“Love One Another”: Synodality and Diocesan Life

January 26, 2026 by Leave a Comment

Part One: Why Do We Need Synodality?

 

Last June, the General Secretariat of the Synod published the “Pathways for the Implementation Phase of the Synod.” This document, which the Holy Father Leo XIV approved, invites all local Churches to use the next three years to become familiar with the principles laid out by the Final Document of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops and to start embodying them in their lives and structures. Among other things, the pathways insist on the need to preserve the overall vision of the Final Document and to keep it as a constant point of reference (17–18). In this three-part series, I offer an analysis of the ordinary magisterium’s explanations regarding the nature of synodality, the reasons why it is important to emphasize it in our context, and some of the practices that are most relevant for diocesan life.1 In doing so, I focus especially on the many contributions of the late Pope Francis and the conclusion published by the Synod of Bishops. Furthermore, I draw on my active participation in the synod’s various phases in my diocese, my pastoral region, and the USCCB.

Given its focus on synodality and diocesan life, this series of essays leaves out the issues that emerged from the synod that involve the whole Church and require time for careful in-depth study, discernment, and decision.2 On these topics, the work of the Pope, the College of Bishops, the relevant Dicasteries of the Roman Curia, and the Synod of Bishops itself continues. To that end, Francis instituted ten Study Groups that Leo XIV has so far confirmed and expanded with the task to consider some of the theological and canonical questions that emerged during the synodal journey. For example, the study groups are reflecting on possible reforms to the document governing the formation of future priests and Canon Law. Furthermore, they have also enlisted experts and pastors from around the world to study some theological questions regarding episcopal ministry, evangelization, ecumenism, social justice, the access of women to the diaconate, and more.3 The goal of the creation of such groups is not to put decisions off forever but to embody a synodal style in the way the Church’s magisterial authority, in general, and the Petrine ministry, in particular, are exercised.4 As mentioned, I am omitting these themes to highlight how synodality’s theology, spirituality, and practices can be embodied in diocesan life during the synod’s implementation phase.

To do so, I pay special attention to the Final Document of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, since Francis decided to accept it and make it part of the “ordinary Magisterium of the Successor of Peter.”5 The document contains an “authoritative orientation for the Church’s life and mission” but is not “strictly normative.”6 Accordingly, we must understand its theological, spiritual, and practical insights so that they may be used to inform the life of the local Church. Overall, the Final Document is “a gift to the whole faithful People of God” and “what it contains [should be made] accessible in the local churches.”7 The goal is to help all the faithful understand what synodality is, start embodying the ideals it calls us to, and “implement, in their different contexts, the authoritative proposals contained”8 in the Final Document. In particular, as Francis emphasized in his accompanying note,9 to make choices that are consistent with the Final Document’s principles and proposals entails living to the fullest what is already part of the Church’s law but has not been realized effectively yet.

Furthermore, synodality requires a process of conversion to eliminate all obstacles to living the authentic communion with God and one another that the Gospel calls us to. This includes an openness to learning new ways of making decisions together, on the one hand, and finding new creative ways to engage in missionary action, on the other hand. Francis expressed a desire to let “what has matured over these years through listening and discernment” be “welcomed and received.”10 Pope Leo XIV has echoed the same sentiment by pointing to the importance of growing in synodality, the “ecclesial word” that describes God’s desire for us to live as one, loving as Christ loves.11 The beginning of the implementation phase gives us a chance to act on these desires by beginning the process of embodying synodality in diocesan life.

Why Do We Need Synodality?

In a now famous address commemorating the 50th anniversary of the institution of the Synod of Bishops, Francis expressed his judgment that the path of synodality is what “God expects of the Church of the third millennium.”12 Such a commitment to synodality is connected to Francis’s way of understanding the “epochal change”13 in which we find ourselves. The reasons for the profound changes we experience are many but, among them, Francis often emphasizes two.

First, the epochal change we experience is characterized by rapid technological and scientific advances that find quick application in various aspects of our existence and environment (Evangelii Gaudium, no. 52). We are in the data age, where social media, algorithms, machine learning, and the internet of things are becoming ubiquitous. We risk “becoming rich in technology and poor in humanity.”14 There are amazing possibilities in the digital revolution, but also many dangers that bring with them social problems and pathologies. We are facing a situation in which, “by proposing to overcome every limit through technology, in an obsessive desire to control everything, we risk losing control over ourselves; in the quest for an absolute freedom, we risk falling into the spiral of a ‘technological dictatorship.’”15 The “technocratic paradigm inspired by a […] presumption of self-sufficiency” threatens to lead us to a world in which “inequalities could grow out of proportion, knowledge and wealth accumulate in the hands of a few, and grave risks ensue for democratic societies and peaceful coexistence.”16

