In April 2022, in preparation for the Synod, the Costanza Scelfo Institute for Women and Laypeople in the Church, a department of the Italian Society for Theological Research (SIRT), organized a conference on the theme “Synodality: The People of God?” at the Pontifical Theological Faculty Marianum, in synergy with the “Woman and Christianity” Chair. The proceedings of this conference were published by Il Pozzo di Giacobbe.
In writing the preface, I proposed a preliminary list of what I consider the cornerstones of synodality. I have developed these points in the book “Synodality and Reform of the Church” (San Paolo, 2023).
I propose ten themes for discussion and reflection:
1. Before being a style and method, synodality expresses the identity of the Church, originally understood as gathering/assembly.
2. In this gathering, every believer possesses their own gift (charisma) aimed at the growth of the body of Christ.
3. It is essential to rediscover and discern the potestas (authority) and exousia (capacity) that characterize each gift, and shape it as royalty/priesthood/prophecy.
4. The presence of the Spirit and each person’s unique gift (charisma) necessitate the participation of everyone in the processes of receiving, confessing, transmitting, elaborating, celebrating the faith, and the operational decisions that follow.
5. It is essential to abandon any hierarchical, androcentric, or sacral criteria, accepting the challenge of the convergence/symphony of gifts to allow for their authoritative translation into ministries. This requires implementing discernment criteria aimed at the shared recognition of each person’s competence.
6. We must break free from clericalism and the dichotomous asymmetries of male/female and clergy/laity. This calls for rethinking ministry outside the worldly and violent logics of power, reclaiming it as mutual service (diakonia).
7. As an image of the Trinity and called to share in its life, all Churches must bear witness to the nature of communion and affirm the principle of interrelation as constitutive of the mystery of God and of His creatures.
8. Synodality is inter-relational operationality, which is adaptable to ever-new forms, yet always rooted in the original “walking together” that characterizes all men and women, believers and non-believers alike.
9. It becomes a form of subsidiarity, which opens itself to the global planetary ecosystem of which we all are a part.
10. It describes the Churches as vigilant interpreters of the “signs of the times”, both in the ongoing conversion of individuals and in the necessary and permanent reform of its structures.
This decalogue is not exhaustive. It serves merely as a provocative invitation to reflection. Many pressing themes and open questions remain. Discernment, charisms, baptismal subjectivity, authority, ministry, and more intersect with the inescapable issue of a reform of the Church that is only possible through a synodal, fraternal, and sisterly interrelation.
by Cettina Militello
Theologian, Vice-President of the Foundation Accademia Via Pulchritudinis ETS.