Consensus among members plays major role at synod, theologians say

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Members of the synod on synodality are only moving along the paths where there is consensus, said a group of theologians assisting the synod.

However, while there may not be consensus on several issues when the second session of the Synod of Bishops ends Oct. 27, those questions will not disappear but will be studied further, the theologians told reporters during a Vatican briefing Oct. 16.

Father Dario Vitali, a professor of dogmatic theology at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University, is the coordinator of theological experts assisting the synod. He attended the briefing with two other theologians helping the synod: Father Ormond Rush, a professor at the Australian Catholic University, and Klara-Antonia Csiszar, a professor of pastoral theology at the Catholic University of Linz, Austria.

Theology plays an important role in helping the church learn and develop a new synodal style and culture, Csiszar said through an interpreter. The theological experts have been present throughout the synod sessions to assist members in this "learning process."

They provide guidance where there are gaps, help motivate participants when they do not see any possibilities for moving forward or when exhaustion often occurs, and help with criticism and constructive feedback, she said.

For example, Father Rush said, he was recently called to help one of the small working groups that found some confusion about the notion of "sensus fidei" or the "supernatural sense of the faith" of the whole people of God, a Latin term which appeared in the Second Vatican Council's 1964 document, "Lumen Gentium."

He said he explained "how through faith and baptism each individual is given this gift, not only of 'fides,' faith, but also of a 'sensus fidei,' a sense of the faith. That is, this capacity to apply it and interpret it in daily life."

The synod on synodality is about listening to the Holy Spirit, to the word of God and to the experience and the "sensus fidei" of each individual from many parts of the world, "and to come to some kind of consensus in the church," Father Rush said.

Theology's fundamental task, he said, is helping "Christian communities interpret and apply, for a particular time or a particular place, the meaning of the Christian Gospel."

With its conversations in the Spirit, the synod "provides an indication, we could say, a horizon and a direction for the journey, and that is expressed through consensus," Father Vitali said. "Consensus is exactly the concrete way by which … the church can walk today."

This is important for the third phase of the synodal process, he said, which is giving what came out of the second session back to the particular churches and the bishops' conferences for their reaction or "reception."

"Certainly, there is pushback on the very notion of synodality," Father Rush said, and perhaps that pushback also comes from the fact there have not been concrete responses at the synod's two sessions to several questions that have been raised.

"This is the matter of culture where particular cultures have issues with regards to, for example, the role of women and particularly these issues of LGBTQI+ and so on," he said.

People at the synod have been speaking up about gender and identity, he said, but there have also been others "who were uncomfortable about this. And so probably even over two sessions of the synod, there won't be a consensus of the whole church."

However, Father Rush said, those questions that have no consensus "won't go away."

"There are ongoing study groups that will be looking at these issues" as well as the teaching authority of episcopal conferences, which some are opposed to because of concern over what happens if the teachings are different in different parts of the world, he added.

A synodal assembly expresses a direction, Father Vitali said, and a synod has the authority, freedom and duty to study all issues and do "research within the church, which is theology."

"Theology certainly performs this task of advancing a deepening of the various issues so that it will be able to lead in the future toward a consensus. Where there might be consensus, there would open up a different scenario for the journey of God's people."