The Synod proposes to associate the laity with the bishops' ad limina visits

The General Secretariat of the Synod made public, on 8 September 2026, the final reports of two of its study groups. Study Group No. 6 proposes to recast, "in a synodal and missionary perspective," the relations between bishops, the consecrated life and ecclesial associations; the second part of the report of Study Group No. 7, devoted to the ad limina visits, proposes to associate the lay faithful with them. Pope Leo XIV asked that these texts be circulated "to share with the whole People of God the fruits of the reflection and discernment."

The Secretariat is careful to specify that these are not "decisions already taken, but indications": proposals submitted to the Sovereign Pontiff, which the competent dicasteries will have to translate into concrete measures. We therefore report them as such, proposals and not laws.

Concretely, Study Group No. 6 asks for the appointment in each diocese of a delegate or vicar for the consecrated life, for obligatory contracts between dioceses and institutes governing "the mission, formation, gender parity, remuneration and administration of goods," and for "the full representation of consecrated persons and of the laity in decision-making bodies." Study Group No. 7 proposes that the bishop "convoke his people" so that it may take part "in a co-responsible manner" in preparing the report handed to the Successor of Peter. Cardinal Mario Grech sums up the two texts in the notion of "differentiated co-responsibility."

What the Church has always taught

The Church is not a democracy, and her authority does not rise from below. She is, by divine right, a hierarchical and unequal society. Saint Pius X fixed this in terms that admit of no ambiguity: "The Church is essentially an unequal society, that is, a society comprising two categories of persons, the Pastors and the flock... So distinct are these categories that with the pastoral body only rests the necessary right and authority for promoting the end of the society and directing all its members towards that end; the one duty of the multitude is to allow themselves to be led, and, like a docile flock, to follow the Pastors."

The bishop holds his charge from Christ, transmitted through the See of Peter, and not from the consent of those he governs. The ad limina apostolorum visit is precisely the expression of this order: the bishop renders account of his flock to the Successor of Peter, upon whom the Church is built (Mt XVI, 18). The movement is ascending, toward Peter; it is not circular.

The measure

Set against this principle, the proposals reverse its direction. To "convoke the people" in order to prepare the ad limina visit is to treat the bishop's rendering of account to Peter as though it also belonged to the flock; to demand "the full representation" of the laity "in decision-making bodies" is to confuse consultation, which the Church has always practised, with decision, which belongs to the pastor alone. "Differentiated co-responsibility" may cover the first, legitimate sense; it becomes rupture the moment it assigns to the multitude a share of the government that Christ entrusted to the Apostles alone and to their successors.

That the vocabulary of "gender parity" should be destined to appear in contracts between dioceses and religious institutes says well enough from what world these categories are borrowed. We do not prejudge what follows: these texts are, by their own admission, indications and not decrees. The orientation, however, is legible.

What the faithful should retain

Nothing here is yet law, and there is no cause to be alarmed at a law that does not exist. There is cause to hold firm to what the Church has always believed: that the government of the Church is entrusted to the pastors, that the obedience owed to them is not a servitude but the order willed by Christ, and that no assembly confers the authority that comes from on high. The tree is known by its fruits; but the vocabulary, already, lets the root be seen.

Sources. Pope St Pius X, encyclical Vehementer Nos (1906), on the hierarchical and unequal nature of the Church. Catechism of the Council of Trent (1566), on the sacrament of Holy Orders and the government of the pastors. Vatican Council, constitution Pastor Æternus (1870), on the primacy of the Successor of Peter. Gospel according to Saint Matthew, XVI, 18 (Vulgate).