Structural reform and pastoral renewal : an ethical framework for the process of synodality

Abstract

When I embarked on my research through printed and online literature on synodality, to my surprise I found no specific article with explicit reflections on the ethical perspectives of the synodality process. This lack of resources on this issue has encouraged rather than discouraged me to take this task earnestly in order to sift out the ethical implications of synodality endorsed in the Preparatory Document for the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, the Vademecum for the Synod on Synodality, the Working Document for the Continental Stage: Enlarge the Space of your Tent (DCS), the report of the Digital Synod for the Continental Stage, the Instrumentum Laboris for the first session of the 16th Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops ( October 2023) , the document on "Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church" published in 2018 by the International Theological Commission, and the reflections articulated by Pope Francis in his homilies, addresses, and speeches. [extract]