The Sat Report: The Church of the Third Millennium
Analysis of the Synod on Synodality's Final Document
This is the first in series of posts analysing the Final Document of the Synod on Synodality
“I do not intend to publish an Apostolic Exhortation. There are already highly concrete indications in the Document that can be a guide for the mission of the Churches, in their specific continents and contexts. That is why I am making it immediately available to everyone. In this way, I wish to recognize the value of the synodal journey accomplished, which by means of this Document I hand over to the holy people of God.”
This is how Pope Francis summed up the work of four years of listening in the Spirit, where the people of God were asked to share their views, but less than 2% of them gave any input whatsoever. The Final Document makes reference to this “vast consultation” without acknowledging the dismal participation rates. The Vatican promised us a week Saturday that the translations of the Final Document will be made available within days. Unsurprisingly that hasn’t happened. Instead of waiting any longer I’ll give my two cents on the document. The Italian version is the normative text and can be found here. An official working translation in German is here. I’ve embedded the official working translation in English here:
“It is obvious that not everyone will set out to read it”, the Holy Father said as he closed proceedings in Synod Hall. Well, no one is going to read it if it takes months for it to be published in their native tongue, or even a language that they have a good enough grasp of.
On Synodality itself, Pope Francis reflected that “the Bishop of Rome, I remind myself and each of you, also needs to practice listening, or rather he wishes to practice listening, in order to be able to respond to the Word that each day says to him, “Affirm your brothers and sisters...Feed my sheep”.” Amoris laetitia, Fiducia supplicans, and Traditionis custodes all come to mind.
The last week or so has been jammed packed with news from the Vatican, the Synod ended, Pope Francis published an encyclical on the Sacred Heart, and Luce, the Vatican’s mascot for the World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan, took over the internet.
Dilexit Nos, the fourth encyclical of his Pontificate is very good. I would go as far as to say that it is the best thing the Holy Father has was written, a very good meditation on the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, drawing from the rich tradition of the Church. You can read it here, and I highly recommend it, though I would caution against speed reading it. Instead it should be something that is read and reflected on slowly, contemplating the great love that God has for us.
With so much going on, people have already moved on from the Synod and the Final document. Probably those of you reading this have too.
I was struck by the Pope word’s at the closing Mass of the Synod last Sunday: “This can help us reflect not only on our own lives, but also on what it means to be the Lord’s Church. So many things along the way can make us blind, incapable of perceiving the presence of the Lord, unprepared to face the challenges of reality, sometimes unable to offer adequate responses to the questions of so many who cry out to us, as Bartimaeus did to Jesus. We cannot remain inert before the questions raised by the women and men of today, before the challenges of our time, the urgency of evangelization and the many wounds that afflict humanity. Sisters and brothers, we cannot afford to sit back. A sedentary Church, that inadvertently withdraws from life and confines itself to the margins of reality, is a Church that risks remaining blind and becoming comfortable with its own unease. If we remain stuck in our blindness, we will continuously fail to grasp the urgency of giving a pastoral response to the many problems of our world. Let us ask the Lord to send us the Holy Spirit, so that we do not sit in our blindness, which in other words can be a worldliness, complacency, or closed heart. We cannot stay sitting in our blindness.”
“Yet, we should remember that the Lord passes by every day. The Lord always passes by and pauses in order to attend to our blindness. We should ask ourselves, “Do I hear him passing by? Do I have the capacity to hear the Lord’s footsteps? Do I have the capacity to discern when the Lord is passing by?” It is good if the Synod is urging us as a Church to be like Bartimaeus: a community of disciples who, hearing that the Lord is passing by, feel the joy of salvation, allow ourselves to be awakened by the power of the Gospel, and to cry out to him. The Church does this when it takes up the cry of all the women and men of the world, of those who wish to discover the joy of the Gospel, and of those who have turned away; the silent cry of those who are indifferent; the cry of those who suffer, of the poor and marginalized, of children who are enslaved in so many parts of the world for work; the broken voice of those who no longer have the strength to cry out to God, either because they have no voice or because they are in despair. We do not need a sedentary and defeatist Church, but a Church that hears the cry of the world – I wish to say this even if some might be scandalised – a Church that gets its hands dirty in serving.”
