Synod on Synodality: The Vatican Modifies the Rules

The Synod's General Assembly on Synodality will be held in two sessions, in October 2023 and October 2024. On April 26, synod officials released a question-and-answer sheet on attendees of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops and how they will be chosen.

The most significant change announced on Wednesday is the removal of the “auditor” role. In previous synods, the auditors included priests, religious, and laity, who did not have the right to vote during the deliberations of the synod, which, it must be remembered, is a synod “of bishops” according to its constitution since Pope Paul VI.

From now on, these 70 members: priests, consecrated women, deacons, or lay people, will be able to vote. They will be chosen by the pope from a list of 140 people selected by the leaders of the continental synodal meetings this year. It is requested that “50% [of those selected] be women and that the presence of young people should also be emphasized.”

“It is a change, but not a revolution,” Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the synod's general rapporteur, told reporters during a meeting on April 26 to explain the changes. About 21 percent of the attendees, expected to number 370, will be non-bishops, Msgr. Hollerich explained.

Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, said the non-bishop participants “are witnesses to the memory of the process, the itinerary, and the discernment that began two years ago.” He explained that the presidents of the recent continental assemblies, and the leaders of the Eastern Catholic Churches, will each submit a list of 20 people, 10 men and 10 women. Pope Francis will choose 10 members from these lists.

“The synod will remain a synod of bishops, he added, but the participation of other people enriches the whole Church.” The process for electing bishops representing different countries will remain broadly the same. There will also be non-voting participants: experts, facilitators, and fraternal delegates from non-Catholic faiths.

The norms governing the synod of bishops were updated by Pope Francis in 2018 in the apostolic constitution Episcopalis Communio. According to the Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, the norms continue to be based on Episcopalis Communio “with some modifications and novelties in the composition of the assembly and the types of participants.”

The document published by the Secretariat explains that “the synodal process is at the same time an act of the entire People of God and of their pastors.… It is from this perspective that we must understand the decision of the Holy Father to maintain the specifically episcopal nature of the assembly convened in Rome, while not limiting its composition to bishops alone.”

It still seems difficult to understand that an episcopal assembly is now open to non-bishops, including lay people of both sexes. Of course, the synod of bishops dates from Paul VI and is not by divine right. But this development is dangerous for at least three reasons.

First, it opens a door that could soon become wide open; further, it mixes with the episcopal authority lay people or even clerics who do not possess this authority, diluting it and relativizing it. Finally, it is a concession to the spirit of the Synodal Path which is spreading everywhere.