The 2023 assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which takes place from October 4-29 in Rome, will be the most important Catholic Church gathering since the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).
A consistory will precede it on September 30 when Pope Francis is to create twenty-one new cardinals.
Both events are indicative of how high the stakes are for the Church in the next few months.
Previous Synod assemblies were very important, too, especially the initial gatherings during the pontificate of Paul VI, the 1985 assembly under John Paul II to mark the 20th anniversary of the Council, and the 2014-2015 assemblies Francis convened on family and marriage.
But none of those earlier assemblies were about the future of the Synod itself and none of them had among its priorities to “enlarge the space” of the Church, which was the title of the document for the continental synodal gatherings that helped prepare this October’s assembly.
The recently unveiled list of those who have been chosen to participate at the upcoming assembly offers some clues about the ways in which the Synod, which Francis is continually reforming, embodies (or does not embody) the global Catholic Church today.
Fifty-four women and sixty-three cardinals
It’s been noted how the pope has done an impressive job of trying to strike a balance by personally naming members to the assembly that will offset the delegates that some bishops’ conferences have elected (see the similar and opposite cases of the United States and Germany).
The only people who are actually elected to the Synod assembly are delegates from episcopal conferences and the heads of religious congregations.
The latter are elected from the two Rome-based unions of (men’s and women’s) superiors general.
Other members of the Synod assembly (including 54 women who will have full voting rights for the first time ever) have been vetted and approved by the Synod secretariat and the pope, who have already made it clear that synodality is something different from (but not necessarily opposed to) democracy.
It is not enough to be a Catholic “in good standing” to be appointed a member.
One must also be “sponsored”, held in high esteem, and be on the list of someone with the power to propose a name to those with the authority to appoint.
There are also features in this 2023 Synod assembly that are important from a systemic point of view.
The Synod of Bishops (still its official name) is not part of the Roman Curia.
However, the prefects of the major Curia offices are ex officio voting members of the Synod’s assemblies, and their voices will be listened to with particular attention this October by the other members.
But there will be many more cardinals than just those working at the Vatican.
Sixty-three men with red hats will be members of the upcoming assembly.
Fifty-five of them were on the list of participants that the secretariat unveiled on July 7.
Eight others on that list are among the twenty-one new cardinals that Francis announced on July 9 (including the three recently appointed prefects of Roman dicasteries: Robert Prevost of the Dicastery for the Bishops, Claudio Gugerotti of the Dicastery for Eastern Churches, and Víctor Manuel Fernández of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith).
Theological thinking beyond Western Europe
Francis has gathered the entire College of Cardinals together for in-depth discussions in an extraordinary consistory only twice in ten years (February 2014 and August 2022).
And so the two assemblies of the Synod on synodality (2023 and 2024) will be rare occasions where many of the cardinal electors in next conclave will have the opportunity to talk and work together for a protracted period of time — each time for an entire month.
Many papabili — those who are considered leading candidates to succeed the nearly 87-year-old pope — will be at these Synod assemblies. But there will be one notable exception — Cardinal Peter Erdö, archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest and primate of Hungary.
And yet he played an important role as relator general at the 2014-2015 assemblies on marriage and the family.
Roman Curia prefects and cardinals aside, the Synod on synodality has some pre-eminent representatives that will dominate the composition of the assembly in terms of numbers.
Obviously, the bishops elected by the episcopal conferences were originally appointed to their diocesan posts by Francis or one of his predecessors.
Popes did not always appoint bishops around the world.
This is a reminder that the “new” Synod that Francis is trying to shape is an experiment in developing of the “Synod of Bishops” that Paul VI created in September 1965 at the beginning of the fourth and final session of Vatican II.
There is also a strong representation of the religious orders that are active in the world, especially on social issues, even if the cardinals and bishops vastly outnumber them.
The most interesting feature is the significant presence of theological thinking coming from places other than Western Europe.
It is more prominent than at Vatican Council II or any of the previous Synod assemblies.
There is a robust representation of Africa, Asia, and especially Latin America, which is the leading example on synodality both in terms of ecclesial practice and theoretical reflections.
The decision to give each of the continents ten “witnesses of the synodal process” — all voting members of the assembly — reflects Francis’ option in favour of diversity and inclusion.
But this also means that Latin America and Africa (with the largest number of Catholics) have the same number of witnesses as the Middle East and the Oriental Churches.
