A key synod adviser says Pope Francis is more interested in deepening the practice of synodality within the Catholic Church rather than wading into debates over the hot-button issues that have emerged from his major, three-year process to reform the global institution.
“From the beginning, Francis has been more interested in the process of synodal conversation than in the specific issues,” said Anna Rowlands, the St. Hilda Professor of Catholic Social Thought and Practice at Durham University in England.
“Rather than attempting to announce synodality, the church, Pope Francis hoped, would grasp it by doing it and no one, in principle, would be excluded,” she said.
In assessing the multi-year synod on synodality — a three-phased process that began with listening sessions across the globe, followed by continental assemblies and culminating in two sessions in Rome — Rowlands said that the synod process is helping to realize Francis’ 2013 apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (“The Joy of the Gospel”), which has served as a blueprint for his papacy.
According to Rowlands, “If the synod on synodality had been set up in making that vision in Evangelii Gaudium a reality, then its early stages can be judged to have produced remarkable results.”
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With thanks to the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) and Christopher White, where this article originally appeared.