Furthermore, there is a profound link between the technocratic paradigm that flattens everything to its usability and what Francis refers to as the “throwaway culture” in which all things and people are disposable that is so prevalent today (Evangelii Gaudium, no. 52).17 It is a mentality “in which everything has a price, everything can be bought, everything is negotiable. This way of thinking has room only for a select few, while it discards all those who are unproductive.”18 It creates a “globalization of indifference” (Evangelii Gaudium, no. 54) that hides and forgets the pleas of the most vulnerable, such as the unborn, the poor, and the elderly. Finally, as the Final Document explains, the digital environment has a massive impact “on learning processes, concentration, the perception of self and the world, and the building of interpersonal relationships. […] Although digital media has great potential to improve our lives, it can also cause harm and injury through bullying, misinformation, sexual exploitation and addiction” (Final Document, no. 149).

Second, Francis teaches that the epochal change is marked by the fact that “we have moved from a Christianity located within a welcoming social framework to a ‘minority’ Christianity, or better, a Christianity of witness.”19 Especially in the West, we do not live in societies in which faith shapes “the lives of peoples and their political institutions.”20 Today, “the question of God seems to be retreating as people become increasingly indifferent to [God’s] presence and [God’s] word.”21 As a result, we face an ambivalent context. On the one hand, “we are immersed in a culture marked by a refusal to seek the truth. We have lost the ardent passion for searching,” and we take refuge in the idea that “all things are equal, everything is the same, [and] everything is relative.” We live in a “permanent state of uncertainty, lacking all passion, as if the search for meaning were useless and reality were incomprehensible.”22 On the other hand, “we run the risk of falling once again into a ‘soulless rationalism’” that considers as true “only those things that can be measured, tested by experiment, and touched, as if life were uniquely restricted to what is material and visible.” Yet, in such circumstances, we often settle for superficial lives that eliminate the presence of wonder, constrain our reason, and make it difficult to take on the challenge of pursuing “the hidden truth that addresses the fundamental [human] questions.”23

Clearly, the epochal change we face has not left the Church and the faith untouched. Francis recognizes that the digital revolution and secularism have “created enormous difficulties: from the loss of a sense of belonging to the Christian community, to indifference regarding faith and its content,”24 to experiences of “loneliness and marginalization even though we are more connected than ever” (Final Document, no. 113).

Yet, Francis exhorts us, we “must not lose heart.”25 Even the crisis can be “a valuable opportunity” because it pushes us “to return to what is essential, namely the Gospel.”26 And the good news brought by Christ, the Word Incarnate, still has a chance to encounter and transform today’s men and women. In fact, amid all the reductions, difficulties, and confusions caused by the current situation, “the human heart is always searching for a truth that can feed and satisfy its desire for happiness. We cannot be satisfied by human words alone, the thinking of this world and earthly judgments. We always need a light from on high to illuminate our steps, living water that can quench the thirst of the deserts of the soul, consolation that does not disappoint because it comes from heaven and not from the fleeting things of this world.”27 According to Francis, the big challenge for the Church today is not so much the environment in which we live. It is to “overcome the rupture that has occurred in the transmission of faith.”28 “Christ,” he reflects, “is the unifying center of all reality, he is the answer to all human questions, he is the fulfilment of every desire for happiness, goodness, love and eternity present in the human heart.”29

Amid the epochal change, we need witnesses who announce “the presence of God in every nation and culture, meeting the aspirations for love and truth, for justice and happiness that belong to the human heart and that beat in the lives of peoples.”30 In fact, it is important to realize that even “non-believers or those who have distanced themselves from religious practice are not strangers to the search for truth, justice and solidarity. Often,” he continues, “even if they do not belong to any religion, they carry in their hearts a great thirst, a search for meaning, which leads them to ponder the mystery of life and to seek out core values for the common good.”31 Thus, as Francis taught in his last encyclical (which, notably, he published while the Synod of Bishops was in session), even today it is possible for people to stop running after “superficial satisfactions and playing a role for the benefit of others […] [and start thinking] about the really important questions in life [instead]. Who am I, really? What am I looking for? What direction do I want to give to my life, my decisions and my actions? Why and for what purpose am I in this world?” (Dilexit Nos, no. 8).