The clear implication from the Pope is that as of recently the Church has not been doing these things.
A Feast for all peoples
No Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation. The reaction to Fiducia supplicans probably spooked the Pope. I also think the revelation to him that the vast majority of the world has ignored the BA guidelines of Amoris laetitia probably influenced the decision too, more on that in second. It would be way too difficult to placate everyone in an Apostolic Exhortation, whilst trying to avoid the embarrassing about-face of Fiducia debacle.
This also means that the Final Document is magisterial, in the same way that this Synod on the first day made interviews with Norah O’Donnell magisterial. Congratulations. Monsignor Riccardo Battocchio, the principal author of the Final Document, explained at the Press Conference that the Pope’s stance is in line with Episcopalis communio, indicating that the Holy Father expressly approving the Final Document, means that the “document is part of his magisterium—not as a binding norm, but as a set of guiding principles.”
The two big debates that emerged over the course of the Synodal process were on women deacons and polygamy. I’m told that one proposed solution to the polygamy question would be to apply the principles of Amoris laetitia to the problem. This apparently was rejected, with the vast majority of bishops worldwide having simply ignored the magisterial Buenos Aires directives of admitting the divorced and ‘remarried’ to the sacraments.
In order to rectify the situation the Vatican decided to in “agreement with the Dicastery for Legislative Texts, a Canonical Commission has been established to work on innovations needed regarding ecclesial norms and on the discernment entrusted to the Symposium of the Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar concerning the pastoral accompaniment of people in polygamous marriages. The work of these groups and commissions has marked the beginning of the implementation stage, enriching the work of the Second Session, and will assist the Holy Father in pastoral and governance decisions.”
Curiously no mention of the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, so we won’t be seeing another Tucho logically masterclass à la Amoris and Fiducia, to integrating polygamists in the life of the Church.
The final document itself is divided into five sections; Part 1 - The Heart of Synodality: Called by the Holy Spirit, Part II - On the Boat, Together: The Conversion of Relationships, Part III - Cast the Net: The Conversion of Processes, Part IV - An Abundant Catch: The Conversion of Bonds, and Part V - So I Send You: Forming a People for Missionary Discipleship.” Having read through it twice, I must say it is mainly bland, and uncontroversial, but more of my thoughts over the next month.
In the preamble, the document speaks of Vatican II as “a seed thrown onto the field of the world and the Church”, with the Synod having “drawn upon the energy of that seed and develop its potential.” Adding that “the synodal journey is indeed putting into practice what the Council taught about the Church … synodal journey constitutes an authentic further act of reception of the Council, thus deepening its inspiration and reinvigorating its prophetic force for today’s world.” Remember folks if you criticise Synodality, you are criticising Vatican II, which makes you a Lefebvrist or something. I find this kind of rhetoric unhelpful, for if anything, if the apathy towards Synodality that the laity has shown just far continues, intimately linking Synodality with Vatican II could damage the Council more than it strengthens Synodality.
The other revelation in the introductory section of the final document is that Synodality will never end. “Episcopal conferences and synods of the churches sui iuris to allocate personnel and resources to accompany the pathway of growth as a synodal Church in mission and to maintain contact with the General Secretariat of the Synod.” What I find fascinating about this is that just this week Pope Francis told employees of the Vatican’s communication department that the Holy See is broke, and that cuts and savings need to be made. How then is anyone outside of Germany going to able to afford the costs of implementing Synodality?
I will be analysing the rest of the document, section by section, over the next month. As if I haven’t had enough Synodality. God bless you all. If you made it this far please say a prayer for grandmother, as recovers from a heavy fall.