Prior to Friday’s encounter with Pope Leo, participants in the Jubilee for Synodal Teams and Participatory Bodies engage in a dialogue in the Paul VI, with leaders discussing hopes for the future, ongoing tensions, and the place of synodality in the Church and the world.
By Edoardo Giribaldi
A gaze filled with hope, turned toward “what will be” in the spirit of synodality. Beyond its tensions — between “I and we,” “unity and uniformity,” “preservation and mission.” A call for a true “conversion of relationships,” which becomes “social prophecy,” denouncing “the abyss between social groups” and rekindling Jesus’ call to “be one.”
These were some of the key themes explored in the opening sessions of the Jubilee of Synodal Teams and Participatory Bodies, held on October 24 in the Paul VI Hall. Speakers included Cardinal Mario Grech, Secretary General of the General Secretariat of the Synod; Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś, Archbishop of Łódź, Poland; Miguel De Salis Amaral, Portuguese theologian and Associate Professor of Ecclesiology at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross; and Mariana Aparecida Venâncio, member of Brazil’s National Animation Commission for the implementation phase of the Synod. The session was moderated by Bishop Luis Marín de San Martín, OSA, Undersecretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod.
Grech: Hope, rooted in Christ
In his greeting, Cardinal Grech drew on The Portal of the Mystery of Hope by Charles Péguy, recalling the author’s vision of the three theological virtues: “Faith sees what is, hope sees what will be, and love loves what is.” A spiritual compass, a framework to “reimagine how the Church listens, discerns, and walks together.”
Love, said Grech, is not merely “an emotion” but the posture with which we “inhabit” the Church: it does not wait for perfection but chooses to embrace reality “as it is.” It is the “decision to remain present,” a sign of spiritual maturity recognizing that unity does not mean uniformity.
Love goes hand in hand with faith — the lens through which, in the Church, “we see something more than human, something divine.” This is not “blind optimism” but a clear-eyed view of reality, where the synodal journey begins with radical listening to the cry of those who live on society’s margins.
Thirdly, hope. For Péguy, hope rests in a shared vision of the future as “reassurance” of what is to come, rooted “in the person of Jesus Christ and in the certainty of what God has promised Him.” Hope therefore requires an attitude of “letting go,” of working “without possessing what we build.”
We look to the future with trust, the Cardinal said, not because we already see the results, “but because we have encountered the One who holds the future in His hands.” This is a key insight for understanding the synodal process: “Much has been done,” yet the work continues with humility. “We have done our part; the rest is in God’s hands.” As Péguy reminded us, “Hope loves what is yet to come.”
Opening of the Jubilee for Synodal Teams
Ryś: Becoming “a poor Church for the poor”
Cardinal Ryś centered his reflection on three main tensions revealed by synodality.
The first is the dichotomy between “I” and “we.” Synodality calls for a “relational conversion,” yet the modern world fears genuine and lasting relationships. The only kind of bond it seems to understand is the competitive one — “I have what you cannot have!”
The second tension lies between unity and uniformity. On the one hand, the Church is communion; on the other, the temptation of sameness becomes a seed of division, unable to embrace the ideals of diversity and variety. Saints Augustine and Francis de Sales, Cardinal Ryś recalled, compared the Church to a lush garden filled with many different flowers. Diversity itself does not divide — pride and the abuse of power do.
In this sense, synodality is a “medicine” that prescribes listening and the exchange of spiritual gifts.
From here flows the third tension: between preservation and mission. Synodality is the face of a “Church going forth,” open to “everyone, everyone, everyone,” as Pope Francis insisted. To embrace the whole human family, the ecclesial community must take on a new identity: shedding its “sophisticated structures” to become truly “a poor Church for the poor.”
De Salis Amaral: Ministerial and common priesthood are interdependent
Building on Cardinal Ryś’s reference to a “conversion of relationships,” Professor De Salis Amaral explored the concept more deeply.
It is not a “mere invitation to be nice to each other,” he warned — that would reduce the message to superficial moralism. Rather, it is a summons to rediscover the deepest meaning of synodality.
The Portuguese theologian outlined several possible steps forward, grounded in the relationships that flow from the sacraments — the bonds “God Himself has established between us and Him.”
First, Baptism: a filial and fraternal relationship that calls, enables, and makes each person responsible, forming the most essential bond in the life of the Church.
Then, Holy Orders: a specific service oriented toward “helping others grow as missionary disciples.” Salvation, De Salis Amaral stressed, does not spring from inner knowledge, “as ancient and modern Gnosticism claim,” but comes from outside: “it is a gift that reaches us through the Word heard in faith — fides ex auditu [‘faith comes from hearing’].”
Ministerial and common priesthood remain in reciprocal orientation, meaning no one is “self-sufficient” within the ecclesial community. This concept, he added, deserves renewed attention, since the Church’s structure must draw its vitality from these living relationships, not be reduced to a mere “organization.” The ministerial and common priesthoods are therefore interdependent — living and active over time — and both participate in the one priesthood of Christ.
Speakers at the Jubilee event
Venâncio: Synodality as an antidote to the ‘scourge of polarization’
“A synodal Church is like a banner raised among the nations.” From this statement by Pope Francis, Dr. Venâncio developed her reflection, also referring to the Final Document of the most recent Assembly of Bishops, where synodality is described as “social prophecy.”
It is not simply a structural model of the Church but her modus vivendi et operandi (‘manner of living and acting’). Moving from “I” to the “ecclesial we” means proposing a community model inspired by the first apostles — a spirit of “reciprocity and gratuitousness” that already becomes prophetic in an individualistic world marked by “fluid relationships.”
Venâncio cited the example of her own country, Brazil, where many people during the first phase of the Synod said they had felt “listened to by the Church for the first time.” This, too, is a way of opposing “the dictatorship of an economy that kills,” denounced by both Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIII in his apostolic exhortation Dilexi te.
The synodal dialogue, she continued, serves as an antidote to the “scourge of polarization” that runs through both Church and society. “It is possible to listen and engage in fruitful dialogues that do not make uniform but unite diverse thoughts and positions under the fundamental principle that unity prevails over conflict.”
All this must lead the Church to denounce “the structural causes that perpetuate the abyss between social groups, the greed that seeps into public powers, and the passivity in the face of inequality, prejudice, and segregation.”
In conclusion, the Church is called to draw new energy from the centrality of the proclamation — the kerygma — making synodality not only a method but the very expression of what the Church is: a living response to Jesus’ call to “be one.”
