Synod reform aims to enhance collegiality

November 05, 2013

The Synod of Bishops will undergo changes so that it can be “a real and effective instrument of communion which through the collegiality called for by the Second Vatican Council is expressed and realized,” the secretary-general of the Synod told a November 5 press conference.

Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri, who was selected by Pope Francis to head the office of the Synod, said that the goal of reforms will be to ensure that the Synod “adequately fulfills its mission to promote episcopal collegiality, cum Petro et sub Petro, in the governance of the Church.”

The reform in the Synod, the archbishop said, will involve changes “of both a structural and methodological nature.” While he did not provide details of the Pope’s plans, he said that the Holy Father is determined to enhance the role of the Synod as a means of giving the world’s bishops an active voice in establishing priorities and setting policies for the universal Church.

 

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Further information:

• Presentation of the Preparatory Document for the Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod on Pastoral Challenges for the Family (VIS)
• The Synod is changing (L'Osservatore Romano)