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Over the past months, there were concerns that the Synod would decentralize Catholic teaching authority to episcopal conferences, with many fearing that such a move could fragment the Church.

Behind these concerns was the influence of the German Synodal Way, whose calls for “doctrinal developments” on topics like sexuality and the ordination of women stirred apprehension about doctrinal divergence.

However, the Synod’s Final Document, released yesterday in Italian (with an unofficial English “working translation” circulating on the internet), takes a more cautious approach, asking instead that “the domain of the doctrinal and disciplinary competence of episcopal conferences” should be specified more precisely in the future.

According to the document, this should be done without compromising the authority of the bishop, but also without “putting at risk either the unity or the catholicity of the Church.”

Pope Francis has indicated he will not issue a post-synodal apostolic exhortation, stating that the document itself is “sufficient.”


One Faith, Many Realities

This papal announcement confirmed details shared during a Vatican press conference on October 23, where key Synod conclusions on this matter were previewed.

Fr. Gilles Routhier, a theologian specializing in ecclesiology and the history of the Church, explained that discussing the doctrinal authority of episcopal conferences does not mean that different bodies can teach different doctrines.

An episcopal conference “is not autonomous and cannot behave in a light-hearted manner,” Fr. Routhier said, adding, “It’s not an absolute authority that can propose new dogmas. It is an authority that has some limitations.”

“You may fear fragmentation, the fragmentation of the Church, thinking that everybody is going to go their own way. But this is not what happens.”

According to Fr. Routhier, the episcopal conference’s doctrinal competence has to do with how best to apply the common faith to particular matters affecting each location.

He cited a recent letter from the Irish Episcopal Conference, which recently contextualized Church teachings on immigration, adapting the message of hospitality to the Irish context.

The Synod’s Final Document does indeed say that:

“The collegial exercise of such competence [doctrinal authority] can further the authentic teaching of the one faith in an appropriate and enculturated way within different contexts in addition to identifying fitting liturgical, catechetical, disciplinary, pastoral theology and spiritual expression.”

Another example raised during the October 23 press conference was the case of Fiducia Supplicans and the episcopal conferences of Africa. Fr. Routhier explained that African bishops were not rejecting “the teaching authority of Rome” but were highlighting their distinct cultural context.

“You have to remember that there’s still places in Africa that apply the death penalty for people who are living homosexual relationships. Episcopal conferences can say that this does not work for their territory. It’s somehow not compatible” with the concrete realities they’re living in.

“There always has to be a communion with the Church,” Fr. Routhier explained, adding, “and with Peter’s See.”


Primacy and Disagreements

Answering a question about synodality and the primacy of Peter, Cardinal Robert Prevost, prefect of the Dicastery of Bishops, said that the “whole understanding of synodality is not that all of a sudden there´s going to be a fully democratic assembly style way of exercising authority in the church.”

“The Primacy of Peter and the successors of Peter is something that enables the Church to continue to live in communion in a very concrete way,” he added.

The Cardinal cautioned against reading everything through a dynamic of power or authority. Although the Pope has full authority over the whole Church, he has also been very clear that his ministry is at the service of others.

“Synodality can have a great impact on how we’re living in the Church, but it certainly takes nothing away from what we would call ‘primacy,’” Cardinal Prevost said.

Fr. Routhier also explained that there were always disagreements in the Church, and that even in ecumenical councils there were diverging opinions. “But it’s precisely because of this that there is a synod,” he added.

He explained that we must differentiate between conformity and the universal Church. Since there are tensions, the challenge for the synod is how to establish dialogue.

“If you know how to listen, then you can go beyond divisions, you can overcome divisions and disagreements, while if you remain in your uniformity, then you end up becoming fragmented,” he noted.


Old Questions, New Misunderstandings

Fr. Routhier also highlighted that “the topic of the doctrinal authority of episcopal conferences is nothing new.” According to him, the doctrinal authority of episcopal conferences had already been a theme under discussion in the 1995 Synod and covered in other post-Vatican II magisterial documents, like Apostolos Suos and Evangelii Gaudium.

Cardinal Prevost explained that some of the controversy had to do with a difference in translation in English, making “it sound as if the episcopal conferences have, if you will, a specific doctrinal authority without defining what it is.”

In the Italian and Spanish versions, however, the meaning was different.

“There was a lot of discussion in the Synod Hall on this point and while some of that was cleared up, they actually found that in the official English translations of the respective documents the interpretation that would have to be given was much closer to what we heard in the expression from Fr. Routhier when he spoke about what that is really about. Bishop conferences are called to teach.”

According to the Cardinal, the Instrumentum Laboris was merely quoting from Evangelii Gaudium, which was quoting from a previous document, going all the way back to Vatican II.


Decentralization: Beyond Doctrine

It is also important to note that the synodal discussion on this topic was not solely about decentralizing magisterial authority to episcopal conferences, but mostly about decentralizing matters of governance.

Professor Myriam Wijlens, an expert in canon law who has contributed to the development of policies and guidelines to prevent abuses, explained that another domain of decentralization is accountability and transparency, in particular financial, sexual, and other forms of abuse that have impacted the credibility and effectiveness of the Church’s witness.

“It’s coming from a deep theological perspective. Transparency and accountability should not only be invoked with regards to safeguarding or financial matters. It is also required with regard to pastoral planning and methods of evangelization.”

“With the current Synod on Synodality, Pope Francis has invited the Church to enter, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, into a process of reconfiguration of the acting subjects within the Church to optimize its missionary tasks,” Prof. Wijlens added.

Specifically regarding episcopal conferences, Prof. Wijlens explained that a “special fruit of the current synodal process” was a desire to gather a more permanent structure at the continental level, namely through provincial and plenary councils.

The Synod concluded today, with a Holy Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica.

This article was originally published at “The City and the World.” Click here to subscribe to this Catholic journalism project by Pedro Gabriel and Claire Domingues.


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Pedro Gabriel, MD, is a Catholic layman and physician, born and residing in Portugal. He is a medical oncologist, currently employed in a Portuguese public hospital. A published writer of Catholic novels with a Tolkienite flavor, he is also a parish reader and a former catechist. He seeks to better understand the relationship of God and Man by putting the lens on the frailty of the human condition, be it physical and spiritual. He also wishes to provide a fresh perspective of current Church and World affairs from the point of view of a small western European country, highly secularized but also highly Catholic by tradition.

Claire is a global IT professional/writer, residing in Portugal with her husband, Pedro Gabriel.  She and her husband founded The City and the World, a journalism platform.

She wrote articles for Where Peter Is (and other sites) and provided special news coverage for Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) News Media during Pope Francis´s 2015 papal visit in the Philippines.

She was also an accredited press corps member with her husband for the press coverage of World Youth Day Lisbon 2023 and the 16th General Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (2024).

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