Synod on Synodality

A month after attending the Vatican’s Jubilee of Synodal Teams and Participatory Bodies (Oct. 24–26), Canadian lay leaders involved in the Church’s synodality movement hosted a webinar to reflect on the event and discuss next steps in the synodal journey.

The universal Church is now a few weeks into an 18-month process for dioceses and parishes to begin effecting the trajectories that will conceivably engender more synodal congregations.

Almost four years after Pope Francis opened the Catholic Church's path toward synodality—a term many in the church had never heard before—his successor has thrown his support behind the last leg of the church's' synodal journey.

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.

The churches that embrace the process modelled at the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in 2023 and 2024 will cultivate dynamic congregational participation and leadership, says Gary Warner.

Pope Francis has approved the next phase of the Synod of Bishops on synodality, launching a three-year implementation process that will culminate in an ecclesial assembly at the Vatican in October 2028.

Valleyfield Bishop Alain Faubert senses enthusiasm for the synodal cause “is brewing” in dioceses and archdioceses across the country.

Doubling down on the centrality of synodality in the Catholic Church, Pope Francis said that it is now up to local churches to accept and implement proposals from the final document approved the Synod of Bishops on synodality.

After members of the Synod of Bishops approved their final document, Pope Francis announced that he would not write the customary post-synodal apostolic exhortation but would offer the final document to the entire church to implement.

Pope Francis decided the question of ordaining women deacons was not to be discussed at the 2024 Synod of Bishops, and he directed a synod-related study group on women's ministries not to explore the matter, according to the Vatican's doctrinal chief.