@rodrigocuriel
October 26, 2026
How have you understood synodality?
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13 Comments
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Well how it is handled here in Germany with the Synodal Way? Straight up heretical. But synodality to me is understood as bishops hearing out the faithful and their needs might be and HE is responsible for the decision making ALONE and has to be in line with church law and her official teachings, NOT having lay people interfere in ecclesiastical matters which would alter the authority of the episcopate. God bless!
Like many things in the Church, I think some things are initiated with good intent with an idea that sounds good on paper, but in practice gets thrown off course by people with their own agendas or personal misguidedness
@gabrielstcharles that’s very much true. On paper, many things sound cool and orthodox but in practice modernists take advantage of the good and turn it bad when it shouldn’t be.
I understand it as a revolutionary concept which is meant to be. Isn’t the basic idea of Synodality already condemned by St. Pius X in Paschendi? l
While not exactly what Pius X condemned(he condemned modernism), I can understand why you see it that way. I also very much disagree with it, simply because it’s another attempt to restore an “early church practice” but isn’t implemented exactly how the early church practiced it, which is something that Pius XII condemns on his encyclical Mediator Dei as senseless Antiquaranism.
Absolutely not working. The intentions are probably good for most people involved in it, but in my own country and other countries in my area (such as Germany) it's having very bad effects. The bishop should always stick to his task of guiding the people, not the other way around.
In my country Germany it is purely heretical, for it seeks to change more than just church structures, such as blessing same sex marriages, abolishing mandatory priest celibacy, bringing women into the priesthood and so many more terrifying things. I hope that it never goes through here.
@rafn04 Agreed! It's honestly a miracle that I still know many German churches that actually stick to the faith and the Sacraments.
@misericordia That’s true. I am in the Archdiocese of Cologne in a parish which is conservative catholic for the most part. I am slowly drifting towards an FSSP parish.
@rafn04 Very understandable, I'm going to a TLM parish or a conservative parish too when I can.
In my diocese (in Mexico) the bishop has written his pastoral plan and his pastoral priorities based on meetings called pastoral assemblies. Each year many lays and priests meet to talk about it. I have noticed that they are becoming more attuned to participating in the Church. But I have not seen significant progress
I think Synodality is best understood in Eastern Catholicism and our sister Eastern Churches. Their Synods literally elect their Patriarch who is the head of their sui iuris Church and run affairs synodally through the bishops of their region
The misunderstanding here starts from the loud anti v2 propaganda and the heterodoxy of many members of the clergy (looking at Germany) but synodality at its core has always been part of the church.
Synodality is, participating, according to their proper roles, in the Church’s life and mission, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and in communion with the pope and bishops.
The issue stems from trying to shoehorn democratic, congregationional and parliamentary structures inside it. The church had always functioned by each member doing what their role should and must do. Once we start to try to modify these roles we blur the lines between them and the whole structure falls apart. But at its very core the church has always been synodal. And synodality when properly applied is a very orthodox thing
Synodality is, participating, according to their proper roles, in the Church’s life and mission, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and in communion with the pope and bishops.
The issue stems from trying to shoehorn democratic, congregationional and parliamentary structures inside it. The church had always functioned by each member doing what their role should and must do. Once we start to try to modify these roles we blur the lines between them and the whole structure falls apart. But at its very core the church has always been synodal. And synodality when properly applied is a very orthodox thing