Synodality as Kairos in the Present Ecclesial and Global Situation

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic, the crisis of the sense of eclesial unity and the global socio-political disruption, together with other factors, make this moment a eukairos akairos – a favorable and at the same time unfavorable moment – for the unfolding of the Synodal Process in the Catholic Church. The article outlines the ecclesial challenges and opportunities for the “Synodal Process 2021-2023”. Synodality is a different way of being the Church, not simply a new way of making decisions in the Church. However, kairos also means a moment of decision, not of waiting for something to happen and be accomplished automatically. For the Christian community, it also means a moment of possible division and refusal, and not of an ecclesial paradise. The synodal process takes place in a moment in which different challenges accumulate. KEYWORDS: Synodality. Kairos. Pandemic. Globalization.

Intercultural Lived Ecclesiology: The Asian Synodal Praxis of Communio, Partecipatio et Missio Inter Gentes

“…In fact, the objective of the synodal process is to lay an emphasis on the ecclesial praxis of all the baptized, giving a greater voice to lay men and women, with their professional competence and experience in the familial, cultural, civil, political and economic spheres of life, by promoting co-responsibility and inclusivity of the societal context (Brighenti 2022;Noceti 2022b, pp. 156-58;Midali 2002), so as to create a discursive space with a communication pattern integrating the vertical and the horizontal (Faggioli 2022).…”

“…As mentioned above, the starting point is the acknowledgement that we have not lived the synodal process, and that we do not know how to live it; that we stand in need of inter gentes encounters, of listening, discerning and creating a culture of ecclesial consensus (Vélez 2022). Furthermore, in the contemporary context, we cannot ignore the modern sensibility of homo democraticus, the appeal to human rights, communicative dissent and egalitarianism (Faggioli 2022;Anthony 2020a). With these observations in mind, we outline the dynamics of intercultural discernment entailing intercultural hermeneutics, critique and participation and, more specifically, diverse types of thinking.…”