Chad Pecknold, associate professor, theology, published commentary in First Things on Synodality.
Last Monday, as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops gathered for the 2018 General Assembly, the Holy See informed Cardinal Daniel DiNardo that the bishops could not proceed with their original plans. They had hoped to pass a tougher Code of Conduct for bishops and new procedures for involving the lay faithful in episcopal accountability. Instead, DiNardo had to announce to his brothers that the Holy See had essentially suspended their collegial agenda. The very “synodality” that has been a hallmark of this pontificate had been upended sub Petro. Why?
In 1965, Pope Paul VI instituted a consultative Synod of Bishops tasked with advising the Supreme Pontiff, and since that time the neologism “synodality” has referred to a vision of the Church in perpetual council (synod is the Greek word for council, and so synodality is an Eastern kind of conciliarism). ...
Continue reading in First Things .