Synod Final Document: Initial reactions

From the point of view of the lay apostolate and the lay apostolic movements

Synod participants (Credit: Synod.va)

Congratulations to the 350-odd participants in the Synod on Synodality for completing two long and intense sessions of work in 2023 and 2024.

The outcome of their work - the Synod Final Document - is now available in Italian, with a working translation into English:

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/19D4j5nLNKeFoprP9VYI0-fcLhZ4j4RaA

No doubt there are many angles to explore in the 28,000 word document. But let’s take a quick dive into it to see what it says about the role of lay people, their mission and vocation - their lay apostolate - and the role of the lay apostolic movements, the two themes that we have developed on this site over the last couple of years.

Word frequencies

Starting very simply by looking at a few word frequencies. The word “pope” appears 15 times and the word “papal” three times more. “Bishop” appears 98 times and the word episcopal another 28 times while “priest” appears 27 times.

In contrast, the word “laity” only appears twice while the adjective “lay” appears another 17 times. The word “nun” does not appear at all but there are 10 references to “consecrated life” in relation to both men and women.

On the other hand, there are 26 references to the “baptised,” emphasising the equality between all who form part of the Church.

Well, at the end of the day, a Synod is still a Synod of bishops, rather than an Assembly of the People of God such as the ones we’ve seen emerging in Latin America.

Still, given the Synod’s disavowal of “clericalism,” it’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that the Church is still an extremely clerically-centred institution! Lay people - the 99% - and consecrated religious thus inevitably take a more - ironically - peripheral role.

Ministry

Another word that’s very striking in its frequency in the Final Document is the word “ministry” and its variations (minister, etc.), which appear 108 times in the English translation and 98 times in the original Italian.

Almost all of these references to ministry relate to internal roles and functions in the Church - the Church ad intra, as it were.

There are only a couple of specific references to lay ministry. And these also relate to ad intra functions:

66. A missionary synodal Church would encourage more forms of lay ministries, that is, ministries that do not require the sacrament of Holy Orders, and this not only within the liturgical sphere.

77. The lay faithful, both men and women, should be given greater opportunities for participation, also exploring new forms of service and ministry in response to the pastoral needs of our time in a spirit of collaboration and differentiated co-responsibility. In particular, some concrete needs have emerged from the synodal process.

All this illustrates the fact that the Synod was overwhelmingly preoccupied with internal aspects, which is frankly quite surprising, given the Synod’s stated aim of promoting a missionary Church, which implies looking outward, ad extra.

The specifically lay role of lay people

Having said all of the above, the Final Document does contain some excellent passages affirming the role of lay people.

Thus, §66 insists that “mission involves all the baptised.” And it continues on to say that:

The first task of lay women and men is to permeate and transform earthly realities with the spirit of the Gospel (cf. LG 31.33; AA 5-7).

It continues:

At the behest of Pope Francis (cf. Apostolic Letter in the form of Motu Proprio Spiritus Domini, 10 January 2021), the synodal process urged local Churches to respond with creativity and courage to the needs of the mission.

But why then does the rest of §66 go on to speak about “charisms” and “ministries,” even if they are “lay ministries”?

This response should involve a form of discernment among the various charisms in order to identify which of these should take a ministerial form and thus be equipped with adequate criteria, tools and procedures. Not all charisms need to be configured as ministries, nor do all the baptized need to become ministers, nor do all ministries need to be instituted. For a charism to be configured as a ministry, the community must identify a genuine pastoral need. This should be accompanied by a discernment carried out by the pastor who, together with the community, will make a decision on whether there is a need to create a new ministry. As a result of this process, the competent authority reaches a decision. A missionary synodal Church would encourage more forms of lay ministries, that is, ministries that do not require the sacrament of Holy Orders, and this not only within the liturgical sphere. They can be instituted or not instituted. Further reflection should be given to the most effective way of bestowing lay ministries at a time when people move from one place to another with increasing ease, specifying the times and areas of their exercise. 

It’s as if the underlying thinking is that those “earthly realities” will only be permeated and transformed provided that the Church identifies enough charisms and organised enough ministries!

