Could “Synodality” Defeat “Co-Responsibility”?

Abstract

Could “Synodality” Defeat “Co-Responsibility”? John C. Cavadini ALTHOUGH THE Preparatory Document for the sixteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops,1 and, even more, the Working Document for the Continental Stage of the “synodal journey” both feature the idea of “co-responsibility” in the Church, could it be the case that the notion of “synodality” as “the form, the style and the structure of the Church” (PD 2) tends in actuality to the erasure of “co-responsibility” as having any meaning independent of “synodality”? And, since the possibilities of genuine lay leadership in the Church derive from the idea of “co-responsibility,” could it be that “synodality,” though intending the contrary, actually tends towards the erasure of authentic lay leadership in the Church? That is the question that motivates this essay, which presents itself as an exercise in theology, that is, in “faith seeking understanding,” where the mystery of faith of which we are seeking deeper understanding is the mystery of the Church. I. The history of Co-Responsibility The idea of “Coresponsibility in the Church” emerged on the postconciliar scene in 1968 with the publication of the monograph of the same name written by Léon-Joseph Cardinal [End Page 289] Suenens.2 (We will return to a consideration of this book momentarily.) The term re-emerged in the twenty-first century with remarks of Pope Benedict XVI, which largely went unnoticed until they were brought back into prominence by a few scattered voices, perhaps most prominent among them the Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput as archbishop of Denver and, later, of Philadelphia.3 Benedict’s remarks are found, primarily, in two of his allocutions. The first and most substantial was his May 26, 2009 “Address to the Pastoral Convention of the Diocese of Rome,” speaking as the local bishop in his cathedral, the Lateran Basilica of St. John, with the title “Co-responsible for the Church’s Being and Action,” and the subtitle “Church Membership and Pastoral Co-responsibility.”4 The context of the speech is the Diocese of Rome’s renewed commitment to the priority of pastoral work in the local parishes. The second, much briefer, allocution was the 2012 “Message on the Occasion of the Sixth Ordinary Assembly of the International Forum of Catholic Action.”5 As I attempted to describe in an earlier essay,6 Benedict’s idea of co-responsibility flows from the mystery of the Church as expressed by the “twin images” featured as descriptions of the mystery of communion in the Church by Vatican II. This communion ultimately originates in the Trinity and is effected by the Eucharist: [End Page 290] The Church, which originates in the Trinitarian God, is a mystery of communion. . . . This communion is captured under the twin images of the “People of God” and the “Body of Christ,” where “People of God” expresses the continuity of the Church’s history, [and] “Body of Christ” expresses the universality inaugurated in the Cross and in the Lord’s Resurrection. By the “continuity of the Church’s history,” Benedict has in mind continuity with Israel, chosen with an orientation to a salvation with universal extension, an orientation to the Cross, for “in the Cross, St. Paul says, Christ broke down the wall of separation.” It is in Christ, as his body, that “we really become the People of God”: In giving us his Body, he reunites us in this Body of his to make us one. In the communion of the “Body of Christ” we all become one people, the People of God, in which to cite St Paul again all are one and there are no longer distinctions or differences between Greek and Jew, the circumcised and the uncircumcised, the barbarian, the Scythian, the slave, the Jew, but Christ is all in all. He has broken down the wall of distinction. This is why it is “in Christ” that we really become the people of God: “For us Christians, therefore, ‘Body of Christ’ is not only an image, but a true concept, because Christ makes us the gift of his real Body, not only an image of it. Risen, Christ unites us all...