Pope Francis: The Largest Consultation In Church History And How It Can Change One Of The World’s Oldest Powers

Francis wants the vast majority of the 1.3 billion who identify as Catholics around the world over the next two years to be heard about the future of the Church.

For this, it relies on the impulses of the local communities in a first phase, of the regional assemblies in the following phase and, finally, of the Synod of Bishops scheduled for 2023 in the Vatican.

Problems that have arisen more recently, such as greater participation of women in Church decision-making and greater acceptance of groups still marginalized by mainstream Catholicism, will be some of the problems that are likely to emerge in this process. public consultation. the largest ever celebrated in the history of Catholicism.

Moreover, Francis must take advantage of this moment to consolidate a clear commitment of his pontificate with the reforms.

By defining that the next synod will have as its theme synodality itself – the way of being and of acting of the Church – it is inspired by the way of life of the first Christians, whose decisions were taken collegially.

Of course, this does not mean that the Catholic Church has embraced democracy.

Decisions continue as usual: respecting the traditional hierarchy. The public consultation will be democratic, but the Pope will have the last word.

If successful, the institution will have taken an important step.

For the specialists consulted by BBC News Brazil, the so-called synodality could cease to be a method and become a way of thinking.

This means that the model taken to the extreme by Francis can hardly be dismissed, even when the Pope is another.

What begins this weekend is a process of synodality that aims to be open to listening to all Catholics who want to speak out in the next two years.

The 1.3 billion Catholics they represent half of the Christians in the world.

The current pontiff shows once again, and with force, that he believes in a Church that listens to the desires of Christians. From everyone.

This future gathering of bishops will therefore not be limited to conferences led by religious within the confines of the Vatican.

Radical? “It is the greatest synod, the greatest experience of synodality that has ever been made in the Church,” declares Filipe Domingues, doctor of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

“The proposal is broad, it intends that all the baptized faithful have the possibility, in a certain part of the process, to be consulted. Never in the history of the Church has there been an attempt to consult all Catholics in the world.

“Of course, no one is going door-to-door to talk to everyone. But meetings and assemblies must be held in parishes and groups, questionnaires must be distributed. The idea is that everyone feels motivated to participate “, explains Domingues.

“This is the broadest attempt to root synodality, no longer as a process and a way of doing, but as a Church mentality.”

The word synod comes from the union of two Greek terms, synods (meeting or board) and hodos (path).

Synodality is therefore a way of believing that the path passes through a common understanding, that decisions should not be imposed by an authority, but come from below.

Since becoming pope in 2013, Argentinian Jorge Bergoglio has shown that it is his bet for the future.

In a way, he recovers the operating mode of the first Christian communities before the institution became powerful and influential. At that time, each of the decisions was collegial.

Along the way, Francis also deepens an idea raised at the Second Vatican Council.

In response to the wishes expressed by the Council Fathers, Pope Paul VI (1897-1978) at the time established the Synod of Bishops in 1965, a periodic meeting to bring together episcopal representatives from around the world to discuss specific issues.

Since, 29 games, between ordinary, extraordinary and regional.

The final meeting of the new synod will take place in 2023, but by presenting it this weekend, Francis radicalizes something he has been looking for since the first of the five synods already convened by him: community participation.

“In this new synodal assembly, the most important will not be the conclusions, but the process of listening and ecclesial participation that it triggers”, explains sociologist Francisco Borba Ribeiro Neto, coordinator of the Center for Faith and Culture of the Pontifical Catholic University. from São Paulo.

In addition, it is possible that Francis will end his pontificate, by retirement or death, before the end of the synod.

Thus, the synodal process becomes a means of guaranteeing the continuity of the process of change initiated by Bergoglio, regardless of the new pope.

“The crucial point is the broad consultation of the Catholic community, which will begin at the local level, in the dioceses and parishes, and will culminate in the assembly of bishops”, adds Borba Ribero Neto.

“These consultations have become hallmarks of a ‘Francis way’ of governing the Church, although similar processes can be found in several previous experiences.”

“The idea is that before every big decision, before setting the guidelines for the Church, people are consulted,” says Domingues.

“At the end of the day, the Church maintains its hierarchical structure and everything. It will always be an authority that makes the decision. But it will be informed by these experiences from below,” he said.

Since taking command of the Vatican, Francis has held four synods. The first two spoke about the family. The third dealt with the question of youth.

The last one, which took place in 2019, brought to the center of the Catholic Church an urgent topic today: the Amazon, with all its social, geographic and environmental implications.

Brother Marcelo Toyansk Guimarães, of the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Commission of the Capuchin Brothers and advisor of the Justice and Peace Commission of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB, São Paulo section), recalls the events that he helped lead between 2018 and 2019.

“We have tried to echo, during the synodal process, these themes, helping the whole Church to rethink a new process: integral ecology, an emerging Church and all the perspective that the synod has brought”, says -he.

Another recent innovation is the call to participate in the meeting of lay experts or specialists. The 2019 event, for example, brought together renowned Brazilian climatologist Carlos Nobre, from the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winning team, and Ban Ki-moon, former United Nations (UN) Secretary-General.

A year earlier, during the synod which addressed the question of youth in the contemporary world, another Brazilian layman was invited. This is Filipe Domingues, who at the time was pursuing his doctorate at the Gregorian University.

“It was unexpected,” he says. A professor invited him to participate in a pre-synodal meeting. He ended up becoming one of the rapporteurs. Later, along with another colleague, he ended up being called to act at the synod himself.

“They wanted there to be at least two relatively young people on the expert committee,” he explains. It mainly deals with issues related to the use of social networks in communication between young people.

It highlights the importance of pre-synodal events like this one. “This brought questions to the synod that, in my opinion, the bishops alone would not have thought or would not have thought the same thing,” he said.

“For example, the participation of women or even questions of sexuality, which are important. Many young people find it difficult to live up to what the Church is asking for in this area.

However, there are also oppositions. In the report, two active members of the Catholic Church in Brazil criticized the way pre-synodal meetings unfolded under Francis’ pontificate.

Both asked not to give their names, but expressed unease at the way in which discussions, in times of strong ideological polarization, have been monopolized by left-aligned groups.

On the chessboard played by the Pope, it remains only to put the so-called “progressives” and “conservatives” on the same side.

The idea of ​​convening a synod to discuss synodality initially sounded like a kind of provocation. But, on the threshold of the launching of the process, it is already understood as a deep echo of the teaching of Francis.

Sociologist Ribeiro Neto stresses that synodality “is a ‘community’ process,” which should not be confused with a democratic movement.

“In a democratic process, decisions arise from a majority position, often determined by the vote. In communion, decisions are born from a consensus supported by the wisdom and spirituality of the masters of the faith, ”he explains.

“What Francis would like to remember is that it is not necessarily leaders or scholars, but any member of the community who has the true discernment of the faith,” continues Ribeiro Neto.

“François is above all a mystic. He looks for signs of God’s will in the controversies and the often dissonant voices of the world.

“For him, the synod is that: an opportunity to listen to the voice of God that is hidden among the little ones, it is not a democratic process of consultation with the majority. It is an event of a spiritual and mystical nature, rather than a political and organizational one. », Summarizes the sociologist.

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