People are interested “in the small but sensitive changes to the issues we are preparing to tackle,” he added.
Vitali addressed the topics of authority and decentralization in the Church in light of synodality in a theological reflection for synod delegates.
“The synod process can be understood as the most complete exercise of synodality in the Catholic Church,” he said, and “starting from here we can begin to rethink ecclesial institutions.”
“But rather than listing individual reforms, criteria must be indicated that can inspire a reform of the Church itself in a synodal sense,” the Italian theologian said.
Synodality, he continued, “does not unilaterally emphasize the role of the people of God or that of the pastors, but of all the subjects — the people of God, the College of Bishops, the bishop of Rome — articulating dynamic unity, synodality, collegiality and primacy.”
In his own address to the assembly, Radcliffe said in its last module the Synod on Synodality will now consider “what new processes, institutions, and structures are needed.”
“These will not be solutions to management problems but fuller expressions of who we are,” he said.
“What institutions do we need to express who we are as men and women of peace in an age of violence, inhabitants of the digital continent?” the priest said. “Every baptized person is a prophet. How do we recognize and embrace the role of prophecy in the Church today? What about the prophetic voice of women, still often seen as ‘guests in their own house’?”
“The history of the Church is of endless institutional creativity,” Radcliffe underlined.