The so-called “synod on synodality”, launched worldwide last October in every Catholic diocese in the world, may well be the largest popular consultation in human history. It aims at nothing less than a “new future” for the Church.
Yet synods are not new: ever since the Acts of the Apostles they are the time-honoured way of allowing for the Holy Spirit to renew and reform the Church, opening up new paths through assemblies where all are listened to. But somewhere along the line, the Church ceased to be synodal. Now Pope Francis believes that synodality "is what God expects of the Church in the third millennium” — not just for the sake of the Church, but of humanity.
What does this mean? How will the Church need to change — and can it? What is, and isn’t, synodality? And what does a synodal Church ask of us, now, in the diocesan phase of this synod process?
The event consists of a talk with papal biographer and journalist Austen Ivereigh, followed by a “synodal experience” in which those attending will be invited in small groups to "speak boldly and listen carefully”, as Francis once put it, using the method suggested by the synod secretariat in Rome.
Austen Ivereigh is a writer and journalist specializing in church affairs who is best known for his two biographies of Pope Francis (The Great Reformer in 2014 and Wounded Shepherd in 2019) and for collaborating with the pope in his book offering guidance in the time of Covid. Let Us Dream: the Path to a Better Future was published by Simon & Schuster in December 2020.
Dr Ivereigh is Fellow in Contemporary Church History at Campion Hall, Oxford, is a regular contributor to The Tablet, America magazine and Commonweal, and writes about life as a regenerative smallholder in Herefordshire in his Tablet column, ‘Wild Faith’.
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Photo by Nacho Arteaga on Unsplash
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