EXPLORING SYNODALITY THROUGH THE LENS OF FRANCIS'S MAGISTERIUM: THEOLOGICALAND CANONICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR LOCAL CHURCHES

Abstract

It is an undeniable truth that since 2013, the Church, through the headship of Francis, has been engaged with the constitutive element of the Church known as synodality. However, it is not as innovative a phenomenon as it may seem. The Church has adopted it from the ancient period down to the medieval epoch without excluding the modern and contemporary periods. It accounts for the reason why a salient terminology applied by Vatican II in the description of the Church as a communion conveys the practice of synodality. On this note, since Vatican II, an organ that unites the entire Church has been the synod of bishops. This gives credence to why Paul VI instituted it with the motu-proprio Apostolica sollicitudo (1965). It is a body that manifests the collegiality of the bishops. In it, he outlines that this organ of communion can be ameliorated in future. As a result, this essay investigates the reasons why Francis has taken up synodality more as a mantra since 2013, which is evidenced in several of his interventions – audiences, documents such as Evangelii gaudium (2013, Episcopalis communio (2018) and many more. The study discovers that what is pivotal in synodality regarding Francis's magisterium is a continuation of the theology of Vatican II and that of the post-conciliar predecessors – John Paul II and Benedict XVI magisterium. The underpinning factor is geared towards strengthening the various canonical participative and co-responsibility structures in the local churches.