From Collegiality to Synodality: Promise and Limits of Francis’s ‘Listening Primacy’

Synodality is a key term to understand Pope Francis’s ecclesiology. This article analyzes Francis’s use of synodality in the major documents, the speeches, and in the most important moment of his pontificates, especially in the Bishops’ Synods. The goal of this study is to highlight the promise and accomplishments of Francis’s synodality especially in terms of the conversion of the papacy into a listening primacy. This article also wants to raise some issues about the limits of his theology and practice of synodality in the global Catholic Church of today, and in particular whether there can be a synodal reform of the Church without new institutions of synodality.