Here are the pressing questions the Church faces today: what can help people get back in touch with their authentic humanity by rescuing them from all their distractions and reductions? What can make people lift up their eyes from their screens or pause the noises in their ears? Francis has given a precise answer to these questions from the very beginning of his pontificate: “to be transmitted,” he explains, “faith in the risen Lord, which is the heart of evangelization, requires […] an encounter with Jesus Christ [that transforms our lives]. Without this encounter, real and existential, we will always be subject to the temptation to make faith a theory and not a testimony of life.”32 We must become credible witnesses who show that, as Francis teaches, Christianity does not consist in a “series of prohibitions that stifle the desire for happiness, but in a life project capable of bringing fulfillment to every human heart.”33 As his beautiful Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium states, the Church must go back to the kerygma, the first essential announcement of “God’s saving love which precedes any moral and religious obligation on our part” (Evangelii Gaudium, no. 165). Such an announcement “should not impose the truth but appeal to freedom; it should be marked by joy, encouragement, liveliness and a harmonious balance which will not reduce preaching to a few doctrines which are at times more philosophical than evangelical” (Evangelii Gaudium, no. 165). Furthermore, it is an announcement that demands “certain attitudes which foster openness to the message: approachability, readiness for dialogue, patience, a warmth and welcome which is non-judgmental” (Evangelii Gaudium, no. 165). Francis constantly reminds us that “this is the message capable of responding to the desire for the infinite which abides in every human heart” (Evangelii Gaudium, no. 165).

Given the contemporary situation, Francis often says that he dreams of a Church that lets herself be guided by “a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channeled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation” (Evangelii Gaudium, no. 27).

We live in a context in which “the good news that Jesus brought to the world must once again be proclaimed to all and allowed to shine forth in all its beauty.”34 Given the current state of things, faith cannot be taken for granted anymore or simply passed on by osmosis thanks to the help of a broader Christian culture. The Church must become an evangelizing community that goes forth. We must become a community that “knows that the Lord has taken the initiative, he has loved us first (cf. 1 John 4:19), and therefore we can move forward, boldly take the initiative, go out to others, seek those who have fallen away, stand at the crossroads and welcome the outcast” (Evangelii Gaudium, no. 24). It is a community that shows the Father’s infinite mercy, gets involved in people’s daily lives, and accompanies them along the way, even if it is a difficult and long process (Evangelii Gaudium, no. 24).

It is in light of these judgments that Francis summoned the whole Church to a multi-year process of discernment and learning focused on synodality. He did it because he thought that a more synodal Church that gives greater space to communion, participation, and mission — as the synod’s full title states — is essential to remain true to the Church’s nature and task in the present moment. Synodality is a style and a method of living the Church’s life and mystery that fits with the particular difficulties we experience today. Synodality does not involve changing “traditional truths of Christian doctrine;” instead, it is concerned with “how teaching can be lived and applied in the changing contexts of our times.”35 The synodal journey has helped the Church reflect on how to embody more fully our Christian commitments so that we may face today’s challenges. As Pope Leo XIV explains, a synodal Church is one that “walks the path traced by history while confronting the emerging challenges of evangelization.”36 It is a Church that renews herself continually by looking at the current circumstances and discerning how the Holy Spirit is calling all Christians to be credible witnesses of the Risen Lord.

 

Editor’s Note: This essay is the first installment of three on synodality and diocesan life.

