While the second and final session of the Synod on Synodality will conclude at the end of October 2024, Catholics should not expect major pronouncements on the particular issues raised during the first session and included in its synthesis document. Those issues include the role of bishops, the possibility of women deacons, the formation of priests and more. But the synod continues to open significant new horizons for the life, organization and mission of the Catholic Church in the 21st century.
Next October’s synod will mainly focus on the key question of “How to be a synodal church in mission?” Most, if not all, of the particular issues raised in the 2023 synthesis document will be addressed at a later moment in an ongoing synodal process, once the method for doing so has been agreed at the October synod. It appears clear that many who were expecting answers or conclusions to some of the vexed or pressing issues raised through the synod process will have to wait until at least mid-2025, if not later.
This became clear at today’s press conference at the Vatican at which Cardinal Mario Grech, the secretary general of the synod, released a letter from Pope Francis that outlines the road ahead. Dated Feb. 22, the letter said that the synthesis report from the synod’s first session in October 2023 raised “many important theological issues, all of which are to varying degrees related to the synodal renewal of the Church, and not without juridical and pastoral repercussions.”
Pope Francis identified 10 issues from that report that “by their very nature require in-depth study” and which he assigned to 10 study groups. But, he said, it will “not be possible [for them] to complete” their studies by the session in the fall.
Given the fact that the study groups will not have completed their work by the October synod, Pope Francis said this “will enable the synod to focus more easily on the general theme” that he had originally given it and can be summarized in the question: “How to be a synodal Church in mission?” (italics in the original).
To continue reading this article, click here.
Gerard O’Connell is America’s Vatican correspondent and author of The Election of Pope Francis: An Inside Story of the Conclave That Changed History. He has been covering the Vatican since 1985.
With thanks to America and Gerard O’Connell, where this article originally appeared.
