If Synodality Is Not a Programme, Why Is the Church Implementing It?

 

Bishop Mutsaerts asks perhaps the most important & most awkward question about the Synod on Synodality: where are the fruits? Not more committees, consultations or documents, but conversions, vocations, stronger Catholic families, fuller churches, better catechesis, greater reverence for the Eucharist and a clearer proclamation of Jesus Christ. This is surely the test by which every programme of ecclesial renewal must ultimately be judged. Synodality can be a means by which the Church listens & discerns, but once the process itself becomes the object of endless discussion, there is a danger that the Church becomes preoccupied with the mechanics of travelling together while losing sight of the destination. The criticism from the beginning was that this was naval gazing; the Church looking inward instead of outward. Mutsaerts’ Emmaus analogy is particularly powerful: Christ walks with the disciples and listens to them, but He does not merely affirm what they already think. He corrects them, teaches them the Scriptures, and leads them to recognise Him, that, of course, is what authentic accompaniment is. The question for Pope Leo is therefore not whether synodality has generated activity, plainly it has. The question is whether, after years of meetings, listening sessions, working groups and documents, it has made the Church more effective at her fundamental task: the salvation of souls. I think it is difficult to speak positively of it in that context!

read my essay on this HERE