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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 May 2025
The International Theological Commission, in its document on synodality, observed that ‘the concept of synodality refers to the involvement and participation of the whole People of God in the life and mission of the Church’.1 More specifically, it refers to participation in the exercise of discernment and decision making that is intrinsic to that mission. This discernment and decision making requires structures to make it clear not merely when decisions have been made and who makes them, but how they are made and how the people who make them work together. Such structures are embodied in legal instruments that are appropriate to the context, which here is the area of Church life which is between the properly local – the diocese – and the properly universal – the Holy See. In history the usual word for the gatherings that embodied these attempts was ‘synod’. Although the synods are seen as gatherings of bishops it is clear throughout that history that many others have been present at them: a notable and famous example was the presence of the Alexandrian deacon Athanasius at the Council of Nicea. Discernment and decision making at the supra-diocesan level has always involved bishops – but not only bishops. This article lays out the provisions of the current law surrounding this task in the Roman Catholic Church.
1 International Theological Commission, Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church, 2 March 2018, para 7.
2 Canons 337, §1 and 339, §1. All references to Canons are to the Code of Canon Law 1983.
3 Christus Dominus (Decree concerning the pastoral office of bishops in the Church, 28 October 1965), para 36: ‘From the very first centuries of the Church bishops, as rulers of individual churches, were deeply moved by the communion of fraternal charity and zeal for the universal mission entrusted to the Apostles. And so they pooled their abilities and their wills for the common good and for the welfare of the individual churches. Thus came into being synods, provincial councils and plenary councils in which bishops established for various churches the way to be followed in teaching the truths of faith and ordering ecclesiastical discipline. This sacred ecumenical synod earnestly desires that the venerable institution of synods and councils flourish with fresh vigour. In such a way faith will be deepened and discipline preserved more fittingly and efficaciously in the various churches, as the needs of the times require’.
4 Christus Dominus (note 3), para 37.
5 Canon 439, §1.
6 The ecclesiastical province is defined in Canon 431.
7 Canon 369: A diocese is a portion of the people of God which is entrusted to a bishop for him to shepherd with the cooperation of the presbyterium, so that, adhering to its pastor and gathered by him in the Holy Spirit through the gospel and the Eucharist, it constitutes a particular church in which the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church of Christ is truly present and operative.
8 Canon 443 §1. The following must be called to particular councils and have the right of a deliberative vote in them: 1° diocesan bishops; 2° coadjutor and auxiliary bishops; 3° other titular bishops who perform in the territory a special function committed to them by the Apostolic See or the conference of bishops.
9 See Canon 375.
10 Whereas diocesan bishops ‘convocati sunt’ the second category ‘vocati possunt’. The obligation to attend in canon 444 only applies to those ‘convocantur’.
11 Canon 127 deals with the difference between the two sorts of vote.
12 See Canons 807–821 on these.
13 The full text of Canon 443 §3. The following must be called to particular councils but with only a consultative vote: 1° the vicars general and episcopal vicars of all the particular churches in the territory; 2° major superiors of religious institutes and societies of apostolic life in a number for both men and women which the conference of bishops or the bishops of the province are to determine; these superiors are to be elected respectively by all the major superiors of the institutes and societies which have a seat in the territory; 3° rectors of ecclesiastical and Catholic universities and deans of faculties of theology and of canon law, which have a seat in the territory; 4° some rectors of major seminaries elected by the rectors of the seminaries which are located in the territory, in a number to be determined as in n. 2.
14 See Canon 129, §1 and 228, §1.
15 Canon 443 §4. Presbyters and other members of the Christian faithful can also be called to particular councils, but with only a consultative vote and in such a way that their number does not exceed half the number of those mentioned in §§1–3.
16 Canon 443 §6. Others can also be invited as guests to particular councils, if it is expedient in the judgment of the conference of bishops for a plenary council, or of the metropolitan together with the suffragan bishops for a provincial council.
17 Canon 443, §5.
18 See canon 749.
19 See L Chiapetta, Codice di Diritto Canonico (Bologna, 2011) 2121, relying on canons 753 and 823.
20 Canon 439, §1.
21 Canon 440.
22 Canon 441.
23 Canon 442.
24 On this see the explanatory note of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, La natura giuridica e l’estensione della «recognitio» della Santa Sede (Communicationes, 38 [2006] 10–17).
25 Christus Dominus (note 3), paras 37–38.
26 Canon 447: institutum quidem permanens. See also canon 449, 2: this grants legal personality to the Conference.
27 Canon 448.
28 Canon 454, §1.
29 Canon 454, §2: it is salutary to observe that the power of the individual Conference to vary this is limited.
30 Canon 452.
31 Canon 457.
32 Canon 458.
33 Canon 451.
34 Canon 451.
35 Apostolorum Successores, 28.
36 Canon 455, §2. The word for authorised is ‘recognita’, as with Plenary Councils.
37 Apostolorum Successores (note 35), 31.
38 Evangelii Gaudium, 32. The internal quotation is from Lumen Gentium, 23.
39 See the motu proprio of Pope Francis Magnum Principium, of 3 September 2017, which changed canon 838, 3.
40 A more detailed account is given in a Decree of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, dated 22 October 2021, in paragraphs 41–49.
41 Canon 459, §1.
42 Canon 459, §2: in such cases the Holy See must be consulted.
43 Section 3 of an undated document, available at <https://www.synod.va/content/dam/synod/document/notes_for_reports/220066_SuggSintesi_ENG.pdf>, accessed 13 September 2024.
44 The diocesan synod (canons 460–468), the diocesan Finance Council (canons 492–493), the Council of Priests and the College of Consultors (canons 495–502) and the diocesan Pastoral Council (canons 511–514) being the most obvious examples.
45 Instrumentum laboris for the Second Session of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (October 2024), dated 9 July 2024, para 78.
46 The Philippines (1991) and Poland (1993).