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Glad You Asked: What is the Synod on Synodality?

On this episode of the podcast, theology professor Amanda Osheim helps clarify what the Synod on Synodality is all about.
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The Editors
Published October 6, 2023

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Anyone who has been following Catholic news within the U.S. or globally has probably gotten used to hearing updates about synods. Thanks to the leadership of Pope Francis, terms like “synod” and “synodality” have entered the ordinary vernacular of Catholics. At the time of this recording, the three-year-long Synod on Synodality, running from 2021 to 2024, is still ongoing, but many Catholics may still be uncertain about the purpose of this event, or what a synod even is.

Today’s guest on the first episode of season three of the Glad You Asked podcast can help clarify what the Synod on Synodality is all about, and how to understand Pope Francis’ vision for a synodal church within the context of existing tradition, going back to the earliest days of Christianity. 

Amanda Osheim is Endowed Professor of the Breitbach Catholic Thinkers and Leaders Program and Professor of Practical Theology at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa. Her publications include A Ministry of Discernment: The Bishop and the Sense of the Faithful and Stepping Towards a Synodal Church. Her research interests include the Holy Spirit, the church, and ministry. 

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The following is a transcript of this week’s episode of Glad You Asked:

Rebecca: Welcome back to Glad You Asked, the podcast where we answer the questions about Catholicism that are easy to ask but not so easy to answer. 

Emily: Each week on the podcast, we invite scholars and experts in fields of history, theology, biblical studies, and more to dig into some of the more complex questions about the Catholic faith and tradition. I’m Emily Sanna, managing editor of U.S. Catholic.  

Rebecca: And I’m Rebecca Bratten Weiss, digital editor at U.S. Catholic. Today’s question to kick off this season is, “What is the Synod on Synodality?” Our guest is Amanda Osheim, endowed professor of the Breitbach Catholic Thinkers and Leaders Program and professor of practical theology at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa.

Emily: Her publications include A Ministry of Discernment: The Bishop and the Sense of the Faithful and Stepping Towards a Synodal Church. Her research interests include the Holy Spirit, the church, and ministry. Today she’s going to help us understand the ins and outs of Pope Francis’ ongoing synod. 

Rebecca: Amanda, thank you so much for joining us on the Glad You Asked podcast.

Amanda Osheim: I’m delighted to be with you here today.

Emily: So I think a lot of people, even Catholics, might be unclear on what the word synod actually means. Can you start by giving us a definition?

Amanda: Absolutely. It is one of those kind of weird Catholic words that we don’t throw around all that often. I often think about it as like the line from The Princess Bride: “You keep saying that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means.” So we can think about synodality or a synod in a few different ways. It’s a Greek word. The original meaning of the word, like if we were to break it apart, means “to walk together” or “to journey together”: to be on a path together.

It’s often been translated more simply as an assembly or a gathering, but I think that sense of walking together and being on journey together is particularly evocative for thinking about it in the context of the church and the church on pilgrimage together. And then when we think further about what a synod is, a synod itself is an institution of the church: It’s a part of the church’s structure.

Often in history it has been a time for bishops to come together, whether more regionally or around the world, to discuss particular interests or areas of concern. And this happens on the diocesan level, too. So sometimes there are local church synods where laity have historically been part of the process of talking about the needs of the church in a particular geographical region.

So we can talk about synods as being structures and we can think about them as being events or these gatherings, but synodality is about a way of being church together and of cultivating different habits of spiritual reflection and dialogue and mutual discernment that allow the members of the church to come together to account their experiences of the Spirit and hear from one another those experiences so that there’s a mutual discernment going on about how the church is being called to live out the gospel today. 

And so that synodality, ideally, is something that’s going on all the time. I think that’s a large part of what Pope Francis is hoping for: that we’ll develop a synodal church in which these common discernments in prayer will be happening on an ongoing basis on all different levels of the church. And in the midst of that, there will be times when there are particular events where some of those discernments come together in a particular way.

Rebecca: So it sounds like there are different ways of thinking about synods and different kinds of synods. I’m curious about the history of synods. When did the Catholic Church start having them? And when did the Catholic Church start calling them that?

