The congress, which immediately followed the month-long meeting of the second session of the Synod on Synodality at the Vatican, featured many of the experts who presented at four theological forums during the synod assembly.

Theologians and others involved in the October meeting of the Synod on Synodality gathered this week to offer their expert opinions on the synodal process as it moves toward the “reception” or implementation phase.

The academic conference, “From Council to Synod: rereading the journey of the Church, 60 years after Lumen Gentium (1964-2024),” was hosted by the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome from October 28 to 30.

“We are still in this synodal process, and with the approval of the final document, in fact, the third phase of the synod opens, which is the reception,” said Father Dario Vitali, professor of theology and theological coordinator of the Synod. on synodal assemblies.

Speaking at the opening of the conference on October 28, Vitali said: “It will be the Churches above all that will do the work (of implementation), but it is also important to have an event like this in which the theological experts and canonists who participated In the synod sessions they can offer their reflection after having served in the assembly, a reflection based on experience.”

The congress, which immediately followed the month-long meeting of the second session of the Synod on Synodality at the Vatican, featured many of the experts who presented in four theological forums during the synodal assembly.

Among them were the theologians Father Gilles Routhier, Father Carlos Galli, Cardinal Archbishop-designate Roberto Repole, Thomas Söding and the canonists Myriam Wijlens and Father José San José Prisco.

Synod leaders also participated in the three-day academic event, including synod general secretary Cardinal Mario Grech and synod special secretaries Jesuit Father Giacomo Costa and Father Riccardo Battochio.

“There is an urgent need to foster dialogue between pastors and those involved in theological research,” Cardinal Grech said in his opening address on October 28.

“We could say that for something that closes, there is something else that opens,” he continued. “The final document, which is a mature fruit of the consensus reached, is now returned to the holy people of God, because there is a circularity between the universal Church and the local Churches.”

“The celebration stage ends and the reception stage begins,” he said.

On the second day of the conference, focused on the topic of synodality and the role of the bishop, French-Canadian theologian Routhier highlighted how “episcopal conferences are not simply a grouping of hierarchs,” that is, bishops, “but they express the ‘communio ecclesiarum’”, the communion of the Churches.

Wijlens said in his presentation that “with this synod, Pope Francis has invited us to enter a process of reconfiguration of the active principles of the Church,” and “the people of God have entered this new path,” which represents a “Church on the move where canonical norms must provide for the realization of this path and not suffocate it.”

The third day of the conference was titled “The Church and its institutions: a reinterpretation from a synodal perspective.”

Cardinal Grech spoke at length about the connections between the Second Vatican Council and the Synod on Synodality and said he was glad that Pope Francis had chosen approve the final document of the synodallowing him to participate “in the ordinary teaching of the successor of Peter.”

“It seems to me that I can say that Vatican II has been the inspiring model, the safe horizon for the path taken until today, a kind of compass to guide the path of the Church, our path,” said the leader of the synod.

“It is not out of place,” he continued, “to speak of the synod as a moment of mature, or at least more mature, reception of the council.”

“It could be said that the final document once again proposes the ecclesiological doctrine of the council. In fact, here we see an advance in line with the Council, but that significantly advances the doctrine of the Council,” Grech said.

“But the final document not only takes up the advice: it rethinks it, translates it, and translates it into processes,” he added. “As in the case of the third part, dedicated to the conversion of processes, here participation in the decision-making processes is a topic that the council had no intention of touching.”

Veronica Giacometti, Antonio Tarallo and Marco Mancini of CNA’s Italian news partner ACI Stampa contributed to this report.