Councils and Synods: A Conversation between Pope Francis and Robert Bellarmine

This paper argues that Pope Francis’s notion of synodality finds many precedents in the Tridentine theologian Robert Bellarmine. Francis links synodality to Vatican II’s emphases on episcopal collegiality, the people of god, and openness towards the world. Without denying the gap between post-Tridentine and post-Vatican II theologies, it will be argued that Bellarmine anticipated synodality by advocating for the positive “goods” of representation and consultation, which he thinks add credibility and prudence to ecclesial judgments. At the same time, Bellarmine balances Francis’s vision by treating synods as precursors of councils. When combined, Bellarmine balances Pope Francis’s papal decentralization agenda with a clearer role of papal primacy within a neo-conciliarist framework. A combination of Francis and Bellarmine’s vision helps nuance how synodality could be constitutive of the church while implying no more rupture than is necessary, and it avoids pitting synodality against episcopal collegiality by linking synodality to local church law.