synodality

Pope Francis ‘option for the poor’ means living and thinking with the people

The English-speaking world has tended to appraise the pontificate of Francis in terms of a pastoral aggiornamento inspired by the traditional principles of the church’s social doctrine, even while pointing out the more radical aspects of the pope’s assessment of current economic and political models.

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Pope Francis seeks a synodal church that is always reforming

The Second Vatican Council was a council of reform. We see this in the speeches Popes John XXIII and Paul VI delivered at the beginning of the first and second periods of the council’s work. The former spoke of aggiornamento (“updating”). The second spoke of renovatio ecclesiae (“ecclesial reform”). Even using an expression of Luther, the decree on ecumenism — Unitatis redintegratio — speaks of ecclesia indiget reformation (“church needing reformation”).

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