Instrumentum Laboris 2024 (1)

Source: FSSPX News

The Instrumentum laboris (IL) for the Second Session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (on Synodality), which is to be held this October, was published on July 9, 2024. A mere 50 pages long, it is titled “How to be a Missionary Synodal Church.”

The organizers had announced that the second session would be refocused on the theme of synodality and would therefore eliminate specific divergent questions, such as the female diaconate or homosexuality. They kept their word. It is true that the Pope showed with Fiducia supplicans that he did not need the Synod to make a decision on these questions.

Moreover, despite the fact that Francis had reiterated his opposition, the female diaconate is still included in the program of one of the ten study groups, independent of the Synod, which must give submit their work to the Pope by June 2025.

Additionally, after the disastrous texts of the first phase of the Synod, the present document has a different appearance. It is no longer peppered with quotes from synodal meetings. There are fewer than ten or so, most of them short. Moreover, it presents a well-organized structure.

Finally, even if not everything is clear, the intellectual approach is more solid. But there is a reason for this: this IL is clearly traced from the text of the International Theological Commission of 2018, “Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church” (ITC).

A Return to the International Theological Commission (ITC)

The text does not hide its sources either. The ITC is quoted five times, but its doctrine is widely repeated. The first session had produced nothing or almost nothing: synodality remained a vague notion. The study carried out by the ITC is now found as the matrix of the new IL. If the destination was known, why waste so much time searching for it in an inadequate manner?

Unless disaster threatened it, was it necessary to resort to a sure method to save the process? But there is another explanation: the text of the ITC presents synodality according to Francis, and it is indeed the notion of the Pope which is presented here.

Synodality According to the IL of 2024

The text gives the “common” meaning of synodality: “The terms synodality and synodal, derived from the ancient and constant ecclesial practice of gathering in synod7, have been better understood and, above all, lived thanks to the experience of recent years” (p.3). Then it goes on.

Fundamentally, synodality “indicates the ecclesial structures and processes in which the synodal nature of the Church is expressed at the institutional level,” (p.4); “Synodality is rooted in this dynamic vision of the People of God” (p.2). It “designates ‘the particular style that qualifies the life and mission of the Church’ (ITC, n. 70a)” (p.4). The analysis of the ITC will explain.

“Synodality ‘is the specific modus vivendi et operandi of the Church, the People of God, which reveals and gives substance to her being as communion when all her members journey together, gather in assembly and take an active part in her evangelizing mission.’ (ITC, n.6)” (p.4). There is the clarification: “In describing the Church, the notion of synodality is not an alternative to that of communion” (p.4).

Finally, the ITC specifies the expression of synodality: “Synodality ‘ought to be expressed in the Church’s ordinary way of living and working. This modus vivendi et operandi works through the community listening to the Word and celebrating the Eucharist, the brotherhood [and sisterhood] of communion and the co-responsibility and participation of the whole People of God in its life and mission, on all levels and distinguishing between various ministries and roles” (ibid.)’ (p.4).

This point is explained further on: “Synodality is implemented through networks of people, communities, bodies and a set of processes that enable an effective exchange of gifts between the Churches and an evangelising dialogue with the world” (p.20).

A Synodal Church

The term synodal, understood as the Council sees it and as Pope Francis personally considers it, takes on a new formality. It is a matter of including all the members of the Church—and beyond—in the process, through already existing relationships and others to be developed or modified: this is what is expressed through the expression “walking together,” which recurs seven times.

Thus, the IL explains that “A synodal Church is a relational Church in which interpersonal dynamics form the fabric of the life of a mission-oriented community, whose life unfolds within increasingly complex contexts” (p.23), which remains a little abstruse. But the ITC will clarify things.

“’In the synodal Church the whole community, in the free and rich diversity of its members, is called together Part II – Pathways 29to pray, listen, analyse, dialogue, discern and offer advice on taking pastoral decisions which correspond as closely as possible to God’s will’ (ITC 68)” (p.29-30).

In other words, what faith animated by charity, fraternal charity, the fervor of religious societies, and the missionary impetus that has always characterized the Church spontaneously did must be subject to an organization, yet the text clarifies that “synodality should not be thought of as an organisational expedient but lived and cultivated as the way the disciples of Jesus weave relationships in solidarity” (p.11).

This general mobilization could be something great and beautiful, but it is a palliative to a lack of Christian spirit, to a loss of faith, to an abandonment of asceticism, to a loss of morality, and to a lukewarmness, which has always existed to some degree. It is not this mobilization that will solve things but the return to a true Christian life.

Gathered in the Spirit

A second important element for synodality according to Francis is the action of the Holy Ghost, who is understood as the force that makes the Church advance or evolve. There is no need to recall the importance given to the “conversation in the Spirit,” a specific method of the Synod, which is regularly recalled here.

“Synodality, therefore, designates ‘the particular style that qualifies the life and mission of the Church’ (ITC, n. 70a), a style that starts from listening as the first act of the Church. [...] listening to the Word of God, listening to the Holy Spirit, listening to one another, listening to the living tradition of the Church and its Magisterium” (p.4)

These types of listening are linked: “The practice of conversation in the Spirit has made it possible to experience how listening to the Word of God and our brothers and sisters can be woven together and how this dynamic gradually opens one up to listening to the voice of the Spirit” (p.24). Which means that the People of God receive a divine communication that can enlighten the Church.

And further: “Thanks to the guidance of the Spirit, the People of God, as sharers in the prophetic function of Christ (cf. LG 12),” (p.26) participate in the discernment of God’s plan today. “For this ecclesial task of discernment, the Holy Spirit bestows the sensus fidei, which can be described as ‘the instinctive capacity to discern the new ways that the Lord is revealing to the Church’ (Francis, Address for the 50th Anniversary of the Institution of the Synod of Bishops, 17 October 2015)” (p.26-27).

This description of synodality is the one found in the aforementioned text of the ITC, a text which only placed in precise theological categories the synodality of Francis, especially what he had described in his Address of October 17, 2015, given for the 50th anniversary of the institution of the Synod of bishops by Paul VI.

A second article will show the theological foundations of the synodal thought of Francis, now taken up by the Synod on Synodality, its roots in the Council, and the ecclesiological consequences which are set out in the IL of 2024.