Receiving Vatican II through the Synod on Synodality: The Process, the Outcome and the Challenge of Implementation in a Worldwide Church

Myriam Wijlens

doi:10.31261/SSHT.2025.58.1.03

Published: 2026-03-25

Vol. 58 No. 1 (2025)

Receiving Vatican II through the Synod on Synodality: The Process, the Outcome and the Challenge of Implementation in a Worldwide Church

Myriam Wijlens

Section: Scientific articles

https://doi.org/10.31261/SSHT.2025.58.1.03

Abstract

Sixty years after the promulgation of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen gentium, pope Francis convoked the Synod on Synodality. With the Synod the church has entered into a new phase of its reception. Possibly one of the most relevant fruits of the synod was the transformation from a static church with occasional modifications to a church characterized by a permanent flow leading to a continuous circularity. This was given shape in the interaction of the local church with the church universal which in turn was expanded by an awareness of the catholicity of the church in which there is an exchange of gifts. The process created an awareness of context and diversity beneath which there is a deep sensed unity. The formal closing of the Synod in 2024 coincides with the inauguration of the implementation. Canonical provisions have a specific task in this. The study attends to synodal participative bodies at all levels of the church. Special consideration is given to the diocesan pastoral council, episcopal conferences and plenary and provincial councils.

Keywords:

synod on synodality , canon law , unity of the Church , local Churches , primacy and synodality

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Wijlens, M. (2026). Receiving Vatican II through the Synod on Synodality: The Process, the Outcome and the Challenge of Implementation in a Worldwide Church. Silesian Historical and Theological Studies, 58(1), 36–63. https://doi.org/10.31261/SSHT.2025.58.1.03

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