Synod on Synodality events open to the public gave a glimpse into the private debates happening among delegates and theological experts on the issues of a bishop’s authority and his relationship to the laity in light of synodality.
At the Oct. 9 forum on ”The Role and Authority of the Bishop in a Synodal Church,” hosted in a conference hall near the Vatican, four theologians and a canon lawyer gave presentations on finding and following the correct interpretation of the Se-cond Vatican Council’s teaching on episcopal authority, with frequent citations of the council’s dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium. Speakers claimed an important part of synodality is implementing the proper under-standing of a bishop’s authority in his diocese, which demands cooperation with laypeople.
Italian canonist Father Matteo Visioli pointed out that ”What power of governance can be en-trusted to laymen and women?” is one of the questions being asked by the synod that, he said, still needs further theological explo-ration. “The problem is, which offices require the sacred orders and which don’t?” he asked in response to a question about changes Pope Francis has made to permit laypeople to hold posi-tions formerly reserved to priests or bishops. The canonist noted that while Pope Francis has drawn practical lines in the sand in some instances, including in the newest constitution governing the Roman Curia, Praedicate Evangelium, ”if he entered into the theoretical line, he would have gotten stuck.”
In his remarks, Italian theo-logian Roberto Repole, arch-bishop of Turin and bishop of Susa, cited paragraphs 38-39 of the 2024 Instrumentum Laboris, which says that a bishop’s powers and ministry do ”not imply his separation from the portion of the people of God entrusted to him” and ”is not the justification for an episcopal ministry that is ‘monarchical…’”
In light of what is written in the Instrumentum Laboris, Repole, who will be made a cardinal in December, said there are different ways to interpret Lumen Gentium’s teaching that bishops have the fullness of the sacrament of holy orders. He argued that a ”synodal” interpretation of the bishop’s ministry — one in which he serves in full cooperation with priests and laypeople — could ”dissolve” some of the isolation and stress faced by bishops around the world and prevent a ”monarchical”-style rule.
A prominent theologian from Argentina, Father Carlos María Galli, argued in his lecture that the bishop is the servant of the Lord, not a ”lord” of the Church, and said a ”novelty” of Vatican II was viewing the people of God as equal in dignity to the Church’s hierarchy. The second chapter of Lumen Gentium, on the people of God, was a ”big revolution” in Church ecclesiology, he said. “These theological foundations should move us to a change of mentality, of mindset.”
In his contribution, Father Gilles Routhier, a French Canadian and theological consultant to the general secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, described the bishop’s relationship to the laity using imagery from the Mass. Just as the celebration of the Mass includes the organic participation of all the parts (priest and laity), so, too, the bishop should view his communion and cooperation in running a diocese, he said. Routhier also criticized the Church’s use of the prepositions ”of,” “for,” or ”at” to describe a bishop instead of the words “in” and ”within.” As written in Lumen Gentium, the priest and bishops, he said, are part of and within the same assembly of the people of God. “We can’t speak of the autonomy of the pastor from the rest of the assembly,” the theologian and Vatican II expert claimed.
Sister Gloria Liliana Franco Echeverri, ODN, addressed bishops directly in her contribution to the forum, exhorting them to be servant leaders and to combat abuse.