Synodality

I Am Still Looking

Pope Leo issues challenge to cardinals gathered in Rome for a synod: ‘Learn synodality by practicing it’

Jesuit Review June 26, 2026

Synodality means “walking together.” In the Catholic Church, it describes a collaborative, inclusive way of being. Instead of just top-down decision-making by church leaders, it emphasizes that all baptized members should listen to one another, pray together, and help guide the Church’s mission.

Synodality is the theological and practical style of the Church where the entire community—laity, clergy, and bishops—journeys and works together. It emphasizes active participation, mutual listening, and shared discernment to discover where the Holy Spirit is leading the Church in its mission.

We recall that the purpose of the Synod is not to produce documents, but to plant dreams, draw forth prophecies and visions, allow hope to flourish, inspire trust, bind up wounds, weave together relationships, awaken a dawn of hope, learn from one another and create a bright resourcefulness that will enlighten minds, warm hearts, give strength to our hands.

Etymology and Core Concepts

· Origin: Derived from the Greek word synodos, which translates to “traveling together” of “walking the same road”.

· Greek Root: syn (”together”) and hodos (”way” or “journey”).

· Core Philosophy: It moves away from purely top-down governance, promoting collaboration to ensure that every member of the Church has a voice.

From the Jesuit Review, America, June 26, 2026

Over the past few months, I’ve witnessed two occasions where we badly needed Synodality as initiated by the Second Vatican Council over sixty years ago and found no evidence of anything anywhere close.

In one case our local diocese closed a vibrant, self-supporting, growing in membership parish that served its community continuously since 1880 despite pleas from many places. I am a parish member there since 1993, a contributor to the weekly bulletin as the writer (more like storyteller) of an article whose collection was under the concept of ‘Our Thoughts’, not mine, but His and our parish’s reflection on them. I was a lector and a eucharistic minister to the sick.

Photograph compliments of Fishtown Productions. Some members of the parish being shuttered as a community as they prepare for the inevitable.

The other case happened to me.

When in a discussion with a priest about what to do with the psychological implications of surviving a messy divorce that severely damaged my family and myself – my children ‘ghosted’ me nine months ago though I still do not know the reason why.

He told me that until I sought an annulment, I could not receive the eucharist.

It rattled my faith like nothing has.

It’s because I lived under the same roof as another divorced catholic, for whom I am the caretaker for the last two years. I married her civilly to protect her in case something happened to me. Kind of like a C.S. Lewis moment with Surprised by Joy. He married Joy (an American divorcee) for much the same reasons. My platonic love for her is deep now, as deep as it gets, as we share the same faith and we both love Jesus first and foremost.

Now, I cling to it because I know, with zero feeling, that my faith in my Jewish Boss, who saved us all two thousand years ago, must remain the single guiding feature of my life, even though I sense/feel nothing at all for the first time in my life.

Stay the course…

I always surmised there are three types of Catholics.

1) Those who blindly follow the hierarchy of the Church, no questions asked.

2) Those who just get fed up with all the influences imposed by men over the last two millennia.

3) Those of us who stay to fight it out sticking to the true message of our Lord and Savior while battling the inequities imposed upon us by millennia of ‘doctrine’ composed exclusively by men.

There is in America, a large section of Bishops who oppose the Pope. They do not follow His lead as the head of the Church who deserves their obedience. Sometimes it makes the news.

In many cases, I witness this often in my own diocese back home in the Great Lakes State and now this new one in the Great Pacific Northwest.

Pope Leo reaches out to us all the time and many Bishops here in America just refuse to let His instructions through or to act accordingly. You must go to the Vatican news or some independent publisher for the ‘real’ news in truth or the occasional one that might make the spun mainstream media.

If it were not for Jesus, one could get mighty angry, resentful, begin to question their faith for the first time ever.

If we truly lived Synodality, as a church, would our example show some governments who are way off track, particularly my own, a way to ‘do it better’?

I pray Lord, hear our prayers, especially those of us with very heavy hearts.

Please.

We do not want the devil of discouragement in our lives. We just want You.

Clement

fishtownproductions.com… clementcharles.org… clementcharles.substack.com… clementcharles.bsky.social

Checking out a local Byzantine Catholic Church this weekend. They are in full communion with Rome and recognize the Pope as the head of the Church. They are also the original Catholic church.

Compliments of Cole Burston. Getty Images. An example of how far synodality can go!