In his address to over 200 people who attended the Meeting of Moderators of Associations of the Faithful, Ecclesial Movements and New Communities on June 13, 2024, Pope Francis shared his hopes for the synodal movement in the years ahead.  

He told those gathered he desired it “endure as a permanent mode of working within the Church, at all levels, permeating the hearts of all, pastors and faithful alike, until it becomes a shared ‘ecclesial style.’ ”

One of the paramount questions synod delegates, champions, experts and skeptics alike are pondering, and are hoping the papal conclave can answer, is if the late pontiff’s vision will continue progressing towards full realization.

Catherine Clifford, professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at Ottawa's he Saint Paul University who attended the Sixteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops as a lay voting delegate, said the makeup of the cardinal electors suggests the continuation down the synodal pathway.

“I think it's important to recognize that the majority of the cardinal electors, the 135 men who will be responsible for electing a successor to Pope Francis, were appointed by him and share his values,” said Clifford. “Many of those men have been participants in the synodal process and were present at the synod these last two years. And that final document had more than 90-per-cent support of more than 90 per cent of the delegates who were there.

“So, I think it represents a consensus of the direction, the necessary direction of the Church for the future. And I think it would be very difficult for any successor of Francis to set this aside.”

Francis elevated 108 of the 135 conclave participants, 80 per cent, to the College of Cardinals.  

Fr. Raymond Lafontaine, a priest of the Archdiocese of Montreal who served as a facilitator for the working group discussions during the 2024 assembly at the Vatican, is waiting to see the outcome of the conclave, but suggests Francis did “everything he can to set something in motion.” 

The Pope approved the aforementioned final document that received high support as an official act of his papal magisterium, put forth a three-year implementation plan for the Synod on Synodality and dictated bishops to host a major ecclesial assembly in 2028.

“I think in a certain sense, if a pope who had hesitations about the synod reforms was elected, it wouldn't just be a question of failing to implement it,” said Lafontaine. “He would actually have to go against what (Pope Francis) has already set in motion in his lifetime. So, I'm confident that synodal reform will continue in the light of that. Also, in the light of the fact that I think that even people who were at the synod itself who had some hesitations or some questions about it, in the end, endorsed the final document with very, very high support.”

Canadian Catholic academic and writer Michael Higgins, who authored The Jesuit Disruptor: A Personal Portrait of Pope Francis, expects deliberations over this flagship “Bergoglio vision” among the cardinal electors while they are secluded from the world in the Sistine Chapel starting May 7.

“When they gather, my sense is they're going to say, ‘look, what is in fact, this?’ ” said Higgins. ‘“Is it something new? Is it threatening to doctrine? Is it going to divide the Church?' "

Higgins, a Basilian Distinguished Fellow of Contemporary Catholic Thought at Toronto's University of St. Michael’s College, anticipates many will conclude it is not divisive.

“How I see it, and I think the synod participants certainly did (too), is that it’s not a way of altering doctrine,” said Higgins. “It is a way of deepening the community of faith. It’s a way of introducing a manner, if you like, of functioning like an ecclesia, where there are shared and participatory ways or modes of deepening the faith, and most especially empowering the faithful in the manner that Cardinal Newman, St. John Henry Newman, anticipated.”

Newman, a 19th-century English Catholic theologian, academic, philosopher and writer, articulated in writings that the lay faithful’s views should be listened to and taken seriously as they are “the voice of the living tradition of the Church.”

Fr. Fabio de Souza, pastor of St. Peter’s Parish in Calgary and one of the three Canadian clerics who participated in the Synod’s International Meeting of Priests from April 28-May 2, endorses continuing with Francis' and Newman’s vision for the Church.

“I think that this experience walking together as a way of being for the Church is very strong because we can highlight the gifts of the people of God,” said de Souza. “And here we will work with the concept of the people of God, highlighting this fundamental equality of all the baptized. Every person has his or her charisms and gifts. They can help and understand that they have a mission in the Church. I truly believe that this concept is totally based on the Gospel and especially giving people this opportunity to walk together and be co-responsible.”

Higgins said, and de Souza concurs, what Francis has done with synodality is “continuing the work of the Second Vatican Council” as the “synod is grounded in the theology of the Second Vatican Council” and embraces “people of God” ecclesiology and fosters a listening and discerning Church.

While there will be strong interest in hearing Francis’ successor’s statements about synodality to glean insights about this process going forward, much of the onus currently lies with how individual parishes implement and experiment with the guidance and directives contained in the synod’s final document. The missive published after the Sixteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops is nearly 60 pages long.

Fr. Jean-Pierre Ducharme, OFM, pastor of St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Richmond, B.C., told The Catholic Register in March the final report “is very prophetic.” However, it is a document “that takes several readings to kind of understand where it is calling us” and that could mean “it’s almost way too easy to dismiss.”

Clifford agreed the document “can be hard to understand,” but progress can be made by embracing the overarching ideals.

“What we've been working towards is a different way of being Church in the future and a different way of living together as a community of baptized Christians so that we take more seriously the gifts and the co-responsibility of lay people,” said Clifford. “And (parish) leaders also understand that effective leadership means and requires of them a commitment to consulting the members of their congregations at every stage in the life of a Church. So that’s in a sense, the model that the early Christian Church lived by and we're trying to recover this.”

Lafontaine offered practical solutions on how individual parishes can unpack the final document.

“I think that in this day and age, people do not read 55-page documents usually,” said Lafontaine. “I think it would be helpful — I'm not sure if this should be at the level of bishop's conferences or the level of the Synod Secretariat — and great to have different tools that break down the top 10 takeaways from the final document.

“In my diocese, I was asked for Lent to record a series of five videos, four to five minutes in length on each chapter of the final document. People who won't read a 50-page document might be inclined to watch four- or five-minute videos, and that would give them at least a taste of the main points and perhaps a desire to go deeper.”

Ducharme, who also represented Canada at the synod’s International Meeting of Priests last year, said “it’s going to take some renewed energy and some leadership at various levels of the Church” to keep the synodal pathway in motion.

Perhaps a well-executed version of Lafontaine’s strategy would qualify as a rekindled spark of dynamism. It could be suggested Francis’ call for a 2028 ecclesial assembly represented renewed energy and leadership, but the pontiff died within five weeks of this announcement.

The Canadian synodal movement is poised to receive its next jolt from June 15-18 during the Journey of Encounter: Pilgrims of Hope Embracing Synodality gathering hosted by Concerned Lay Catholics. Clifford, Higgins, Lafontaine and Ducharme are special advisors for this summit.