Building synodal structures: a discipleship challenge

Q: Archbishop J, why the resistance to Synodality?

There is much conversation today about synodal fatigue and resistance. None of this should surprise us.

Synodality represents one of the most significant developments the Church has embraced since the Second Vatican Council. It does not change the Church’s hardware—her sacraments, her faith, her mission—but it profoundly transforms the operating system: how we listen, discern, decide, and act together.

At its heart, synodality invites us into deeper discipleship. It calls us to grow up spiritually; to be more intentional in the ordinary, everyday moments of Church life. That is both the grace being offered and the challenge before us.

Every genuine change in the life of the Church requires patience, humility, and long-term commitment. Synodality is no exception. It asks us to learn new skills—the skills of listening and discernment—and to cultivate new dispositions: silence, prayerfulness, inner freedom, and openness to the Spirit’s movement.

For many leaders, this request is not small. We are inviting people who have been highly competent in one way of operating to embrace a new way. That requires courage. It requires trust. Most of all, it requires grace.

The emotional pathway of learning

Whenever adults learn a new skill—whether it is playing an instrument, learning a language, or adopting a new leadership model—they pass through recognisable ‘Phases of Performance’:

1. Curious Phase – Low ability, high energy. We begin with enthusiasm
2. Confronting Phase – Low to moderate ability, low energy. Here is where frustration and doubt appear. We see clearly what we cannot yet do
3. Cautious Phase – Moderate to high ability, but fragile confidence. Growth is happening, but slowly
4. Achieving Phase – High ability, high energy. Competence becomes stable.

Much of what we call synodal fatigue is simply the emotional and spiritual labour of learning something new—especially for leaders who mastered the previous operating system.

The Synod’s Final Document reminds us that synodality requires not only new skills but a “conversion of heart, relationships, processes, and bonds”. This is not a minor update. It is the cost of discipleship.

Synodality as an adaptive challenge

Leadership theory helps us here. It distinguishes between technical and adaptive challenges.

• A technical challenge has a clear solution. Experts fix it. The system stays the same
• An adaptive challenge requires new learning and interior transformation. The system—and the people within it—must evolve.

Synodality is both an adaptive and a technical challenge. It calls us to conversion of heart, mind, and practice. It requires new ways of imagining parish life, diocesan life, and the life of the regional Church. This is long-term work. Not one year or three, but a generation. Yet it is also a technical challenges requiring tangible immediate attention to address the way we relate, listen and organise the parish.

So the key question is: How do we build synodal structures at every level of the Church—from small ministries to parishes, dioceses, and episcopal conferences?

New wine, new wineskins

The Second Vatican Council envisioned a Church where participation and co-responsibility were normal—not optional. Parish councils, diocesan synods, presbyteral councils, finance councils: these were meant to be the “wineskins” for communion.

But Vatican II did not hand us the operating system. In the absence of one, we relied on what we knew—business models, parliamentary procedure, corporate rhythms. We built ecclesial structures and then used secular tools to run them.

Today, the Holy Spirit invites us to renew these structures through synodality—a way of proceeding rooted in discernment, listening, dialogue, and grace.

This renewal requires four things:

• formation in discernment
• intentional participation
• interior conversion
• leaders who trust the Spirit enough to be guided by Him.

It is possible—and common—to have synodal structures that operate in a non-synodal way. That is a hard truth we must face.

Synodality is not about technique. It is about disposition. It is about allowing God’s grace to shape our conversations and decisions. “New wine requires new wineskins” (Mk 2:22).

The disciple-leader

Three convictions lie at the heart of a synodal Church:

1. The Holy Spirit is the protagonist of ecclesial life.
2. The whole People of God share in the sensus fidei—together we cannot err in fundamental matters.
3. Grace has primacy—every authentic discernment begins, unfolds, and ends in God’s initiative.

If these are true, synodality requires leaders who are not simply efficient administrators but mature disciples—men and women capable of guiding communities in discernment.

Christian tradition has always recognised stages of spiritual maturity: purgative, illuminative, unitive. St Paul speaks of spiritual infancy and spiritual adulthood. Not everyone is equally able to guide a community in discernment:

• Those in the purgative stage may be inconsistent
• Those in the illuminative stage become dependable
• Those in the unitive stage offer clarity, humility, and deep freedom

History reveals how leadership needs shift. In the era of the Papal States, we needed popes who could defend territory. After their loss, we needed spiritual masters. Today, we need leaders capable of fostering discerning communities.

Much of our so-called resistance is simply the recognition that synodality requires interior transformation—and transformation takes time.

Discernment as gift

Alongside skill and maturity, discernment is also a gift of the Holy Spirit. St Paul names it clearly; St Ignatius teaches its rules. Because it is a gift, we must pray for it, desire it, cultivate it, and expect the Spirit to speak.

True discernment requires interior freedom—the holy indifference that lets God’s will prevail over our preferences. When we cling to outcomes, the Spirit has little room to act.

In synodal life:

• The community, through discernment, makes a decision.
• The leader, in conscience, takes the decision formally.

Most times, they converge. At times, they diverge. If divergence becomes habitual, it signals that interior freedom is missing—either in the group or the leader. Perhaps, the next stage of the synodal journey is this: forming leaders and communities who desire the gift of discernment and who practice its disciplines.

The five components of synodal structures

Instead of framing synodality in terms of fatigue, it helps to see it as an integrated ecology composed of five interlocking elements:

1. The structure given by Vatican II
2. The people—mature disciples, capable leaders
3. The process—communal discernment
4. Clarity about decision-making and decision-taking
5. The intention shared by all—to seek and accomplish God’s will.

The Synod on Synodality itself modelled this. The delegates discerned and made decisions on the final text. Pope Francis, exercising his own discernment, took the decision to publish it as part of his magisterium. Discernment is always a partnership.

A Church fully alive in Synodality

When these elements harmonise, they form an ecology of grace: a Church where the Spirit truly leads. Such a Church:

• forms mature disciples
• strengthens leadership
• deepens mission
• draws close to the poor and vulnerable
• becomes a sign of hope in a fractured world.

A synodal Church will reach the abandoned with justice as well as mercy. It will stand firm against tyranny and be tender toward the powerless. It will be a Church where relating, listening, discerning and self-emptying is the usual way of being Church. She will speak boldly and walk humbly, trusting that the Lord is leading.

This is the Church our time needs. This is the Church the Spirit is fashioning. This is the discipleship challenge before us—and discipleship costs, not less than everything.

But perhaps this is the new springtime St John Paul II foresaw—a Church renewed through discernment, communion, and the primacy of grace.

Key Message:

Synodality is renewing the Church. We must be patient as we learn to lead in this new way of a discerning Church.

Action Step:

Pray for the gift of discernment.

Scripture for Reflection:

Romans 12:2