In his first words from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Leo XIV said, “We must seek together how to be a missionary church.” The comment suggested continuity with Pope Francis’ efforts to close the gap between Gospel proclamation, or what the church preaches about Jesus’ life, and institutional witness, or how the church embodies the Gospel in practice. One of Pope Leo’s most important responsibilities will be to carry forward his predecessor’s hallmark initiative—synodality—as a means of bridging the divide between proclamation and lived witness.
Despite Francis’ efforts to bring about the Second Vatican Council’s bold hope that the church might manifest and exercise the mystery of God’s love, to paraphrase the “Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World” (No. 45), many Catholics continue to experience deep disillusionment with the church itself. They still see a painful distance between the church’s message and its actions. That tension was powerfully captured in an interview with the journalist Philip Shenon, whose most recent book, Jesus Wept, reflects on the last seven papacies. When asked, “How do you regard the value or harm of [the Catholic Church]?”, Mr. Shenon responded:
That there is this institution that claims to act in [Jesus’] name, I think, would surprise the Savior…. [The disciples and apostles] would be enormously disappointed by how often the Roman Catholic Church fails to live up to the message of the Gospel and how often it has allowed itself to be corrupted by very human weakness.
As a married lay Catholic who has dedicated my life and work to the church, I find that Mr. Shenon’s words sting deeply. But they also surface a difficult reality. Far too many people still think of “the church” as the pope, the bishops and the ordained, without including the other 99 percent of Catholics. Until we think of the church as all baptized Catholics, we may never be able to escape Mr. Shenon’s scathing conclusion.
This is not because the clergy are not witnessing to the Gospel. But attributing the work of the church to the clergy alone overlooks how much the laity contributes to the church’s witness.
I am moved daily by the heroic ways in which Catholic laypeople, some under very difficult circumstances, witness to the life of Christ. Mr. Shenon’s criticism of the corruption found in the church may be justified, but it must be weighed against the profound witness of 1.4 billion Catholics and their influence on the world.
The work on synodality during Francis’ papacy helped to build the theological framework to change many Catholics’ mindset from thinking of their (the clergy’s) church to thinking of our church. Following upon concepts that came more fully to the fore at Vatican II, the theology of synodality roots our understanding of the church not in clerical status but in baptismal dignity. The church is the people of God, each member co-responsible for its life and mission. And the final document of the Synod on Synodality—developed by delegates, including laypeople for the first time, and fully affirmed by Pope Francis—makes clear that the church’s credibility depends on putting co-responsibility into practice, not just affirming it in theology.
Here lies the challenge. Structural reform is still needed for the church to fully embody co-responsibility. Laypeople at the parish and diocesan levels experience decision-making that remains overly clericalized. Mechanisms for lay participation at all levels of the church are weak or nonexistent. Even when canon law calls for consultation, lay input is frequently not respected. When the laity disagrees with the clergy, few formal processes enable fruitful dialogue, the protection of the laity’s rights under canon law, and respect for the laity’s ideas and capabilities.
The church’s hierarchical system has various ways to hinder, stall or disadvantage reasonable requests from the laity. I have observed parishioners who are frequently met with avoidance or dismissal when inquiring about the use of parish funds. I have witnessed entire ministries that serve minority communities being eliminated or drastically reduced without prior consultation.
Laypeople, hesitant to escalate every concern to higher authorities, often give up in the face of dysfunctional situations or contribute to personality-driven power struggles. Decision-making can devolve into a process about who you know and what information you hold. Exclusion from decision-making can then develop into disenfranchisement and departure from the church, especially by those accustomed to transparency and accountability in other areas of their lives.
Francis understood this, often calling out the clericalism that remains a serious impediment to co-responsibility—especially in settings where clergy and laity work together, but the clergy retains most decision-making power. Decision-making structures that disproportionately advantage the input and choices of the clergy over the laity testify to clericalism’s firm and enduring hold. The Synod on Synodality, perhaps Francis’ most enduring institutional legacy, modeled how the church might listen, discern and decide together, and how we can begin to remove barriers of access to the laity. For the first time, laypeople, including women, participated in Vatican synodal votes. This was no small gesture: It signaled a move toward ecclesial structures that reflect our shared baptismal responsibility.
But much remains aspirational. Deanery meetings, regional gatherings within a diocese, often exclude lay voices. Pastoral councils remain underused or disempowered. Vital decisions such as priest assignments rarely involve input from the communities affected. As the synod’s final document stated, “the dimension of authority’s being accountable to the community is in need of restoration” (No. 99). Without such accountability, trust erodes—and with it, participation.
Francis recognized that reform requires more than good will. By approving the final document of the Synod on Synodality, he encouraged bishops to experiment with localized solutions that reflect the church’s synodal theological convictions. The document reads: “It will be possible to proceed…to the creative activation of new forms of ministeriality and missionary action, experimenting and testing or verifying these experiences.” These experiments, though dependent on episcopal openness, could shape future canon law. The vision of synodality for the church includes structures of transparency and processes that honor mutual accountability, not just hierarchical reporting.
Will Leo XIV institutionalize the synodal vision Pope Francis championed? Or will this vision fade like other conciliar hopes before it? For now, there are early signs that suggest a continued commitment to the path of renewal through synodality.
If we truly believe that the church includes all the baptized, we need better systems of transparency and accountability so that the laity might truly participate co-responsibly in our church. Clergy and laity must discern together, evaluate together and hold each other accountable. Only then will people begin to see and experience the church in its fullness, as the people of God, and the transformative effect the Gospel has on the world.
