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What is a Synod?

WINTER 2022

TWO THOUSAND YEARS AGO, with the number of the followers of Jesus rapidly increasing, the Apostles met (as we read in Acts of the Apostles) to discuss and clarify important issues faced by the nascent Church.

But the need for clarification didn’t end there. In the ensuing centuries, as the Christian faith continued to spread throughout the world, questions of doctrine and discipline had to be addressed often by the shepherds of the Church, gathered together and guided by the Holy Spirit. Such a gathering in the Church is called a synod – a word of Greek origin, meaning “meeting” or “assembly.” The most important synods in the Church’s history are called “ecumenical councils.”

Historically, synods have taken a number of forms. Some Church leaders have called synods only when there were pressing matters to discuss in the life of the Church. In other places and times, synods were held at regular intervals. Frequently, regional synods have included the participation of all of the bishops of a particular ecclesiastical province or region. On a diocesan level, local synods have sometimes been convoked by a bishop seeking the counsel of his closest collaborators, the priests of his diocese. St. Charles Borromeo, for example, who was the cardinal archbishop of Milan, regularly held synods in his archdiocese after the Ecumenical Council of Trent. The general purpose of a synod, whatever its form, has always been to help the shepherds of the Church in their task of leading Christ’s flock according to the truth as revealed in Scripture and Sacred Tradition.

In 1965, in response to the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, Pope St. Paul VI decided to establish a Synod of Bishops as a consultative body that could “offer more effective assistance to the supreme Shepherd” (Pope St. Paul VI, Apostolica Sollicitudo). Pope Paul hoped that the Synod of Bishops would “promote a closer union and greater cooperation between the Supreme Pontiff and the bishops of the whole world.” Moreover, to assist him in his responsibility of guiding the people of God, the pope desired that the Synod of Bishops would “see to it that accurate and direct information is supplied on matters and situations that bear upon the internal life of the Church and upon the kind of action that should be carrying on in today’s world.” Finally, with Christ, who prayed “that all of them may be one” (John 17:21), Pope Paul established the Synod of Bishops “to facilitate agreement, at least on essential matters of doctrine and on the course of action to be taken in the life of the Church.”

Since the establishment of the permanent Synod of Bishops by Pope St. Paul VI, the popes have convoked synods every few years to consider important subjects in the life of the Church. Like his predecessors, Pope Francis has convoked and presided over a number of synods in Rome and is now asking the entire people of God to assist him as he prepares to meet with representatives of the bishops of the world to discuss the topic of “synodality.”
 

Rev. Louis P. Masi, PhL, STL
Parochial Vicar, Sts. John and Paul and St. Augustine Parishes, Larchmont

For more information on the ongoing discernment period for Synod 2021 - 2023: For a Synodal Church,
see “The Road to Rome.”