Are bishops the key to synodality?

Note to the reader:  In this post, I am not just presenting information about this issue, but I am also analyzing it and drawing some conclusions. Onward!

Whether you know about the Synod on Synodality or not, whether your parish had a chance to participate in it or didn't, is probably directly connected to how your bishop views the Synod.   

If you did get a chance to experience it, good for your bishop, your pastor, and you.  It took effort and initiative on all your parts to make it happen.

If you didn’t, it may have been because your bishop had reservations about it.  He may have been concerned that it would cause confusion and wanted to spare his diocese that. Or he may have felt his priests had more than enough to do just to keep their parishes afloat, never mind asking them to participate in a kind of nebulous, touchy-feely, process that may or may not have any benefit.  Or he may not have been given the information and resources to understand and get behind it. All these are possibilities.  

But it is becoming increasingly clear to me that the bishop is the channel, the conduit, through which synodality must flow.  Or not. 

If that is true, then how bishops are selected and how a pope uses his bishop selections to shape the Church is an important part of the story.  

The first part of this – how bishops are selected – is an interesting and complex process, and I have spent several hours researching and writing about it.  At the end of this post, I will include a link to a sub-post that goes over that important process in detail.  I hope you will read it, as how bishops are chosen, and specifically, what Pope Francis is looking for in a bishop, is an important foundational piece to this discussion.

But it is the second issue – how a pope uses his selections to shape the Church  - that is even more critical.  To understand that part of the story, I believe you have to understand two things about Pope Francis: his intention and his opportunity.

Pope Francis’s Intention  Each pope has his own style and set of priorities; his own understanding of the challenges the Church is facing at this time, and how he wants to respond to them.  Pope Francis is no different.  We might say his style is “pastoral,” rather than doctrinal, and in keeping with that, he tends to appoint bishops who are good, faith-filled pastors.  But if we focus only on that, I believe we miss the forest for the trees.

If choosing bishops that are good, faith-filled pastors are the trees, what kind of forest is Pope Francis cultivating? I believe, that as much as he sees himself as a pastor and a promoter of pastors, he also sees himself as a reformer, shepherding the Church through what he perceives is a time that necessitates change. 

What kind of change?  That is the question.

If you have followed his papacy, you know that from its beginning, Pope Francis has been critical of clericalism, the imbalance or inappropriate use of power and authority within the Church.

In its worst form, clericalism can lead to abuse of power, and the incorrect idea that the clergy are the Church; that they are what holds the Church together and defines it. But clericalism can also lead to burnout and isolation. If a person who is charge of something is unable or unwilling to delegate authority, that person may find himself juggling too many responsibilities, and less gets done or done well.  Finally, clericalism can result in a lack of new ideas.  If all the decisionmakers within a system are too alike - educated and promoted based on a particular set of ideas - that limits their experience and viewpoints, and the solutions to problems they are likely to come up with.  

But the fault for clericalism doesn’t just lie with clergy.  The laity may always be hanging back and waiting for the clergy to act.  Or they may be putting the clergy up on a pedestal, and not voicing legitimate concerns even when they exist. 

It turns out that the more power and authority you reserve to yourself, the more passive those you hold authority over become.  It’s a vicious circle that serves neither clergy or laity, nor the Church, well.

The final observation I want to make about clericalism is that I think of it as a kind of religious version of authoritarianism. As we see in the temporal world, uncertain times make people uncomfortable, even fearful.  The certain past begins to look better than the uncertain future.  One rational response is to fall back on what is known, what worked in the past, and on those who say forcefully that the answer is to go back to the tried and true.  It appears that in this moment, parts of the Church, as well as the world, prefer past certainty over future uncertainty.

What is the solution? I believe Pope Francis thinks it is synodality:  clergy and laity walking together, listening to each other - and especially the Holy Spirit - to discern the future direction of the Church; clergy and laity, working together to exercise co-responsibility in mission.  

Synodality is a hugely ambitious, top-down, from-the-ground-up effort to reform the Church, and one that many observers say will be the defining initiative of Pope Francis’s papacy. So, as much as Francis wants bishops who are good pastors, he also must want bishops who are open to synodality, right? 

However, you can have the best intentions, but if you don’t have the opportunity to implement them, you won’t succeed.

Pope Francis’s Opportunity  Specifically, the opportunity Pope Francis will have over the next few years to appoint bishops that are not only capable, faith-filled men who are good pastors, but men who will help and not hinder the acceptance of synodality across the Church.

Earlier in this post, I pointed out that who a pope appoints as bishop is one of the main ways he puts his imprint on the Church.  Let me now point out that the longer the papacy, the more bishops and archbishops a pope can appoint, and the greater the imprint.  

Pope Francis, at 11 years and counting, (2013 -  ), is now reaching the point where he will have appointed a significant number, even a majority, of bishops to the Church. Many of the bishops appointed by John Paul II (1978 – 2005) and Benedict XVI (2005 – 2013) are aging out of their positions because of the requirement that they submit letters of resignation to the pope when they reach the age of 75.  Thus, Francis may have the most significant opportunity in our lifetimes to use his bishop appointments to affect the trajectory of the Church.

A prime example of the unfolding of this effect can be seen in the US Catholic Church. It’s not an overstatement to say that the US Church is currently headed by a group of bishops who have seemed to be, up to this point, unenthusiastic about synodality.

A Google inquiry tells me that there are currently 196 dioceses in the US Catholic Church, including 32 Archdioceses, which are large dioceses overseen by an Archbishop. These are all subject to papal appointments.  

According to a March 2024 article in the National Catholic Register, “Pope Francis’ US Bishop Selections Under Scrutiny Among Abundance of Openings,” the pope has appointed about half of the current US bishops.  At the time of the article, NCR also reported that there are currently 8 dioceses with vacancies for bishops, and another 11 dioceses where the bishop is older than 75 and could have his letter of resignation accepted at any time. 

In 2025, the article notes, an additional 16 bishops will reach the age of 75 and have to submit their letters of resignation.  This includes many highly visible, major US archdioceses – like Washington, DC (Wilton Gregory), New York (Timothy Dolan), Chicago (Blase Cupich) and many others.

So, if half of the current US Bishops are already Francis’s appointments, and another 35 (8+11+16) are vacant or soon will be, Pope Francis has a real opportunity in front of him to remake the leadership of the US Church.  If he so chooses. 

In addition, if this is true of the US Church, it is probably also true of rest of the Church as well. 

This will be a source of hope for some of you, and a source of concern for others.  But any way you look at it, there is no doubt that the success of synodality is extremely important to Pope Francis. 

In asking us to set out on this synodal journey, Pope Francis seems to be asking us – both the clergy and the laity, the hierarchy and the people of God -  to stay with it, to give it a chance to show its benefits.  Yes, from the outside it seems to be kind of a messy, unwieldy process, requiring lots of patience and faith that its results will be worth it in the end. 

But if it gets the clergy and the people of God to turn to each other, bring out the best in each other, and help each other preach the Gospel to a world that so desperately needs it, won’t it be worth the risk?

Dear Holy Spirit, this idea of synodality fills me with equal parts hope and anxiety.  It seems certain that something must change.  We can’t just stand by and watch the Church shrink when the world is so in need of Christ’s message. Help us to be more tolerant of change and uncertainty.  Help us to have more faith in you and in each other. Finally, let it be done according to your will. AMEN

Here is that link I promised you at the beginning of this post on “How Bishops are Chosen.”