This ten-chapter introduction to synodality was originally written in Spanish by Rafael Luciani, a lay theologian and professor at both Boston College and the Catholic University in Venezuela. The book offers more background to readers interested in understanding the changed format of the Synod of Bishops, as it has currently been organized from 2021 to 2024. During the first session of the synodal assembly, which met in Rome in October 2023 on the theme “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission,” for the first time in the history of the Catholic Church, a substantial delegation of laypeople had been appointed synod delegates with full voting rights.
The most important source of inspiration for the author is the current pope, not only at the moment when he explicitly started to invite the Catholic Church to become a synodal church, but already in foundational writings such as Evangelii Gaudium. Together with Pope Francis, Luciani also insists that synodality requires a particular interpretation of the ecclesiology of Vatican II in which all the faithful—and in first instance the hierarchy—are willing to learn from the other members of the people of God. The author contrasts this focus on the people of God in the current stage of reception of Vatican II with the limited openness toward collegiality of bishops in the interpretive note that was added to Lumen Gentium’s chapter on the hierarchy and to the focus on hierarchical communion during the 1985 anniversary synod. For a healthier interpretation of Lumen Gentium, the author refers a lot to the contributions of two Belgian bishops, Cardinal Suenens with his emphasis on co-responsibility, and Bishop De Smedt with his early warnings against clericalism. Luciani does not seem to be aware, however, that the latter’s 1962 book, The Priesthood of the Faithful, was the result of a “collegial” effort within a subcommission of the Secretariat for Christian Unity.
Embracing a culture of synodality requires a twofold reconfiguration of the church. From the first prudent steps toward “episcopal collegiality” at Vatican II, the Catholic Church had to enter into a long learning process of “synodal collegiality” with many meetings of bishops at national, regional, continental, and universal levels. The new reconfiguration that is needed today requires another move toward “synodal ecclesiality.” Decision-making in the church at all levels, as Luciani argues together with the 2018 document of the International Theological Commission on synodality, involves the circularity of “all,” “some,” and “one” in the church, or the creation of an “ecclesial we” (according to a favorite expression from Serena Noceti).
This book also makes us aware how the Catholic Church in Latin America has been and remains a forerunner in this new mode of being a church. The Latin American Bishops Council (CELAM) had already been practicing collegiality since its creation in 1955. Pope Francis played an important role in the Aparecida assembly of 2007, which called for a greater role of the laity even in decision-taking processes in the church. In the concluding chapter of the book, Luciani shows that the worldwide Catholic Church can continue to find inspiration in Latin America through several examples. In his own native country, Venezuela, a ten-year Plenary Council had been celebrated in which only one-fifth of the members had been bishops. CELAM received its new structure in 2018, which is fully based on “shared discernment and deliberation.” Since 2020 the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon is functioning, which, as its name indicates, is a body in which laity and ordained are fully involved in “joint processes of discernment and decision-making.” The church in Latin America hopefully also will be able to provide orientation to the Catholic Church on other continents regarding to become a church of and not just for the poor, which is another hallmark of a synodal church that is attentive to the sensus fidei.
This book is definitely one of the best introductions to synodality written by contemporary Roman Catholic ecclesiologists. It will be appreciated by a wide audience of academic and nonacademic readers.
