The final report from the canonical commission tasked with recommending changes to canon law that would aid the church’s synodal transformation was published on Wednesday, Sept. 30, to little fanfare. Its recommendations, though, which are now on Pope Leo’s desk, represent the first step toward codifying synodality into the church’s law.

The report looks at short-, medium- and long-term changes that could be made to canon law, ranging from relatively simple tweaks to saying that there is, in the long term, “obvious need for a complete revision” of the Codes of Canon Law that govern the Eastern and Western churches. At the same time, it acknowledges that its own work is incomplete because some guidelines are still to come from Study Group 7 on the juridical responsibilities of bishops.

Taken together, the proposed changes would give canonical weight to lay people’s role in decision-making, including legally requiring bishops to carry out certain consultations and adhere to certain transparency measures. The most interesting proposal, in my view, would allow bishops to appoint lay “episcopal delegates” who would be able to govern on the bishop’s behalf in certain areas of church life, in a similar way that clerics who serve as “episcopal vicars” currently can.

A number of the proposals underline the role of lay people in decision-making. The report acknowledges, as the synod’s final document did, that existing canon law already allows for more lay responsibility than is currently exercised in practice, and the commission suggests adding to Canon 208 (on the equality of “all the Christian faithful”) that “Competent ecclesiastical authority has the duty to recognize and promote” that equality. Likewise, a proposed change to Canon 212 says, “Pastors have the duty to listen to the opinion of the Christian faithful” on matters concerning the good of the church, making use of communal discernment methods.

More concretely, diocesan and parish pastoral councils would become mandatory, as was expected, and diocesan synods would have to be held every decade, with lay people making up the majority of participants.

Echoing a key point from the final document, the canonical commission also says that while a bishop’s decision-making authority does not change, he “may not ignore a direction which emerges through proper discernment within a consultative process,” giving genuine legal weight to a synodal group’s recommendations. (The report also repeatedly removes the descriptor “only” or “merely” consultative when describing consultations.) The diocesan presbyteral council, a consultative body of priests, would also have to approve the opening and closing of parishes and seminaries.

The canonical commission also proposes turning many of the church’s current “best practices” on financial transparency into legal requirements, making parish finance councils publish annual reports and, where possible, be independently audited; diocesan bishops would also have to establish formal accountability and evaluation systems with input from lay experts.

As expected, the commission’s proposals also include allowing lay people to serve as diocesan judges, removing the requirement for the bishops’ conference to approve lay judges; a lay judge could also govern over a case alone when a tribunal can’t be formed. Interestingly, the proposals also include removing the requirement for the Holy See to approve a lay person filing in when a priest or deacon is not available to witness a marriage. Instead, the bishop dispatching the lay person would need the approval of the bishops’ conference to give such permission.

In a significant symbolic move, the commission proposes changing the canon that governs infallibility in the church, replacing its first paragraph (“By virtue of his office, the Supreme Pontiff possesses infallibility in teaching…”) with the declaration from the Second Vatican Council that “The entire body of the Christian faithful, having received the anointing from the Spirit, cannot err in matters of faith,” and moving papal infallibility and the remaining text of the canon to subsequent paragraphs.

It of course remains to be seen what Pope Leo will actually do with the recommendations, though given that they are almost exactly what emerged from the full body of the synod in its final document, he may not want to ignore them. After all, per the recommendations, a bishop “may not ignore a direction which emerges through proper discernment within a consultative process.”

What will truly decide whether such changes take effect in practice, though, is not what changes in the letter of the law, according to two canon lawyers I chatted with about the commission’s work. Having seen the way that many canonical requirements are treated as boxes to be checked with minimal effort, revising the laws will not be enough to effect the church’s synodal transformation. That will require a change not just of laws but of hearts.

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Colleen Dulle is the Vatican Correspondent at America and co-hosts the "Inside the Vatican" podcast. She is the author of Struck Down, Not Destroyed: Keeping the Faith as a Vatican Reporter (Image, 2025).