Path of Synodality

By Don Aguiar

Mumbai, Oct 16, 2021: One of the tragedies of contemporary Catholicism is that the Church has become overly politicized.

We are not talking about being political in the elevated sense of the word — that is, committed to the ecclesial community as well as to the polis. Rather, the Church has become politicized in the sense that political divisions among its own members tend to dominate everything.

They dominate not only the crafting of careful public statements by those who work in and for the Church, but also the very process of forming ideas, worldviews and opinions.

The Church has become politicized in a way that reflects the slogan of Charles Maurras, one of the heroes of the neo-integralist Catholics: “la politique d’abord (Politics first)!”

It’s not politics in the sense of day-to-day politics. Its politics in the sense that the political order comes first as key to all other questions: ecclesial, theological and spiritual.

Resulting in the Church creating problems, after realization the church seeks solutions to the problems that created. It’s called Hegelianism.

“The path of synodality is the path that God expects from the Church of the third millennium,” Pope Francis has said. And so it is not surprising that in region after region Catholic bishops are embracing synodality. The Germans have embarked on a synodal path, the Australians a plenary council, the Irish a synod … and so it goes on and on.

This shows remarkable growth in ecclesiology in a matter of three of four years in comparison with the amount of attention that these same conferences of bishops devoted to it – or to the significance of the Synod of Bishops – in the first decades after the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).

The theme Pope Francis has chosen for the gathering is “For a synodal church: communion, participation and mission.” This Synod will include both an Ordinary General Assembly and local diocesan synods connected to it and will end in 2023, concluding a two-year synodal process. In doing so, he is seeking to give new impetus to a synodal process that has involved the whole people of God since the very beginning of the Church.

From the earliest days of the Church, people gathered to discern when they were faced with a crisis or at a turning point. Are basic Christian communities the way to achieving synodality?

The idea of a Synod on synodality has been the subject of mockery in recent months, as it seems to refer to an abstract and disembodied concept. But the emphasis is, above all, on the need to consult all Catholics. It is nothing less than imagining a different future for the Church and its institutions, worthy of the mission it has received, as can be read in the prelude to the questionnaire that will soon be submitted to the faithful throughout the world. The risk would be to remain at the stage of ideas.

A synod is typically a group of bishops who gather to assist the Pope in addressing challenges that face the Church. The bishops have been chosen from different regions of the world and meet together at fixed times.

Pope Francis said that the two-year process leading to the 2023 synod on synodality is not about “gathering opinions” but “listening to the Holy Spirit.” The Pope said that this wasn’t simply a “theological opinion” or merely a “personal thought” but rather the blue print for the Church contained in the Acts of the Apostles, which shows early Christian community “walking together.”

The “Acts of the Apostles” shows that when the early Christian communities needed to resolve certain practical problems or pastoral questions, they held an assembly of believers, called on the Holy Spirit and discussed with those in authority.

The Pope said, “The theme of Synodality is not a chapter in a treatise on ecclesiology, much less a fad, a slogan, or a new term to use or instrumentalize in our meetings – No – Synodality expresses the nature of the Church, its forms, its style, its mission.” Some Vatican commentators have described it as the most significant Catholic event since the Second Vatican Council.

The convocation of assemblies is a old and traditional practice in the Church. It has taken place with more or less intensity according to the period of history.

Conversation of the kind envisaged by Pope Francis requires from all its participants great energy, readiness to change their opinion, and willingness to have their own passionate convictions side-lined in broader conversations. With Synodality and the still “too clerical” Catholic Church. Will there be a readiness to change?

Those who enter it must be open to be persuaded by people with whom they disagree, and to require more than majority opinion to validate decisions.

The challenge facing leaders who commend such a strategy is to make people believe in it, whether they be Presidents, Prime Ministers, Bishops, central administrators, priests, or people in congregations.

Leaders need to be able to touch beliefs or commitments that lie deeper than individual interests and command engagement rather than detachment. Only an operative faith in community, democracy, or solidarity can overcome disengagement.

In the Catholic Church such trust depends on the operative belief that the Holy Spirit is active in the life of the Church to make the Gospel come alive, and can make a bonfire out of sodden wood.

Pope Francis clearly has this trust in the power of the Holy Spirit to break through all obstacles, and to make barren soil fertile. Others may be skeptical. But what other than such trust could enable reform in public life or in church?

The Catholic Church in India this weekend officially begins preparations for the next ordinary assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October 2023 in Rome.

The process at the diocesan level is scheduled from October 17 with inauguration in all dioceses/parishes. It will last until April 2022. Diocesan teams are to be formed and two contact persons from each diocese are expected to collaborate with the Synod India Desk.

The two persons from the diocese are only contact persons with the Synod Desk to get information, the diocesan contact persons in turn have to plan the Synod consultation in their respective dioceses and include all categories of people to get feedback on the ten themes given by means of questionnaires.

A time of six months till April 2022 is given for the diocesan phase. It is for each diocese to get a real picture by consulting at the grassroots level. This is being done under the aegis of CCBI Conference of Catholic Bishops in Inda), so only the Latin Church is included. The other rites have been instructed to follow the process for their churches separately.

What voices will you hear from just two persons per diocese? That is not even replicating the CCI. India is not homogenous and our urban dioceses are culturally complex. Especially in Latin rites. Will Dalit, Adivasi, Youth, Women, Third gender, Poor, Homeless, Working Class, Psychological Stress, Drugs, Alcoholism, Child Abuse, Clericism, Custodial Abuse voices be heard? There are 174 dioceses. This means there will not be even one person from one third of the dioceses.

Let us hope and pray that this new enthusiasm for synodality will bring a renewal to the Catholic Church, mark an end to the decades of scandal following scandal, and also allow the Church to put behind it the centralist triumphalism that was so attractive in the nineteenth century. In an age of imperialism and colonialism, the Catholic Church took on the contemporary dress. However, it has been slower than many states at changing its fashion. Perhaps we should pay.