Models of journeying towards a synodal church in Southern Europe : Portugal, Spain, Italy, Malta

Abstract

According to a long tradition dating back to the Fathers of the Church, the Church is synodal in nature. As St John Chrysostom states, “Church and synod are synonymous.” This can lead us to draw a provocative affirmation: whenever Church does not live up to this calling, then it ceases altogether to be Church. This paper can be regarded as a survey of the vitality of the Church in Southern Europe insofar as its proclivity towards synodality goes. First, I analyse how the call for synodality has been received in these countries, and in what concrete ways they have responded to the call to build a synodal Church. I then outline some challenges encountered thus far, with a view on challenges lying ahead. Finally, I recall significant moments of synodality from recent and not so recent history, including both formal initiatives by the institutional Church, as well as informal ones. In this paper I am not merely interested in doing a comparative survey of how four countries responded to the call to synodality. Rather, I write this paper as a moral theologian, asking how historical narrative and cultural tradition give character to synodality, and therefore to the local Church. Ever since the Second Vatican Council, moral theologians have been trying to articulate a moral language in culturally specific contexts, while trying to avoid the pitfalls of cultural relativism. Thus, in today’s pluraist world, the call for synodality makes itself ever more urgent.