A Synodal Conclave

One of Pope Francis’ pivotal legacies is his revival of the Catholic Church’s practice of synodality. It is also one of the least understood and most contested innovations of his papacy. The very word sounds odd and it’s certainly not as appealing or well known as catchphrases such as “Who am I to judge?” or Francis’ description of the church as “a field hospital” or his exhortation to young people to “make a mess!” (hagan lío).

Yet synodality under Francis was nothing more than adopting and updating the venerable ecclesial style of gathering church leaders and members together to discuss and debate and, sometimes, to decide. “Council” is a more familiar variant of the term, and Francis certainly turbocharged the concept by making the regular synods he held at the Vatican more global and more inclusive than ever before. Lay people and young people, women as well as men, college students alongside cardinals, all had a voice, and a vote.

If that sounds like a good idea to you, it struck many conservatives quite differently. They accused Francis of using synodality to sow confusion and doctrinal ambiguity, or worse, and in the Vatican these days conservative cardinals are renewing their objections inside the secret (a term of art, to be honest) pre-conclave gatherings known as the “general congregations” and in media interviews. “All the cardinals are united in wanting clarity about the concepts,” Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, a conservative German and harsh critic of Francis and synodality, told America. “What exactly is a synod? A synod of bishops? A synod with laypeople?”

The public disputations and private accusations have been quite eye-opening, even for those of us used to Vatican intrigue. But the irony is not lost on me that the conclave process currently underway (the conclave itself starts on Wednesday, May 7) could also be viewed as a concrete example of synodality in action.

Traditionalists who argue that the church is not a democracy where Catholics can vote on what they like or dislike are preparing to enter the Sistine Chapel to, in keeping with venerable tradition, vote on prospective popes who they like or dislike. To elect a new pope they will have to achieve consensus with at least a two-thirds majority — which is how they vote in synods. Foes of synodality who say that popular opinion should not govern their actions are regularly appealing to popular opinion to argue for electing one of their own. Cardinals and their allies who were critical of the “conservations in the spirit” by which synod delegates listened deeply to each other (“manipulative processes,” George Weigel calls it, in one of his more irenic blasts) are now engaged in deep spiritual listening to each other to discern the best way forward.

And those who had once quashed dissent and debate and criticized Francis’ invitation to everyone at the synods to speak freely and honestly and without fear were suddenly speaking freely and honestly and without fear.

On a more practical level, all of the rumors and gossip and cocktail hour strategizing strike me as quite synodal as well. Pope Francis wonderfully diversified the College of Cardinals — there are now cardinals from over 70 different countries who will vote in the conclave, and 24 from countries that never had a cardinal before. But as has often been noted, the downside is that the cardinals do not know each other well, and for eight in 10 of them this is the first conclave they have ever been part of. It’s a new and daunting process, undertaken with colleagues you barely know.

Getting name tags with typeface large enough to be legible at a glance was one of the first demands that the cardinals made when they gathered, and it was quickly granted. Cardinals were getting up to speak at the confabs and many didn’t know who was speaking, or who was the cardinal who just buttonholed them over coffee.

They are asking each other and they are asking outsiders about their fellow electors. They are using popular websites and surfing for thumbnail biographies. Such an ad hoc process can be feral and undisciplined, overwhelming and unreliable. But it can also be a useful way to sift and sort as they continue to listen and learn and share their views — that is a kind of synodality. Everyone has a voice, or at least a lot more voices are heard than ever before, just as there is more global diversity than ever before. They are trying to turn what seems like a modern Babel into a genuine Pentecost.

I have covered two previous conclaves, in 2005 and 2013, and my colleagues in the Vatican press office seem to agree that this one is different in that elaborate conclave scenarios and murky conspiracy theories used to be largely the province of Italian newspapers. They had the sources and the motivation; this is a local story, after all. This time, some 4,000 media have been credentialed and thousands more around the world are serving as armchair Vaticanisti, amplifying rumors but also sharing news and interviews. Indeed, this may be remembered as the first social media conclave and, just as significantly, the first synodality conclave. Imperfectly synodal, but a step along the path.

That reality guarantees nothing. In a sense the outcome of the conclave will be a referendum on synodality. Pope Francis has called this consultative, participatory way of proceeding a “constitutive element of the church.” That doesn’t mean the next pope will agree. It would be a sad paradox if those opposed to synodality used synodality to kill synodality.

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