Amanda: Sure. And that history is a little confusing, because sometimes this Greek word synod gets used at the same time that the word council gets used. So even though, for instance, the Second Vatican Council, we call an ecumenical council, it refers to itself sometimes as this sacred synod, this sacred gathering together.

So if we look way back, we can certainly see in the very earliest histories of the church this desire to come together at times to be able to discuss more and to make, sometimes, doctrinal decisions about our beliefs, but often pastoral decisions about how to live out those beliefs well or to refine moral teachings. 

Even back to scripture, to the Acts of the Apostles, we see the Council of Jerusalem, which we could probably also describe as a synod of those leaders in the community coming together. Peter, James, and John in Jerusalem are visited by Paul and Barnabas. Paul and Barnabas had been out doing missionary work with the Gentiles, and it becomes a question: Do these folks need to go through circumcision? Do male converts need to go through circumcision in order to become Christian? And that becomes part of the discussion that happens at the Council of Jerusalem, which was probably around, oh, 50 C.E. So that suggests that very early on in the church’s processes, these gatherings were important. 

They continued over time, probably in more like regional gatherings of different bishops coming together. And then sometimes we shift into more ecumenical councils, when we have gatherings of the bishops from around the world who come together to deal with particular doctrinal, moral, or pastoral issues. So really, they’ve been around for a long time, and they’ve been exercised in lots of different ways throughout the church’s history. 

I do think that Vatican II in particular gives us, maybe not a modern take, but a modern expression of synodality and what a synod is, in part because the bishops who gathered at Vatican II said, “Hey, it’s been kind of great to join together and to hear about the church around the world and to think together about what we ought to do. It’s a shame we don’t do this more often.” Which is true, because the prior ecumenical council had been in 1869. Vatican II starts in 1962, so 93 years is a fair long stretch to go before bringing everyone back together again. 

And Paul VI, who was pope at that time, took that council and established what’s called the Synod of Bishops, and that is an advisory body to the pope composed of bishops, as is suggested by the title, and that began in 1967. So this Synod of Bishops is a particular ecclesial structure that advises the pope in Rome. 

Usually the vast majority of those have been called General Synods: There’s been about 16 of those. In fact, the one that begins in October will be the 16th General Synod. [It deals] with matters that are of concern and that need to be addressed and that the pope would like further advice from the broader church on.

There are also sometimes Extraordinary Synods. An Extraordinary Synod might be held to deal with a very particular and pressing issue. So sometimes the Synod of Bishops will meet for that. There’s been only three of those since 1967. And then there’s also regional synods. These are called Special Synods. So for instance, there was a synod in Africa dealing more with particular regions’ concerns within that continent.

Emily: So moving back up to the present day, can you talk a little bit about what this current Synod on Synodality says about Pope Francis’ vision for the church?

Amanda: Sure. Pope Francis is very much informed by the Second Vatican Council in his sense of the church. Whereas we could sort of describe earlier visions of the church as having what I called a “trickle down model of grace”: So it’s like the Holy Spirit’s kind of at the top of the pyramid. And then you’ve got popes and bishops and clerics and religious and then the laity at the bottom. Pope Francis has spoken very directly about inverting that pyramid to say that a synodal church doesn’t simply start at the hierarchical top, but rather begins with local gatherings to understand more of the Spirit’s call and what the church is doing on the ground around the world.

I think that’s very tied to Vatican II’s insistence on the importance of baptism. I tell my students that baptism is really the gateway sacrament. It gets you into all sorts of different trouble with other things. Baptism is what calls us to be priests, prophets, and kings to share in Christ’s mission.

And through baptism, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us as a church as a whole for sure, but as believers individually as well. And I think Pope Francis takes very seriously the presence of the Holy Spirit throughout the church and that he leans more towards understanding the church as both a learning and a teaching church so that we all have things to learn from one another. We all, perhaps in different ways, have something to teach of our experience of the Spirit as well. That reflection of this more synodal church and a desire to hear from the local churches is what has inspired this Synod for Synodality. 

