Census Fidei? Methodological Missteps Are Undermining the Catholic Church’s Synod on Synodality

The Public Discourse ^ | January 8, 2023 | Mark Regnerus

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Census Fidei? Methodological Missteps Are Undermining the Catholic Church’s Synod on Synodality

As a social scientist, I have grave concerns about the methodological mess that has characterized this synod’s massive, unwieldy data-collection-and-analysis venture.

“Synodality” is a confusing word that attentive Catholics are discussing these days, but its meaning is fairly mundane. “Synodality” refers to the active participation of all the faithful in the life and mission of the Church, while “synod” refers to a council or gathering of church leaders not unlike those in other Christian communions. In the Catholic Church, a synod is primarily composed of bishops, who deliberate about a particular matter or theme under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In the present case, the October 2023 synod is about synodality itself—a deliberation about the nature of authority within the Catholic Church, an institution more associated with hierarchical than horizontal structures.

A central theme of the current papacy has been to bring about more lay involvement in the Church’s governance, and perhaps greater democratization, flexibility, and autonomy.

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Emotive terms saturate the document. For example, the word “feel” appears twenty-five times, including “[I]f the Church is not synodal, no one can really feel fully at home.” (What does this mean?) The term “dialogue” shows up thirty-one times, “discernment” twenty-eight times, “listening” thirty-eight times, “experience” forty-three times, “journey” thirty-three times, and versions of “welcoming” eighteen times. Exactly whose voices are these?

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