Fortunately, this is not the whole story! §58 and §59 do in fact spell out the lay vocation more clearly albeit without specifically naming it as such:

58. Each baptised person, man or woman, responds to missionary needs in the contexts in which they live and work, according to their dispositions and abilities. This demonstrates the freedom of the Spirit in bestowing God’s gifts. Owing to this dynamism in the Spirit, the People of God, listening to the reality in which they live, discover new forms of commitment and new ways to fulfil their mission. Christians, each according to their diverse roles - within the family and other states of life; in the workplace and in their professions; engaged civilly, politically, socially or ecologically; in the development of a culture inspired by the Gospel, including the evangelisation of the digital environment - walk the paths of the world according to their life situations and proclaim the Gospel, sustained by the gifts of the Spirit. 

This does indeed reflect the vision of Lumen Gentium §31-33 much more closely. Strangely, however, it avoids mentioning the term “lay people,” i.e. the 99% who live in families, work in workplaces and professions, etc.! Nor does the term “lay apostolate” - the chosen term of Vatican II - rate even a single mention in the whole document!

There’s an almost-reference to the see-judge-act, recognising the need for people to “listen to the reality in which they live” and and to find “new ways to fulfil their mission,” i.e. act, although oddly it misses out the judge or discern stage!

§59 is also important - perhaps the most important of all - recognising the need for the Church to sustain people in their mission in life.

59. In doing so, they ask the Church not to abandon them but rather to enable them to understand that they are sent and sustained in mission. They ask to be nourished by the bread of the Word and the Eucharist, as well as by the familial bonds of the community. They ask that their commitment be recognised for what it is: Church action in light of the Gospel, and not merely a personal choice. Lastly, they ask the community to accompany those who, through their witness, have been drawn to the Gospel. In a missionary synodal Church, under the leadership of their pastors, communities will be able to send people out in mission and support those they have sent. Communities will, therefore, see themselves as primarily devoted to the service of a mission that the faithful carry out within society, in family and working life. They will, therefore, not remain focused exclusively on the activities that take place within their own communities and upon their own organisational needs.

Yes, this is indeed necessary and a very welcome affirmation by the Synod!

The role of lay apostolic movements

Again, strangely, however, there is no reference in §59 to any particular role of any of the lay apostolic movements that for the last century have sought to sustain lay people in their role in the world.

In fact, there are only six references in the Final Document to the role of “movements.”

True, §7 does recognise that “the simplest but most precious fruits (of synodality) mature in the life of families, parishes, movements, small Christian communities, schools and other movements.”

§9 also insists on the need to “continue their daily journey” with those communities and movements “with a synodal methodology of consultation and discernment.”

Similarly, §65 recognises that “associations, movements and new communities, all have a special contribution to make to the growth of synodality in the Church.”

But it also adds a word of warning to those groups not to remain isolated;

At the same time, synodality invites - and sometimes challenges – pastors of local Churches, as well as those responsible for leadership in consecrated life and in the movements, to strengthen relationships in order to bring to life an exchange of gifts at the service of the common mission.

Sure, movement leaders do indeed need to work on building relationships with the whole Church and avoid isolating themselves or turning into sects.

Finally, §118 does explicitly highlight the role that those groups and movements can play:

We recognise that institutes of consecrated life, societies of apostolic life, as well as associations, movements and new communities, have the ability to take root locally and, at the same time, connect different places and environments, often at a national or international level. Their action, together with that of many individuals and informal groups, often brings the Gospel to highly diverse contexts: hospitals, prisons, homes for the elderly, reception centres for migrants, minors, those marginalised and victims of violence; to centres of education and training, schools and universities where young people and families meet; the arenas of culture and politics and of integral human development, where new forms of living together are imagined and constructed.

Conclusion

In the end, the Final Document does de facto recognise the lay apostolate lauded by the Vatican II documents Lumen Gentium and Apostolicam Actuositatem, albeit without naming it, and it does endorse the role of the lay apostolic movements.

But if the Church is to become a community of genuinely missionary lay disciples and apostles acting ad extra for the transformation of the world in the light of the Gospel then that needs to be the focus.

Perhaps the next Synod…

Stefan Gigacz