During the Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Institution of the Synod of Bishops, Francis described synodality as the new model of Church. He said that "a synodal Church is a Church that listens...in which everyone has something to learn." Listening reconfigures the whole process of interaction among all ecclesial subjects in a reciprocal and horizontal dynamics founded on the ecclesiology of the People of God. In this model, bishops should not only listen to the People of God but listen as part of the People of God. And what is heard should then find ecclesial channels and structures--or as Francis said, "concrete mediations"-- that link it to ecclesial reforms. Synodality represents a deepening of the ecclesiology of the People of God by which Francis opens a new phase in the reception of the Council. The book explores a new way of proceeding in the Church at all levels, and as "a constitutive dimension of the Church." This path calls for a reconfiguration in the relations, communicative dynamics, and structures of the current institutional model of the Church. We have the challenge to contribute to the building of this new way of being Church.
Rafael Luciani is a professor at the Andrés Bello Catholic University of Caracas and extraordinary professor at the Ecclesiastical Faculty of Boston College School of Theology and Ministry.
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