The true purpose of Synod
What is Pope Francis hoping to achieve with his synodal reform of the way the Catholic Church operates? One possible answer is that he is trying, ever so subtly, to correct some of the distortions that he felt Catholicism had acquired from the 27 years of John Paul II’s papacy. It was on the watch of this rapidly sainted pope – too rapidly, maybe – that the sexual abuse of children became a serious epidemic, something he appeared unable to deal with effectively. In what ways did John Paul II’s leadership style contribute to that? The Church is still searching for answers – or rather, parts of it are, while other parts look the other way.
The synodal process is essentially about involving the laity in church governance, while learning from the experiences of the Anglican Communion and Orthodox Churches. What Francis is after is not exactly democracy, but there will have to be machinery of participation of some sort. He apparently sees the laity as less influenced by the priorities of John Paul II than many of the clergy and, especially, the bishops. He is in this sense appealing over their heads – but the irony is that it is only through them that he will be able to do so.
Francis has not directly referenced Newman’s work on “consulting the laity”, but it is relevant. During the fourth century Arian heresy it was the laity which maintained the orthodox doctrine of the divinity of Christ, which was being denied by priests and bishops. In the twenty-first century the besetting error is clericalism, or what might be termed “clerical supremacy”, which downgrades “the priesthood of all believers” to a mere footnote. It has never been entirely absent from Catholic theory, though it has often been neglected in practice. It means, among other things, that when the Holy Spirit inspires the People of God this may be through the beliefs and actions of ordinary believers, as well as, or even exceptionally rather than, the anointed Church hierarchy.
Pope Francis is true to the traditions of social teaching matured by and passed on by John Paul II and Benedict XVI, and he has expanded the categories to which they apply to include the environment (Laudato Si’) and personal relations (Fratelli Tutti). But on issues touching gender and sexual morality he is more inclined to start from messy human reality than from the clinical text book idealism of his predecessors. Gay people exist and cannot be airbrushed out because they do not fit the theory. The same with the divorced and remarried. A more fundamental issue is the ontological status of women. Are they essentially different from men? And does that make them inferior in clerical hierarchy terms? However respectfully or even reverentially expressed, John Paul II’s implicit answer was Yes. Clericalism inevitably tends towards misogyny. The clerical abuse scandal was about power – expressed through the Catholic episcopacy and priesthood – rather than sexual sin.
The synodal process has started, and many bishops seem wary of its subversive potential. Some will try to thwart it. But they do not own it and should not stop it. It has a holy wind in its sails, “which bloweth where it listeth”.
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