Mark Brumley as explains the role of this advisory body in shaping the future of the Church. Learn how the synod works, its impact on the Church, and its relationship to the Pope.
Transcript:
I’m curious what the synod of bishops that’s going on in Rome right now. I was hoping you could explain like what that means, what it is, and yeah, that’s kind of the main thing, what it means for the church and just for us as Catholics.
So a synod in the church is a church meeting, usually of bishops, but it can also be a diocesan synod where you have bishops and other clergy and laity involved. The synod of bishops is an advisory body, a selection of the world’s bishops, not all of them. An ecumenical council would be all the world’s bishops, all the world’s Catholic bishops. A synod is a selection, a synod of bishops is a selection, and it’s an advisory body to the Pope. Pope Francis has expanded the synod a bit by allowing some non-bishops, some priests and laity to be able to have voting participation, not on a full level of the bishops, but some level of voting participation. But at the end of the day, it remains an advisory body, what we call a consultative, not a deliberative body. A consultative body is a body that someone in authority consults with, but isn’t bound to follow what they recommend or what their consultation results in. A deliberative body is a body that is in authority to deliberate and to issue a binding statement. And the synod of bishops is not a deliberative body, but it’s a consultative advisory body to the Pope.