Overview
"Synodality" is the theme, and the method, of the Synod of Bishops that Pope Francis opened in October 2021 and that closed with a final document in October 2024. Francis described the Church as a "mystery of communion" involving both the hierarchy and the People of God, and synodality as an "essential dimension of the life of the Church" (L'Osservatore Romano; CWR). Many traditionalist and conservative commentators opposed it, and the argument continues under Pope Leo XIV, who has kept the process going.
It is distinct from the German bishops' national "Synodal Path," which began earlier and which Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò protested in 2020 (LifeSiteNews via BishopAccountability).
The process, 2021–2024
- Consultation (from October 2021). Diocesan consultation was followed by national and continental stages and two assemblies in Rome, in October 2023 and October 2024 (America; Diocese of Knoxville).
- First assembly (October 2023). Lay men and women took part as voting members alongside bishops. The synthesis report was voted on paragraph by paragraph; officials said every item passed with at least two-thirds of the votes and published the counts. It called for further discussion of, among other things, women deacons (America; CWR).
- Study groups (March 2024). The Vatican set up ten study groups on questions the assembly wanted examined, including women deacons, the role of bishops and seminary formation (America). In October 2024 the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith said it saw no room yet for a positive decision on women deacons, to some delegates' anger (America; America).
- Final document (26 October 2024). The second assembly approved a final document of 155 paragraphs (Aleteia). The paragraph on women, which says the question of their access to the diaconate "remains open" and that "discernment needs to continue," drew the most opposition, with 97 votes against (Aleteia; The MAST Journal).
Francis makes the final document magisterial
Francis approved the text on 26 October 2024 and said he would not write a post-synodal apostolic exhortation, departing from the usual practice (AMECEA; CWR). Under his 2018 apostolic constitution Episcopalis communio (art. 18 §1), a final document expressly approved by the pope participates in his ordinary magisterium.
In a note of accompaniment signed on 24 November 2024, the solemnity of Christ the King, and published by the Holy See Press Office the next day, Francis wrote that the document "participates in the ordinary magisterium of the successor of Peter" and asked that it be accepted. He recalled that it is "not strictly normative" and that applying it will require various forms of mediation, while adding that this does not exempt the churches from making decisions consistent with it now. Local churches are to implement its "authoritative indications," and bishops are to report on the choices made, the difficulties and the fruits during their ad limina visits (Holy See Press Office; Vatican News; NCR/CNS; OSV News). Canon law ordinarily gives the synod a consultative role: it discusses questions and expresses wishes but issues no decrees unless the pope grants deliberative power (CIC can. 343). The document's standing comes from papal approval.
What the final document says on disputed points
- Authority. In CWR's translation, the text states that "in a synodal Church, the authority of the bishop, of the episcopal college, and of the bishop of Rome in regard to decision-taking is inviolable," while adding that such authority "is not without limits" (CWR).
- Consultation and deliberation. It asks for canon law to be revised, "clarifying the distinction and relation between consultation and deliberation," and for dropping the formula that consultative bodies have "merely a consultative" vote. It also proposes new procedures for selecting and evaluating bishops and more lay participation in diocesan governance (CWR; America).
- Sexuality. The text does not mention LGBTQ people by name. It refers once to people "feeling excluded or judged because of their marital situation, identity or sexuality," and LGBTQ advocacy groups criticised the omission (DignityUSA; New Ways Ministry).
Under Leo XIV (2025–2026)
- The road map. In March 2025, Francis approved a three-year implementation phase leading to an "ecclesial assembly" in October 2028 (USCCB News; NC Register). According to a June 2025 letter from Cardinal Mario Grech, the synod's secretary general, Leo XIV confirmed the plan and encouraged the study groups to continue, including their work on bishops and women (America). The synod secretariat's Pathways for the Implementation Phase, published on 7 July 2025, announced that Leo had approved two further study groups: on "the liturgy in a synodal perspective" and on the statute of episcopal conferences, ecclesial assemblies and particular councils (synod.va; Aleteia; ZENIT).
- Jubilee of synodal teams (24–26 October 2025). Leo took questions, including on women and on reluctant clergy (America). In the closing homily he said the Church "is not merely a religious institution, nor is she simply identified with hierarchies and structures." He said all are called to serve, not dominate, and that tensions such as authority and participation should be purified by the Spirit, not eliminated by force (vatican.va; NCR; AsiaNews).
- Women deacons. The interim reports of November 2025 passed the diaconate question to a papal commission (CWR). In December 2025, at Leo's request, the Vatican published a summary of that commission's work by its president, Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi. It reported a 7–1 vote, taken in 2022, against admitting women to the diaconate understood as a degree of holy orders: in the commission's judgment the present state of historical and theological research rules this out, but does not yet allow a definitive judgment, and the question remains open to further study (Vatican News; USCCB News; AP via CP24).
