The purpose was to reflect on the experience of the synod so far against the broad canvas of synodality in the tradition of religious orders, in recent asssemblies held at the level of continents (Latin America), nations (Australia) and dioceses (Liverpool), and in the light of the call by Pope Francis to a synodal conversion at every level of the Church.
Synodality is an ancient principle of church governance involving participation and consultation of all the faithful people in the processes of discernment and decision-taking. Pope Francis has said the recovery of this principle is what God expects of the Church of the third millennium.
The symposium takes place early in the global process initiated by Pope Francis last October that calls together the entire Catholic world for a two-year (2021-23) journey of gathering, listening, and discerning under the title, “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission.”
The opening keynote, “A synodal Church is a listening Church”, was given by Cardinal Mario Grech, the secretary-general of the Synod of Bishops in Rome, who argued that even in the waning of synodality in the second millennium the principle that authoritative teaching required first consulting the faith of the people (sensus fidei fidelium) was never wholly lost. The full keynote can be watched here.
Flying in from Italy was Fr Giacomo Costa SJ, an expert in synodal processes of synthesis and discernment, while Mauricio López, a key organizer of the Amazonian synod and the recent Latin-American ecclesial assembly, came from Ecuador. The canon lawyer Fr Alphonse Borras, arrived from Belgium. Professor Miriam Wijlens, Professor of Canon Law at the University of Erfurt, spoke by Zoom. The religious-order tradition of synodal governance was laid out by the Abbot President of the English Benedictine Congregation, Fr Christopher Jamison OSB, by the Master of Campion Hall, Fr Nicholas Austin SJ, and over Zoom by Sister Jane Livesey of the Congregation of Jesus in Rome.
‘The Road to a Synodal Church’ was coordinated by Dr Austen Ivereigh, Fellow in Contemporary Church History at Campion Hall, who spoke of Pope Francis’s dream of an “entirely synodal Church”. The symposium brought together more than 40 participants and speakers, who took part in three mutual listening plenaries held alongside the sessions, which were facilitated by Danny Curtin. The process enabled a deep listening both to invited speakers and to those involved in organising synodal processes at national, continental and diocesan levels.
Afterwards, Dr Ivereigh said: “People were delighted not just to talk about synodality but to experience it, and to see how it can become part of the modus vivendi et operandi of the Church. There was a real desire afterwards to help make this happen, that this was the start of something important.”
Dr Ivereigh said he saw the “The road to a synodal Church” as the title not just of the symposium but of a wider Campion Hall project going forward. “People said at the end: we need this kind of formation and encouragement; please let’s continue this. We in turn promised to reflect on the experience, to consider ways in which Campion Hall can support the Church in England and Wales in its journey of synodal conversion.”
Interviews with participants and recordings from the symposium are available on the London Jesuit Centre website.