  1. Deciding to focus on the document of the magisterium means that I do not engage directly with the many scholars who have described and meditated upon synodality in the past few years. To represent some of the numerous books on the subject, I would point readers to Kristin M. Colberg and Jos Moons, The Future of Synodality: How We Move Forward from Here (Liturgical Press, 2025). Marc Ouellet, Word, Sacrament, Charism: The Risks and Opportunities of a Synodal Church (Ignatius Press, 2025). Timothy Radcliffe, Listening Together: Meditations on Synodality (Liturgical Press, 2024). Anthony Fisher, Unity in Christ: Bishops, Synodality, and Communion (Catholic University of America Press, 2023). Rafael Luciani, Synodality: A New Way of Proceeding in the Church (Paulist Press, 2022). Furthermore, diverse and reputable journals have devoted entire issues to the topic. For example, see Journal of Moral Theology 13, Special Issue no. 2 (2024), Theological Studies 84, no. 1 (2023), The Thomist 87, no. 2 (2023), and Communio: International Catholic Review 48, no. 4 (2021). ↩
  2. Francis, “Final Greeting to the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops,” Sunday, October 26, 2024. ↩
  3. For a full list of the Study Groups, see Final Document, no. 8. Their members, with the exception of Group 6, are listed by the General Secretariat of the Synod here. Francis officially established them with the “Chirograph on the Collaboration Between the Dicasteries of the Roman Curia and the General Secretariat of the Synod,” February 16, 2024. The Pope entrusted the role of coordinating their work to the General Secretariat of the Synod in his “Letter to His Eminence Cardinal Mario Grech,” February 22, 2024. Finally, the General Secretariat of the Synod explained in detail the task and methodology of the Study Groups in the document “Study Groups for Questions Raised in the First Session of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops To Be Explored in Collaboration with the Dicasteries of the Roman Curia,” March 14, 2024. ↩
  4. Francis, “Final Greeting.” ↩
  5. Francis, “Accompanying Note,” in XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops Final Document, 3. ↩
  6. Francis, “Accompanying Note,” 3. ↩
  7. Francis, “Final Greeting.” ↩
  8. Francis, “Final Greeting.” ↩
  9. Francis, “Accompanying Note,” 3–4. ↩
  10. Francis, “Accompanying Note,” 3. ↩
  11. Leo XIV, “Homily for the Vigil of Pentecost During the Jubilee of Ecclesial Movements,” June 7, 2025. See also his “First Blessing Urbi et Orbi,” May 8, 2025, his “Address to the College of Cardinals,” May 10, 2025, his “Address for the Conclusion of the 81st General Assembly of the Italian Bishops’ Conference,” November 20, 2025, and his “Address for the Opening of the Extraordinary Consistory,” January 7, 2026. ↩
  12. Francis, “Address at the Ceremony Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Institution of the Synod of Bishops,” October 17, 2015. The International Theological Commission provided essential guidance on synodality’s meaning, history, and connection to revelation in the 2018 document Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church. ↩
  13. Francis uses this expression to describe the contemporary situation often. For a recent example, see his “Address to Participants of the Plenary Assembly of the Dicastery for Culture and Education,” November 21, 2024. ↩
  14. Francis, “Message for the 58th World Day of Social Communications: Artificial Intelligence and the Wisdom of the Heart,” January 24, 2025. ↩
  15. Francis, “Message for the 57th World Day of Peace: Artificial Intelligence and Peace,” January 1, 2024. ↩
  16. Francis, “Message for the 57th World Day of Peace.” For more on the connection between the epochal change and the development of the digital galaxy, see Francis, “Meeting With the Participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life,” February 28, 2020. ↩
  17. See also, Laudato Si, nos. 22, 115, and 123. ↩
  18. Francis, “Homily for the Holy Mass in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia,” July 9, 2015. ↩
  19. Francis, “Meeting With Bishops, Priests, Deacons, Consecrated Persons, Seminarians and Pastoral Workers in Brussels,” September 28, 2024. ↩
  20. Francis, “Address to the Conclusion of the Congress ‘La Religiosité Populaire en Méditerranée,’” December 15, 2024. ↩
  21. Francis, “Address to the Conclusion of the Congress ‘La Religiosité Populaire en Méditerranée.’” ↩
  22. Francis, “Meeting with University Professors at the Catholic University of Leuven,” September 27, 2024. ↩
  23. Francis, “Meeting with University Professors.” ↩
  24. Francis, “Address to the Participants in the Plenary Session of the Dicastery for Evangelization,” March 15, 2024. ↩
  25. Francis, “Address to the Participants in the Plenary Session of the Dicastery for Evangelization.” ↩
  26. Francis, “Meeting With Bishops, Priests, Deacons, Consecrated Persons, Seminarians and Pastoral Workers in Brussels.” ↩
  27. Francis, “Homily for the Holy Mass in Jakarta, Indonesia,” September 5, 2024. ↩
  28. Francis, “Address to the Participants in the Plenary Session of the Dicastery for Evangelization.” ↩
  29. Francis, “Address to the Members of Communion and Liberation,” October 15, 2022. ↩
  30. Francis, “Address to the Members of Communion and Liberation,” October 15, 2022. ↩
  31. Francis, “Address to the Conclusion of the Congress ‘La Religiosité Populaire en Méditerranée.’” ↩
  32. Francis, “Address to the Participants in the Plenary Session of the Dicastery for Evangelization.” ↩
  33. Francis, “Greeting to the Participants in the ‘Syro-Malabar Youth Leaders Conference,’” June 18, 2022. ↩
  34. Francis, “Meeting With Bishops, Priests, Deacons, Consecrated Persons, Seminarians and Pastoral Workers in Brussels.” ↩
  35. Francis, Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future (Simon & Schuster, 2020), 84–5. ↩
  36. Leo XIV, “Address for the Conclusion of the 81st General Assembly of the Italian Bishops’ Conference.” ↩
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Dr. Alessandro Rovati About Dr. Alessandro Rovati

Dr. Alessandro Rovati is Department Chair and Associate Professor of Theology at Belmont Abbey College, where he also serves as the Director of the Diaconal Formation Program. He is the Synod Coordinator for the Diocese of Charlotte, has led the association for early-career moral theologians New Wine New Wineskins, and now convenes “The Art and Practice of Teaching Theology” section of the College Theology Society. A member of the Journal of Moral Theology’s Editorial Board, Dr. Rovati’s scholarship focuses on Christian Ethics, Moral Theology, and Catholic Social Teaching, but his interests and writing go beyond those fields. His work has appeared, among others, in the Journal of Moral Theology, Newman Review, Quaestiones Disputatae, and the Church Life Journal.

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