Noted academic and public intellectual Professor Michael W. Higgins, a Vatican synod veteran, likens the energy emanating from Pope Francis’s Synod on Synodality to the mood at the Second Vatican Council of 1962-1965.
Higgins will offer insights into the synodal process – and why he feels this synod is unique — when he delivers a public lecture, The Consolation of Synodlity, at the University of St. Michael’s College on Tuesday, September 17, at 6 p.m. The lecture is delivered in his capacity as the university’s Distinguished Basilian Fellow in Contemporary Catholic Thought.
“There is a sense of hope,” says Higgins, who attended the first sessions in Rome in 2023 to produce articles for various media outlets as well as to conduct research for his new book, The Jesuit Disruptor: A Personal Portrait of Pope Francis, marking the fourth synod he has witnessed. He will return to Rome next month for the second round of meetings. This synod “has broken through the curial veil. It’s refreshing, different, so welcome. It’s liberating from the way things are done in Rome,” he says.
Synods provide an opportunity for Church members – bishops and other clerics and experts– to gather to discuss topics of importance. This synod has included the opportunity for laypeople around the world to send their thoughts to the synod’s secretary general.
The highly energized feel of the Bergolian synod is the result of numerous aspects, Higgins says, from the participation of women theologians and nun scholars to the presence of energetic and extremely knowledgeable journalists asking key questions.
“When you have media in attendance you have energy. I often think ‘This must be what it was like in the days of the council’,” he says, adding that the journalists are not tied to a position and thus can further encourage discussion and debate through their coverage and questions.
He describes synod press conferences as “remarkably open to serious questions,” noting that, in the modern era, with media as witnesses, once critical issues are raised the Church cannot go back.
Labelling the synod as the “defining feature of (Pope Francis’s) papacy”, he says that signs matter to the pope, whose primary mission is one of mercy. He wants the experience to be a “vessel of hope” at a time when people are focused on the negative.
As an example, he cites Pope Francis’s appointment of author and editor Fr. Jame Martin, S.J., known for his work with New Ways Ministry, an advocacy organization for LGBTQ+ people, as a voting delegate.
“People matter more than ideas,” Higgins says of the synod dynamic, adding that the 365 delegates bring competing geographic and cultural issues to the tables of 10 delegates and two staff members. For example, while German bishops are talking about the local crisis in vocations, women theologians from Africa are talking about ending misogyny in the seminary.
In explaining the synodal process, Higgins cites theologian Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, OP, who likens the experience to an orchestra, where all the members need to play together. A good conductor, he adds, knows how to elicit beautiful music.
“The synod can only do so much,” says Higgins, who stresses that in a universal church it will take time to see the impact of the prayer, discussion and study that are the result of the 2021-2024 synodal process. “And if a synodal approach replaces a magisterial one it’ll take decades.”
The Consolation of Synodality is being hosted by St. Michael’s in celebration of The Jesuit Disrupter, which Higgins describes not as a biography but a personal portrait of the current pontificate, offering his insights into Francis’s understanding of Christian formation. The book, released this month, is published by House of Anansi Press. Please RSVP to attend the September 17th lecture.