This session addresses how different Christian communities do or do not envision the life of the church in terms of Christian or human freedom.
In "Councils and Synods," Michael Greve argues that Pope Francis’s notion of synodality finds many precedents in the Tridentine theologian Robert Bellarmine.
In "Ecclesial Learning and Synodality as the Liberation of Magisterium" Jayan Koshy argues synodality reunites ecclesial learning with magisterial authority.
In "Freedom to be heard, Freedom to serve," Sean Thomas shows an ecclesiology of the Church as network which speaks directly to the Church’s dynamic relationality. Network ecclesiology can account for, advance, and suggest action on recent ecclesiological insights.
Finally, David de la Fuente's "The Freedom of Charism, History and Authencity" shows one way of refining the theology of charism is to draw on the resources of historicity and authenticity as they appear in the work of Bernard Lonergan and in the magisterium of Pope Francis.
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.
In light of the Catholic Church’s recent Synod on Synodality, synodality has been interpreted by some (especially disaffected Catholics) as a road to new ecclesial freedom, throwing off clericalist structures and doctrinal rigidity. However, such interpretations misconstrue the true nature of synodal freedom. Rather than a liberation from doctrinal authority, synodality represents a liberation of the Church’s teaching ministry, freeing it from artificially static divisions between the ecclesia docens and the ecclesia discens. Drawing on models of pedagogy from early monastic literature, this paper argues that synodality reunites ecclesial learning and magisterial authority, thus freeing and empowering the Church to teach with greater confidence and authenticity.
An ecclesiology of the Church as network speaks directly to the Church’s dynamic relationality. Network ecclesiology can account for, advance, and suggest action on recent ecclesiological insights. Data gathered through observation of the Synod on Synodality and interviews of participants and others present is used to correlate network science and ecclesiology to develop a network ecclesiology. Special attention is given to the women who lead Discerning Deacons. These ministers connect congregations and the recipients of their ministry. Their call to the diaconate was heard not only through their personal relationship with God but from God through the communities they served, initiating them into a networked relational ecclesial epistemology. At the Synod, they habitually acted in accord with network principles to balance proclamation of truth and implementation of the good. Network analysis situated in network ecclesiology enhances ministerial and synodal habitus by revealing the People of God in its entirety.
The emergence of controversies and cases of sexual or spiritual abuse in Catholic Charismatic residential covenant communities raises critical questions about the freedom accorded to charism in Catholic ecclesiology. To refine the theology of charism, this paper proposes to draw on the resources of historicity and authenticity as they appear in the work of Bernard Lonergan and in the magisterium of Pope Francis. From both Jesuit thinkers, one can derive key criteria for a longitudinal evaluation of charism: first, one must more fully explore the historical conditions of a charism’s emergence with an eye towards distinguishing the perception of the good in a charism’s cultural context. Second, one must make a distinction about how the Holy Spirit works “in the midst of” a phenomenon. As a result, the authenticity of a charism (and the freedom it should enjoy) is co-determined by the church and the world in dialogue.