Catholics for Renewal’s Response to A Synodal Church in Mission
IMAGE: Deep Listening to Each Other and the Holy Spirit (details below)
The People of God have been missioned to proclaim and incarnate the Reign of God in history as Jesus did in his own lifetime. The Reign of God is where the dynamic evolutionary process is brought to perfection because God’s will is done, all creation is brought to wholeness and completion, and the world is a place of justice and peace, unity and happiness, fullness and plenty, joy and an end to suffering (Mt 5:2-10).
From the beginning, the People of God have lived and modelled a community in which its members relate and communicate with one another as free and equal persons. This flowed naturally and essentially from a common new humanity in Christ: “For as many of you who were baptised into Christ, have put on Christ: there is no longer Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male and female for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:27-28).
It was this model Christian community, first articulated by St Paul, that drove its work of evangelisation and missionary witness that proved so highly effective in attracting outsiders and eventually transforming its host societies. Paul’s revolution became the Church’s first constitution, and it still stands as its essential reference point to the way it carries out the mission God gave it.
For Paul the Reign of God is “righteousness and peace and joy in the Spirit. If you serve Christ in this way, you will please God and be respected by others” (Rom 14:17-18). For the Church to effectively proclaim the Reign of God it must be a credible sign of that Reign. In Getting back on Mission[1] we contended that the Church in Australia and elsewhere had strayed from its mission and become a counter sign to the Reign of God. To regain its moral credibility and capacity to evangelise, the Church must undergo a profound conversion at every level of its being, discern anew the signs of the times and reengage with the mission God has given it.
Pope Francis has made it clear that the old structures of the Church no longer serve God’s mission. In the future, mission can only be achieved through a ‘synodal process’ of deep discernment, inclusive dialogue, and ‘parrhesia’ – courageous, free, and open communication. For Francis ‘synodality’ is essential for the Church’s understanding of itself and ‘an indispensable precondition for its mission’. A synodal Church is not ‘some of the bishops some of the time, but all of the People of God all of the time’.
The highest priority of this Synod must be to ensure that the essentially synodal feature of the Church’s nature is expressed by consolidating those values and practices of the modern world best suited to that task. In the Synod’s final statement Pope Francis must confirm and make normative a culture of transparency and accountability and introduce effective synodal structures at every level of Church life. They must include:
Synodality in Parishes which requires a strong connection between the diocesan bishop and the parishes and a Diocesan Pastoral Plan that encompasses the synodal vision of the bishop and the diocesan synod and which all parishes must support.
Synodality in Dioceses which requires a Diocesan Pastoral Council, the permanent consultative body established by the diocesan bishop which, acting under his authority, studies and weighs up those matters which affect the pastoral works of the diocese and proposes pastoral recommendations (c. 511). The International Theological Commission called it ‘the most appropriate permanent structure for implementing synodality at the diocesan level’. Though never mandated, the Synthesis Report (12.k) calls for the Diocesan Pastoral Council to be made a mandatory structure: “based on the understanding of the People of God as the active subject of the mission of evangelization” and “we suggest legislating for the obligatory nature of Pastoral Councils in Christian communities and local churches” (SR, 12.k; 18.h). The members of this Council who can be clerics, religious and laity representing the diocese’s regions, social conditions, professions, and apostolates, should be selected and elected with a synodal process which ensures the equal representation of women and men.
Synodality in Dioceses also requires a Diocesan Synod, a gathering of all the faithful of a local church working together on its mission and sharing in its life, and ’the instrument par excellence for assisting the bishop’. Under the bishop’s leadership the synod discerns the pastoral challenges in the diocese, seeks ways to go in mission, renews and deepens awareness of co-responsibility and, listening to the Spirit, co-operates actively in making appropriate decisions. The Australian Report, The Light from the Southern Cross, recommended that every diocesan bishop in Australia convene a diocesan synod within 5 years of the close of the Plenary Council. Decree 7 (5.b) of the 5th Plenary Council endorsed this recommendation and recommended that every diocese hold a Diocesan Synod every 10 years thereafter. The synod members who have full voting rights, can be clerics, religious and laity representing the diocese’s regions, social conditions, professions, and apostolates, and should be selected and elected with a synodal process which ensures the equal representation of women and men.
Transparency and a culture of accountability “are of crucial importance for us to move forward in building a synodal Church” and “a culture of accountability is an integral part of a synodal Church that promotes co-responsibility, as well as safeguarding against abuses” (SR 11.k; 12.j). The Synthesis Report proposes “structures and processes for regular review of the bishop’s performance, with reference to the style of his authority, the economic administration of the diocese’s assets, and the functioning of participatory bodies, and safeguarding against all possible kinds of abuse” (SR 12.j). A Diocesan Annual Report mandated in Canon Law and to be made public would be the most appropriate way to achieve such transparency and accountability.
in 2023 Pope Francis called to be members of the Synod (of Bishops), with full voting rights, 54 lay and religious women and 49 lay men and priests. Catholics for Renewal believes that there is now a case for the Episcopal Conference to be opened up not only to priests but to all the People of God to give each of the baptized full voting rights.
Image: “Deep Listening to Each Other and the Holy Spirit” a C4R created AI image, generated from design words which now comprise its title. In this abstract image ‘others’ are represented by the diversity of interacting primary coloured human shapes. The Holy Spirit is similarly represented by the wider intermingling of bright yellow/orange shapes.
[1] Catholics for Renewal, Getting Back on Mission: Reforming Our Church Together, Garratt Publishing, 2019