Pope Leo: Hope for an ecclesial synodality rooted in Christ

By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio - articles - email ) | Jun 20, 2025

As a great many people have observed, under Pope Francis, the concept of synodality morphed into a constant and universal input process, with apparently everybody welcome. That approach was excessively institutionalized and bureaucratized, remarkably costly, and largely a waste of time as it frequently replaced unified and effective Catholic action with special pleading for more “inclusive” redefinitions of Catholic teaching. The whole process seemed to be characterized by an institutional and moral paralysis that actually impeded the Church’s mission.

Fortunately, there are at least hints that Pope Leo XIV wishes to take advantage of whatever energy might still be harnessed through synodality to foster a comprehensive Catholic commitment to evangelization, as inspired through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Returning to the root meaning of “synod” as “a way together”, Pope Leo has emphasized that this way together is in fact imparted to the Church and all her members by the Holy Spirit. Consider a few extracts from his homily on the vigil of Pentecost:

At Pentecost, Mary, the Apostles, and the disciples with them received a Spirit of unity, which forever grounded in the one Lord Jesus Christ all their diversity. Theirs were not multiple missions, but a single mission. They were no longer introverted and quarrelling with one another, but outgoing and radiant with joy….

On the evening of my election, moved as I looked out at the people of God gathered here, I spoke of “synodality,” a word that aptly expresses how the Spirit shapes the Church. That word begins with the Greek word syn—meaning “with”—which speaks of the secret of God’s life. God is not solitary. God, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is a “with” in himself, and God with us. At the same time, the word “synodality” speaks to us of a road ahead—hodós—for where there is the Spirit, there is movement, a journey to be made. We are a people on the move. This does not set us apart but unites us to humanity like the yeast in a mass of dough, which causes it to rise….

Dear friends, God created the world so that we might all live as one. “Synodality” is the ecclesial name for this. It demands that we each recognize our own poverty and our riches, that we feel part of a greater whole, apart from which everything withers, even the most original and unique of charisms…. The Spirit of Jesus changes the world because he changes hearts….

Evangelization, dear brothers and sisters, is not our attempt to conquer the world, but the infinite grace that radiates from lives transformed by the Kingdom of God. It is the way of the Beatitudes, a path that we tread together, between the “already” and the “not yet,” hungering and thirsting for justice, poor in spirit, merciful, meek, pure of heart, men and women of peace. Jesus himself chose this path: to follow it, we have no need of powerful patrons, worldly compromises, or emotional strategies. Evangelization is always God’s work. If at times it takes place through us, it is thanks to the bonds that it makes possible. So be deeply attached to each of the particular Churches and parish communities in which you cultivate and exercise your charisms. Together with the bishops and in cooperation with all the other members of the Body of Christ, all of us will then work together harmoniously as one. The challenges facing humanity will be less frightening, the future will be less dark and discernment will be less complicated…if together we obey the Holy Spirit!

True Synodality

I used to explain “synodality” as “the Church firing on all cylinders”—an over-simplified mechanistic phrase which, in our day, is fairly easy to understand. But under Pope Francis it gradually took the shape of the Church trying to find guidance by consulting with all available earthly interest groups. In the last pontificate, it seemed that the more synodality was stressed, the less it was understood, and the more it produced ecclesiastical stagnation.

I quoted Pope Leo’s recent homily at length because it is extraordinarily refreshing after a prolonged drought. Leo’s comments are neither a complaint against particular groups of deeply committed Catholics nor an emphasis on favoring more marginal Catholics who are demanding ecclesiastical changes. These comments do not insist on getting input to shape the Church’s mission from every conceivable group under the sun. Nor do we find here any sort of cloak for the universal inclusion of those who refuse to “repent and believe the gospel” (Mt 1:15).

Quite the opposite: This homily shifts the entire discussion back to the root meaning of “synod”, which is “a way together”; and it identifies that “way together” as arising not from human discussion but from the impetus of the Holy Spirit whom Christ promised would be sent in His own name by the Father precisely “to bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (Jn 14:26). What Pope Leo is beginning to emphasize—and what was so often neglected by Pope Francis—is that true synodality draws its strength not from our reasoning together as human persons but from our openness to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us precisely to live and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I hope it is also a useful reminder that we can know and understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ fully and correctly only with the aid of the Church which Christ established, along with its Magisterium which Christ continues to guarantee. Clearly, then, true synodality can exist only in the service of the Gospel. The fundamental “kerygma” (since we have become so fond of fancy Greek words in modern discussions of the Biblical text)—the fundamental proclamation of Christianity—is perhaps best expressed in at least four places in the New Testament:

John the Baptist:

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. [Mt 3:2]

Jesus Christ:

He opened the book and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” [Lk 4:17-19]

Jesus Christ:

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel.” And passing along by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. [Mk 1:14-18]

St. Paul:

But how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? And how can men preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!” [Rom 10:14-15]

I have often criticized the model of “synodality as endless input”. But Pope Leo seems to understand the three essentials that undergird this concept, in ascending order: First, that there is no rallying point without fidelity to the Gospel; second, that there is no safe gathering place without the authority of Christ’s Church; and, third, that there is no salvation without Jesus Christ. In other words, if synodality will now be understood as “a way together” inspired by the One who is the Way, the Truth and the Life and guaranteed by the teaching authority of the Church He founded, then synodality will no longer be a waste of time, but a hope and a prayer and even a method for the conversion of the world.