Very interesting is that Eastern Europe is intentionally represented in a very strong way, if one looks, for example, at the pope’s choice of the ten “witnesses” from Europe.
This is notable given the stark differences within Europe that emerged in previous phases over issues like the reception Vatican II or dealing with such things as the inclusion of LGBTQ people.
Who’s missing?
Some notable absences or rather presences are marginal in relation to the role they have played in Church history and the current intra-ecclesial conversations.
For instance, there are very few parish priests and permanent deacons, those who are the frontline workers on synodality.
But a problem is how one is to choose clerics who are representative of their confreres.
The lay-run ecclesial movements seem to be absent, as well, except for three (mainly lay) associative movements — one is Italian (Azione Cattolica), another is a Spanish initiative (Frater España – Fraternidad Cristiana de Personas con Discapacidad), and the third is the international movement Focolare (itself of Italian origin).
There is also a representative from an Italian NGO called Mediterranea Saving Humans, which was created in 2018 to help rescue migrants at sea. But this inclusion is different because, formally, it is not a Catholic movement or organization.
The small representation of lay movements and new ecclesial communities may reflect the policy of the pope and Cardinal Kevin Farrell — prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life — to watch these groups.
Progressive Catholic movements with an agenda for change (for instance, promoting women’s ordination) are also not represented in any significant number at the October assembly.
They will have to be in the corridors of Rome and carve out spaces in the so-called “peri-synod”, which will likely consist of lectures by experts, press conferences, and unconventional media events.
Such activity on the sidelines was a very important feature at Vatican II.
According to the preparatory documents, the next Synod assembly will also discuss the diaconate for women, but it is not clear how the discussion will relate to the two study commissions that Francis appointed on the subject.
The Instrumentum laboris (working paper) for the upcoming Synod, which was published on June 20, seemed to be more of a document for a Church of celibate people.
It is not clear how the voice of families will be heard at the upcoming assembly.
And yet, the world of monastic and contemplative communities seems to be absent, at least in terms of members physically present at the Synod (though they’ve been invited to be spiritually present through their prayers).
The absence of academic theologians from the US and Germany
Something that should ease the anxieties of those who see the Synod as a Trojan horse aimed at bringing about some sort of liberal revolution in the Church, is the fact that representatives of academic Catholic theology from the United States and Germany are almost completely absent.
Comparatively speaking, theologians from the UK, Ireland, Canada, and Australia are more present.
This says something about what is happening in Anglo-American Catholicism and suggests that the vital experiences of synodality conceived ante litteram elsewhere (like the Plenary Council for Australia) have positioned these Churches well for the Synod in Rome.
This confirms the almost total estrangement between the Synodal process and the theology taught and researched in the most important Catholic institutions of higher education in the United States, at least for now.
The great theological faculties of German Catholicism have played a role in the synodal process but do not have anyone among the 2023 Synod assembly’s members.
This is a major change from the past, including at Vatican II.
But some of the most prominent theologians of synodality will be at the October gathering.
Others, who have worked on this theme for the last thirty years and have made possible the very fact that we talk about this today, are not.
But their work has been and will be very much present – explicitly and implicitly – in the synodal conversations in Rome over the course of the next two years and assemblies.
Transitioning from a European to a truly global Catholicism
One recent commentary, very critical of the list of members, lamented that “it remains unclear if the process will necessarily be more representative of the People of God by including Catholic academics, diocesan workers, and staff members of atypical progressive parishes”.
The fact is that the People of God are everywhere, and it has become impossible for any gathering or institution to be “politically” representative of a large and diverse body.
And in today’s world there is hardly a community of people as large and diverse as the Catholic Church.
The list of those who will be participating in the 2023 Synod assembly has limits and includes some strange choices, but it does not constitute a pre-written script to follow.
The most important feature is that, from an historical point of view, looking at the presences and absences, the Synod on synodality is a key moment in Pope Francis’ attempt to transition the Catholic Church to a more global Catholicism.
Vatican II happened largely thanks to a mostly Western European nouvelle théologie.
Now, the synodal Catholic Church is in the hands of a global Catholic theology whose contours are taking shape and trying to find a unifying voice.
- Massimo Faggioli is a Church historian, Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University (Philadelphia) and a much-published author and commentator. He is a visiting professor in Europe and Australia.
- First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.