And of course, over several years now, beginning at the local level and working up through various reports, we’ve seen that pyramid turned upside down with things beginning with the local conversations and being reported on, so that as the Synod of Bishops gathers now in Rome, beginning in October, those bishops and the other participants are to be informed by what they have learned and listened to from the church around the world that should shape their deliberations and further shape their discernments of where to go next.

Rebecca: So it sounds like the Synod on Synodality has real significance for Pope Francis’ vision of the church. Can you talk about why this event is so significant and how it’s set apart from other synods that have happened in the past, including the recent past?

Amanda: I think in part the significance is the entire process of a synodal church to some degree. And maybe this is an American culture sort of thing, but we tend to focus on, “Well, what did that meeting produce? What was the outcome of it?” And synodality as Pope Francis is examining it is about the information that’s been passed along through the church to inform the entire church from the local through the higher or more universal levels of the church. That’s involved, but there’s a priority and importance to the developing relationships and understanding that grow between the people who are discerning together. 

Francis has emphasized that at the level of the Synod of Bishops, and I think he would say that this translates throughout the process, that participants need to have two virtues. One is paresia, which again comes to us from Acts of the Apostles, a Greek word that describes the apostles speaking with boldness and frankness about their experience of the Holy Spirit. And so we need to, he said–doesn’t matter that the pope is in the room–say what’s on your mind, say what the Holy Spirit is prompting you to do. 

On the other hand, we also need the virtue of humility in the synodal process. I think sometimes in Catholic theology we think humility is just the opposite of pride. Really to me it stands in between two extremes, either pride and over-inflating our sense of our own experiences and worth or kind of a self-annihilation or self-despair that we have nothing good to contribute. Humility is an important virtue for learning, for having an accurate understanding of ourselves in relationship to God and us.

And so in the synodal process, we are to learn from one another. So I must not only speak boldly, I must learn with humility. I must really take into account and reflect what I am hearing from others. So that collectively, we can more deeply listen to the Spirit and the Spirit’s call to us. 

This is different than some previous synods, in which some observers felt that bishops attending that synod of bishops showed up but pretty much knew what they needed to say already in order to be in congruence with what a pope already thought. And so it wasn’t necessarily that those synods were set up as times of discernment and of further questioning and of coming together to some possible conclusions or answers. For some, it seemed more like the synod was simply there as an occasion to reinforce the answers that had already been reached. 

I think we can see that even in what’s called the Instrumentum Laboris, or the working document for the Synod on Synodality that begins in October. It sets out at the beginning, certainly, some different reports and ideas that have been heard from the listening sessions around the world. But the second half of the document is all set up as worksheets with further questions for discernment and suggestions about trying to discern and reflect further. And it even has like a graphic of how you might think about going through this personal discernment process of your own prayer and reflection and coming into conversation with others in such a way that the document really tries to emphasize that the Spirit is the protagonist of the Synod. The Spirit is the one we are trying to listen to and to hear more clearly and more fully and to respond to and to collaborate with. 

I could be wrong. I have not looked through the working documents for all the synods ever, but this whole idea of coming in more as a preparation for discernment and things that we want you to have thought about ahead of time and not simply sort of proposing some answers already is a different way of going about it than we’ve seen before at the level of the synod of bishops.

Emily: Has there been any resistance or discomfort with this new way of doing things?

Amanda: There absolutely has been resistance to this. And on a number of different levels, I’d say some folks may be worried and understandably worried about, “So I’ve put my thoughtful reflections out before my community, I’ve spoken with paresia, I’ve tried to learn and listen with humility. Will these circumstances that I’ve expressed that exist here in my local church, how does that go from–I’m in the Archdiocese of Dubuque–how does that go from the Archdiocese of Dubuque clear to Rome without becoming a weird game of telephone along the way?” 

There are some practical and logistical pieces that way. We don’t necessarily have a map right now for how synodality operates in all these different local churches and all these dioceses and a way to include lots of different folks in it. We’re very much in a time of learning about how to go about this.

