according to a differentiated understanding of co-responsibility,” the document continues. “In simple and concise terms, synodality is a path of spiritual renewal and structural reform that enables the Church to be more participatory and missionary, so that it can walk with every man and woman, radiating the light of Christ.”

Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego, for one, highlighted that definition as an “important milestone.” 

Synodality is thus renewal and reform according to differentiated understandings of co-responsibility, all of which leads to more participatory and missionary Church. That has some echoes of the Holy Father’s charter for his pontificate, Evangelii Gaudium, though no one went as far as to speak of the “Joy of Synodality.” 

The synodal assembly attempted to make the definition less ambiguous with some concrete examples.

The final report speaks of the “three disciples on Easter Morning: Mary Magdalene, Simon Peter, and the disciple whom Jesus loved.” As they each make their way to the empty tomb, “their dependence on each other embodies the heart of synodality” (13). 

However, the Gospels tell us that what the holy women reported “sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it” (Luke 24:11). That doesn’t sound very synodal.

The assembly offered another option. 

“We see the features of a synodal, missionary and merciful Church shining in full light in the Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ, of the Church and of humanity,” the final report states, presenting Mary as a synodal figure (29). “She is the form of the Church who listens, prays, meditates, dialogues, accompanies, discerns, decides and acts. From her we learn the art of listening, attentiveness to God’s will, obedience to God’s Word and a readiness to hear the needs of the poor and to set out along the path.”

As Mary is the model of discipleship and holiness, it would seem then that synodality is practiced by everyone in every aspect of Christian life, from the contemplative monk to those who do the corporal works of mercy. 

The final report moves in that direction by suggesting that synodality is what Jesus had in mind at the Ascension. 

“Synodality is not an end in itself,” it states. “Rather, it serves the mission that Christ entrusted to the Church in the Spirit … [in the] Lord’s command to proclaim the Gospel to all nations (Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:15-16). … Synodality and mission are intimately linked: mission illuminates synodality and synodality spurs to mission” (32).

At the same time, synodality may be as simple as growing up in a family.

“In families, we learn to experience the basic practices needed for a synodal Church,” the final report writes. “Here we learn that we are equal in dignity and created for reciprocity; that we need to be listened to, and we are able to listen. Here we first learn how to discern and decide together, accept and exercise authority that is loving and life-giving, and to be co-responsible and accountable” (35). 

Synodality also goes deep, into our fundamental relationship with the transcendent. 

“Synodality is primarily a spiritual disposition,” says the final report. “It permeates the daily life of the baptized as well as every aspect of the Church’s mission. A synodal spirituality flows from the action of the Holy Spirit and requires listening to the Word of God, contemplation, silence and conversion of heart” (43).

There is nothing then that is not synodality in the biblical, liturgical, familial, spiritual and missionary life of the Church. Far from being a new way of “being Church,” there is no way of being Church that is not synodality.

The Holy Father himself adopted that approach. At the final Mass of the October assembly, the magnificently restored Bernini baldacchino in St. Peter’s was unveiled. Directing his admiring gaze upon the masterpiece, the Holy Father thought of synodality.

“As we admire the majestic Bernini baldacchino, more sublime than ever, we can rediscover that it frames the true focal point of the entire basilica, namely the glory of the Holy Spirit,” the Holy Father preached. “This is the synodal Church: a community whose primacy lies in the gift of the Spirit, who makes us all brothers and sisters in Christ and raises us up to him.”

Definitions of synodality have thus been offered, including everything and leaving nothing out. Perhaps that was the point of the last five years. As T.S. Eliot put it about (synodal?) explorations, “the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”

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