{"id":6298,"date":"2025-02-05T19:13:46","date_gmt":"2025-02-05T19:13:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/iacs\/?p=6298"},"modified":"2025-02-05T19:59:10","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T19:59:10","slug":"about-the-pope-an-insiders-reflection-on-the-synod-on-synodality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/iacs\/2025\/02\/05\/about-the-pope-an-insiders-reflection-on-the-synod-on-synodality\/","title":{"rendered":"About the Pope: An Insider\u2019s Reflection on the Synod on Synodality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/iacs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2025\/02\/pope1-768x432.jpg\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/iacs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2025\/02\/pope1-768x432.jpg 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  role=\"none\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>About the Pope: An Insider\u2019s Reflection on the Synod on Synodality<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n    \n          <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span>Tricia C. Bruce, Ph.D., IACS Affiliated Research Scholar<\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">February 5, 2025<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--social-share \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--social-share\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"content-wrapper\">\n    <span class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list\" style=\"line-height: 32px;\">\n      <span class=\"title\">\n        Share\n      <\/span>\n                        <a class=\"a2a_button_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/#copy_link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Link\">\n            <span class=\"a2a_svg a2a_s__default a2a_s_copy_link\">\n              <svg height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 19 19\" width=\"19\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"m7.43475275 9.52380952-2.17490843 2.26076008c-1.08745421 1.058837-1.68841575 2.518315-1.68841575 4.0350275 0 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<p><em>Editor\u2019s note: Tricia C. Bruce, Ph.D., is an\u00a0<span style=\"color: #990000;\"><a style=\"color: #990000;\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/iacs\/affiliatedscholars\/\">IACS Affiliated Research Scholar<\/a><\/span>\u00a0and sociologist of religion with expertise in organizational, attitudinal, and generational change. She was appointed by Pope Francis as a consultor to the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/secretariat.synod.va\/content\/synod\/en.html\"><span style=\"color: #990000;\">General Secretariat of the Synod<\/span><\/a>, a body of bishops and other appointees helping prepare and implement themes identified within the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.synod.va\/en.html\"><span style=\"color: #990000;\">Synod on Synodality<\/span><\/a> \u2014 the multi-year, global conversation discerning future directions in the global Catholic Church. Her reflection below is the third in a four-part series. Read Part One: \u201c<span style=\"color: #990000;\"><a style=\"color: #990000;\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/iacs\/2025\/01\/22\/all-in-the-hall-an-insiders-reflection-on-the-synod-on-synodality\/\">All in the Hall<\/a><\/span>\u201d and Part Two: &#8220;<span style=\"color: #990000;\"><a style=\"color: #990000;\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/iacs\/2025\/01\/28\/where-women-sit-an-insiders-reflection-on-the-synod-on-synodality\/\">Where Women Sit<\/a><\/span>&#8220;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Prior to my role as Consultor to the Vatican\u2019s General Secretariat of the Synod, the closest I\u2019d been to Pope Francis was via bobblehead proxy. Day after day, he stood nearby on my desk, smiling nonstop, nodding frenetically, hand outstretched, waving. A stalwart supporter, albeit a bit stiff.<\/p>\n<p>For all the Church\u2019s talk about a \u201ccommon priesthood\u201d shared by all the baptized, it assuredly coexists with something akin to superhero fandom. It isn\u2019t lay people or priests or bishops and cardinals that people most ask me about from my time at the Vatican. It\u2019s the Pope. And it\u2019s true that I, myself, was irrationally enthusiastic about meeting the inspirational 87-year-old man, seemingly larger than life \u2013 the epicenter of a decidedly hierarchical Church.<\/p>\n<p>I was with Pope Francis within hours of arriving to Rome. There he was, across the Synod Hall, IRL. Real Pope Francis turned out to be taller than six inches and less frenzied with the nodding. His smiles intermixed pensive contemplation. He embodied his years. But he was vibrant and wholly alive, nonetheless. Present. Engaged. Spirited.<\/p>\n<p>When I introduced myself to him formally a couple days later, I thanked him for including the perspective of social science into the process of synodality. My Spanish was rusty.<\/p>\n<p>Everything and everyone around the Pope upheld the notion that he was special. His spot at an elevated roundtable, front-and-center. The lines to shake his hand during breaks. The way everyone and everything stopped when he spoke. And while the allure never wore off, I came to know Pope Francis as equally human, too. Sometimes tired, occasionally impatient, holding to humor and connection. Imperfect. I don\u2019t know why that felt surprising, but it\u2019s not often that you meet and interact with your superheroes in, well, prolonged committee meetings.