And one of the exciting things for theological nerds like me will be to see what different areas are reporting as having been successful or helpful for them in the synodal process, and what we might sort of encourage and support to keep going on the levels of the local churches. There’s also been some more perhaps philosophical or theological worries associated with the synod in part because we are in a world that’s often quite driven by opinion polls and all about simply just like expressing what I think, expressing my own ideas, which is part of synodality, but again, not the totality of it. I need to be trying to discern more of where the Holy Spirit is and how the Holy Spirit is calling me, which may be in some ways contrary to my experience or my first opinion on something.

So there’s been some concern that all synodality will be just sort of a riot of different opinions being put forth. Or perhaps that the ideas that come forth, criticisms perhaps of current church structures or teachings or pastoral practices, that those will come forward from people with a specific agenda, that they would want to recreate the church according to their own principles and in their own image.

That of course is a worry. I don’t see how that’s not a worry with any form of church structure or governance that people might seek to represent themselves in their own perspectives more than they might feel obligated to reflect on the Spirit’s call and how to articulate that with other people. So I think that’s more of an ongoing human problem that’s highlighted in a particular way from the Synod on Synodality.

I also think that how we imagine the Holy Spirit at work throughout the church and whether we envision the sense of the faithful being real or just a nice platitude affects how people might perceive the Synod on Synodality as well. Francis has a high confidence and trust in the Holy Spirit at work in the church as well as the larger world and of our need to collaborate with the Holy Spirit.

That is not an easy thing that in and of itself can become a platitude. But I think he’s really calling the church to do the hard work of discernment. And as a Jesuit, he knows very well that that can be a messy and lengthy process to go through.

Rebecca: So you’ve said that the synod is not about producing an end result so much as it is about this process of discernment, but have previous synods brought about change in the church, and are people anticipating any changes to come out of this one?

Amanda: There may well be changes that come from the synod. As a theologian, I think that part of our purpose is simply how we’re becoming more united in mission together as a church and that our mutual discernments are about how we come to share the mind of Christ together so that we can more effectively be the sign and instrument of salvation that we are called to be.

So there may well be conclusions that come out of the Synod on Synodality that do affect the way we live at church throughout the world, or at least in particular parts of the world. Synods do have repercussions. There is still that Synod of Bishops [who are] advisory to the pope, so the pope, following a Synod of Bishops, will release usually an apostolic exhortation, which is a fairly authoritative document. 

Those apostolic exhortations are generally reflective of what the conversation was at the synod of bishops, although it’s not necessarily written in collaboration with everybody at the synod. So it’s a bit up to the pope in terms of how much it reflects those conversations versus how much of his own authoritative decisions go into any pronouncements that are made.

We can look at Amoris Laetitia, which was the apostolic exhortation following the synod on the family and evangelization, as an example of potential changes and some controversial ones, for instance, with regard to people who are divorced and remarried without an annulment. A question had come up in the synod about how pastoral care for those people and whether they might be admitted to communion, to receiving the Eucharist. And there was a more pastoral take on that articulated by Amoris Laetitia, that people in that situation should be accompanied well by a pastor. They should discuss with a pastor the possibility of receiving communion, discern further what they’re able to do, and given their time of life and state of their family with regard to coming more into accord with church teaching, but that it might be possible and indeed might be, I would say, good for people in this situation to be able to receive the Eucharist. And it goes back to Francis’ idea of the church as a field hospital, and of the Eucharist as a medicine for the sick and not a prize for the worthy.

That’s a fairly significant pastoral decision that Francis is now turning back over to local bishops and priests to think through and accompany the people of God with as they move through their faith. So we’ll see what some of these different outcomes may be. The working document has emphasized such things as church authority and how it’s exercised and who gets to participate in those structures of authority. It links very strongly our sense of communion as a church with what we are called to do in terms of our mission to the larger world. 

So on those levels, even if there isn’t necessarily a change in doctrine per se, the language that is used about our communion, participation and mission and what is emphasized, the paradigms that are put forth, suggestions that are made, can have quite real effects on how Catholicism is lived out.

Emily: That’s all the questions we have time for today, Amanda. Thank you so much for joining us on Glad You Asked

Amanda: Thank you.

Glad You Asked is sponsored by the Claretian Missionaries.

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