This week on “Jesuitical,” Zac and Ashley bring listener questions about the synod to America’s veteran Vatican correspondent, Gerard O’Connell.

In this episode, host Colleen Dulle and veteran Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell discuss the “dubia” and what Pope Francis’ responses, sent earlier this summer, reveal about the pope’s approach to these closely-watched topics as the synod begins.

Pope Francis did not attend Vatican II, but from the beginning of his pontificate, he set out with determination to continue its implementation.

At the opening of the General Assembly of the Synod, Pope Francis warned against a vision made up of “human strategies, political calculations or ideological battles.”

But it shouldn’t be as simple as that.

Pope Francis prays alongside 12 Christian leaders at an ecumenical prayer vigil in St. Peter's Square days before the Synod on Synodality that 'the Holy Spirit will purify the church from gossip, ideologies, and polarization.

Preparations for the upcoming Synod have prompted an important question: How might the local church of the United States become a powerful witness of the good news amid cries for racial healing and justice?

In an interview with La Civiltà Cattolica, Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernández reflected on his mandate from Pope Francis to “promot[e] theological knowledge” rather than to correct “doctrinal errors.”

“This is what the pope is asking of us,” Cardinal-designate Christophe Pierre said. “We are not only defenders of ideas, because if I defend only one idea, whoever disagrees with me becomes my enemy.”

On the plane home from Mongolia, Pope Francis answered several questions about this October’s synod of bishops.