<\/p>\n<p>You can\u2019t talk about change in Catholicism without talking about power and hierarchy. I\u2019ve learned this again and again as a sociologist of religion. Power limits Catholics\u2019 ability to secure or stop the suppression of <a href=\"https:\/\/global.oup.com\/academic\/product\/parish-and-place-9780190270322\">\u201c<span style=\"color: #990000;\">parish\u201d status<\/span><\/a>, for one, a designation enabled through canon law and decreed by a bishop whose own authority comes from the Pope. Felt inefficacy can occasion months-long vigils imploring bishops to change their mind. Even in independent and religiously plural western contexts like the United States, agency doesn\u2019t render power insignificant. Catholics don\u2019t get an equal say in decisions about the Church, on <span style=\"color: #990000;\"><a style=\"color: #990000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fordhampress.com\/9780823284344\/american-parishes\/\">parishes<\/a><\/span> or otherwise.<\/p>\n<p>The thing is, power is everywhere \u2013 power is which songs appear in the hymnal, who speaks the homily, who can take Eucharist, who baptizes the baby. Power is who wears a red hat or a pink hat or a white hat\u2014or no hat \u2014 in the Synod Hall.<\/p>\n<p>Parts of synodality diffused power as the Church had long come to know it. Lay people and bishops sitting at the same roundtable, speaking into the same issues. Prolonged dialogue around \u201cdecision-taking\u201d and \u201cdecision-making,\u201d the former born of hierarchical structures and long-standing tradition, the latter summoned toward listening and compulsory consultation.<\/p>\n<p>But synodality exposed the struggle to (re)think power, too. Words like \u201cco-responsibility\u201d combined with modifiers like \u201cdifferentiated\u201d \u2013 reifying how different people and positions necessarily participate differently. = Hierarchy.<\/p>\n<p>Sociologists distinguish the kind of power embedded in hierarchy as \u201clegitimate\u201d power. Or, more accurately, power accepted as legitimate. Power through authority.<\/p>\n<p>The Pope\u2019s own power loomed large. It mattered that he <span style=\"color: #990000;\"><a style=\"color: #990000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vaticannews.va\/en\/vatican-city\/news\/2024-03\/synod-briefing-grech-hollerich-documents-second-session.html\">relegated to study groups<\/a><\/span> topics deemed too controversial or complex to consider in the full assembly. It mattered that he characterized the question of women deacons as <span style=\"color: #990000;\"><a style=\"color: #990000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usccb.org\/news\/2024\/vatican-doctrinal-chief-tells-synod-its-not-time-women-deacons#:~:text=On%20the%20question%20of%20women,2.\">not yet \u201cmature.\u201d<\/a> <\/span>It mattered that he insisted that each paragraph in the final document be voted upon, its tallies publicized. And, in the end, it mattered that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usccb.org\/news\/2024\/final-synod-document-magisterial-must-be-accepted-pope-says\"><span style=\"color: #990000;\">he approved the final document<\/span><\/a> as \u201cpart of the ordinary Magisterium of the Successor of Peter,\u201d a \u201cform of exercise of the authentic teaching of the Bishop of Rome.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Synodality\u2019s power was conditioned on that of the Pope.<\/p>\n<p>Power manifested into hierarchy is not altogether incompatible with co-responsibility and shared decision-making. Living as community and getting things done requires both leaders and followers.<\/p>\n<p>But it can get kinda awkward.<\/p>\n<p>It might explain why bobblehead Pope Francis, here again with me now, stays hyper-alert, responsive to any move around him, perma-smiling.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6299\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6299\" style=\"width: 178px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-6299\" src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/iacs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2025\/02\/bobblehead3-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"A bobblehead of Pope Francis\" width=\"178\" height=\"237\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/iacs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2025\/02\/bobblehead3-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/iacs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2025\/02\/bobblehead3-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/iacs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2025\/02\/bobblehead3.jpg 1050w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 178px) 100vw, 178px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6299\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Pope Francis bobblehead. Photo courtesy of Tricia C. Bruce.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>Stay tuned for the fourth post in this four-part series. To learn more about Dr. Bruce and her work, visit: <a href=\"https:\/\/triciabruce.com\/\">https:\/\/triciabruce.com\/<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":6300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>About the Pope: An Insider\u2019s Reflection on the Synod on Synodality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/iacs\/2025\/02\/05\/about-the-pope-an-insiders-reflection-on-the-synod-on-synodality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"About the Pope: An Insider\u2019s Reflection on the Synod on Synodality - 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