Pope Francis has repeatedly insisted that "the Synod is not a parliament." The Synod on Synodality, however, recently concluded with a magisterial document approved by a two-thirds voting majority of an ostensibly-representative voting body. If this is not a parliament, then what is?
Drawing on analyses of the global Synod and the German Synodal Path, this paper argues for a qualified form of "synodal parliamentarianism": synodality develops an ongoing dialogue in the Vatican II-era between Catholic ecclesiology and liberal-democratic society, increasingly operationalized by deliberative structures that resemble parliamentary democracies. This transformation has tangible impacts both for Lumen gentium's proto-democratic theology of the laity and the Church's treatment of marginalized people, particularly LGBTQ+ Catholics. In future Synods, and in the synodal project more generally, the Church stands to learn that clear, binding, and even "democratic" structures are necessary to "journey together" in a contemporary context.