- Study-group reports (2026). Final reports have appeared in batches since 3 March: on digital mission (proposing a "Pontifical Commission for Digital Culture and New Technologies"), priestly formation, women's participation and leadership, the selection of bishops and, in September, relations between bishops and consecrated life and ad limina visits. They are working documents; their proposals go to the Pope, who may approve them (Vatican News; Vatican News; The Pillar; Vatican News; Catholic Review).
- Toward 2028. Guidelines issued by the synod secretariat in 2026 set out four stages ("Recollecting, Interpreting, Orienting and Celebrating"), running from the first half of 2027 to the assembly in October 2028 (CWR; synod.va). Leo met the heads of the continental synod bodies on 25 June (Vatican News), and the fourth and final session of the 26–27 June consistory of cardinals was devoted to the synod and the priesthood (Vatican News; Vatican News; America). In August NCR reported that conservative prelates, among them Cardinals Robert Sarah and Gerhard Müller, were using the summer to press for wider access to the Latin Mass and to question the synodal process (NCR).
Claims in traditionalist media, and what the texts say
"A revolution" and "Pandora's box." In August 2023 the American TFP (TFP) published The Synodal Process Is a Pandora's Box by José Antonio Ureta and Julio Loredo de Izcue. Its foreword, a letter by Cardinal Raymond Burke, argued that "synodality" had become a slogan for a revolution and that Germany showed the results (Catholic Herald; NC Register). The National Catholic Reporter described an organised opposition and TFP's record of opposing Vatican II and Francis (NCR). The record: the contested questions went to study groups, decision-taking authority stays with the pope and bishops, and Francis made the outcome part of his ordinary magisterium while calling it "not strictly normative."
"A hostile takeover." Asked by Raymond Arroyo on EWTN in October 2022 whether the process amounted to a hostile takeover, Cardinal Gerhard Müller agreed and said Catholics must resist (NC Register; FSSPX.News). The American Spectator defended the concern by pointing to the views of the synod's relator general, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, on Church teaching about homosexual acts (The American Spectator). The record: the final document does not name LGBTQ people (an omission advocacy groups criticised); its one reference to sexuality concerns people who feel excluded.
"The synod will become the supreme authority." Five cardinals (Walter Brandmüller, Burke, Joseph Zen, Juan Sandoval Íñiguez and Robert Sarah) asked in July 2023 whether synodality could become the supreme criterion for the Church's permanent governance. Francis replied on 11 July; after the cardinals resubmitted and went public, the Vatican published his answers on 2 October. He warned that imposing one synodal method on everyone would "freeze" the process (CWR; Crux). Cardinal Sandoval later said "a synod does not have doctrinal authority" (CWR). The record: here critics and documents agree in principle — canon 343 and the final document leave decisions with the pope and bishops; the dispute is whether new structures will erode that in practice.
"A path to women's ordination." In his Credo compendium (2023), Bishop Athanasius Schneider argued that ordaining women as deacons would contradict the Tradition of the universal Church and that advocates of women's ordination fail to respect "the unique dignity of Christian womanhood" (Gloria Dei; Catholic Family News). The record: the final document left the diaconate question open, and the papal commission's summary, published in December 2025, reported a vote against it. Ordination of women to the priesthood was not on the agenda, since John Paul II's Ordinatio sacerdotalis (1994, §4) declared it outside the Church's authority.
"Leo is continuing Francis's revolution." A July 2026 Remnant column argued that Benedict XVI's statements on Vatican II tell more against the Vatican under Leo, and its "synodal revolution," than against Archbishop Lefebvre (The Remnant). At Leo's first extraordinary consistory (7–8 January 2026) a large majority of cardinals chose evangelisation and synodality, rather than the liturgy, as the topics for discussion (NC Register); Rorate Caeli, under the headline "The Velvet Revolution of Leo XIV," argued that many cardinals at the meeting favoured relaxing Francis's Latin Mass rules, a claim TradWatch™ has not seen independently confirmed (Rorate Caeli). Before Leo's election, Peter Kwasniewski opened a June 2023 dialogue between a "hyperpapalist" and a papal critic by casting synodality as a vehicle for "papally-shoved progressivism" (OnePeterFive). The record: the premise is correct — Leo has continued the process; the disagreement is over what synodality means.
Where the debate stands
The status of the final document remains debated: Francis called it both part of the ordinary magisterium and "not strictly normative." One 2025 academic conference paper asks what a document voted by a two-thirds majority of "ostensibly-representative" delegates is, if a synod is not a parliament (AAR). Next come the Pope's decisions on study-group proposals, the 2027 local stages and the 2028 assembly. See also Papal authority and "recognize and resist" and the glossary.