In my previous post (HERE), I commented on Pope Francis's quotes at a mass celebrating the Holy Spirit's approach to mankind after Jesus Christ ascended to heaven, Pentecost. On May 28, 2023, the Pope related that event to the upcoming Bishops' Synod on Synodality (link HERE with reference at bottom of post):
The Catholic Church's current Synod of Bishops should not be a "parliament for demanding rights," but a journey in accordance with the Spirit.
He emphasized, "the Holy Spirit is the heart of synodality and the driving force of evangelization."
But from the same homily, Francis warned, "We often hear so many so-called thinkers and theologians who give us cold doctrines that seem mathematical because they lack the Spirit."
I mentioned that
the Holy Father's comments brought out three major themes: the Holy Spirit;
Church synods; and certain theologians.
Though these themes
are interwoven, in my second post, I'll address Church synods, along with a
closely related subject, Catholic Church councils.
Since it began around 2000 years ago, the Catholic Church has had 21 official ecumenical (worldwide) councils,
listed in Catholic Answers Website HERE. The Pope doesn't have to attend these meetings
of bishops but has to approve their concluding documents.
In addition, there are other meetings of bishops that are known as synods. They can be restricted to a certain geographical location. Also, a synod can be a meeting of bishops called by a pope to discuss a topic of theological or pastoral significance in order to prepare a document of advice or counsel to him. In an effort to keep the spirit of Vatican II (concluded in 1965) alive, Pope Paul VI enacted regularly spaced bishops' synods since then.
Though we might
expect all meetings of Catholic bishops, many of whom have advanced to
cardinals at this stage, to be smooth going, history shows this was not the
case. Two particular situations were especially contentious for long periods of
time.
One was the Arian
heresy. It started when a man named Arius claimed that Jesus Christ was not a
Person of God but rather made by God to be somewhere between God and humans as
a mediator.
For a very in-depth report of that controversy, you can refer to a book, entirely online, by John Henry Cardinal Newman called, Arians of the Fourth Century (link HERE). You can also read a shorter summary under “Arian controversy” at Wikipedia HERE.
There were many synods between the two Councils that are considered the ones that officially condemned Arianism (which were Nicaea in 325 AD and Constantinople I in 381 AD). A list of the intervening meetings is found in Note 6 of Cardinal Newman's book (link HERE). These sometimes pronounced in favor of Arianism. There were various locations of all the synods due to various factors, even prevailing illnesses, so the events can be hard to follow. But in one of these Catholic Church synods the Arian heresy was supported even by a pope's signature (Pope Liberius at the Synod of Sirmium in 357 AD).
In those days, emperors got involved with religion, so some of the divisions were due to their interference. However, there were genuine disagreements between leaders of the Church, especially along what were considered geographical lines of East (Constantinople) and West (Rome).
It is relevant to the current synod to say that the laity were intimately aware of the Arian heresy over these years and actively fighting it. Cardinal Newman felt free to give his view (Note 5 HERE) in Arians of the Fourth Century:
The episcopate, whose action was so prompt and concordant at Nicæa on the rise of Arianism, did not, as a class or order of men, play a good part in the troubles consequent upon the Council; and the laity did. The Catholic people, in the length and breadth of Christendom, were the obstinate champions of Catholic truth, and the bishops were not.After mentioning exceptions on both sides, such as Athanasius, he adds to the above quote:
This is a very remarkable fact: but there is a moral in it. Perhaps it was permitted, in order to impress upon the Church at that very time passing out of her state of persecution to...her long temporal ascendancy, the great evangelical lesson, that, not the wise and powerful, but the obscure, the unlearned, and the weak constitute her real strength. It was mainly by the faithful people that Paganism was overthrown; it was by the faithful people, under the lead of Athanasius and the Egyptian bishops, and in some places supported by their Bishops or priests, that the worst of heresies was withstood and stamped out of the sacred territory.
Another example of
Councils that did not bring immediate solutions were those of Pisa in 1409 and
Constance in 1414 to 1418. In 1309, the geographical center of the Catholic
Church had been moved from Rome to Avignon, France, largely due to political
interactions with the pope and the king of France at the time (info HERE). In 1377, it returned
to Rome, led by Pope Gregory XI. When he died and a new pope, Urban VI, was
elected, he was critical of the cardinals who had lived in luxury in France. Some of them then returned to France
in 1378 and elected an anti-pope, Clement VII. About 30 years later, some of the leadership got the
Church into even more of a bind when they attempted to replace 2 popes at a
meeting in Pisa in 1409, when they elected a new Pope. However, instead of the
desired result of a total of one pope, the election was contested and the Church now had 3
popes.
At Constance (info HERE), the
participants eventually emerged with one pope. However, they claimed supremacy
of Church councils over the pope in certain cases, and pronounced that councils
should be held every 10 years. This is known as conciliarism and was declared heretical by Pope Pius II in 1460.
I hope you have
seen it can take time to work out where the Holy Spirit is truly leading us
when it comes to Catholic Church councils and synods.
References
Justin McClellen, "Pope on Pentecost: Synod is a journey in the Spirit, not 'a parliament,'" Catholic News Service, May 28, 2023. https://www.usccb.org/news/2023/pope-pentecost-synod-journey-spirit-not-parliament
Karl Keating, "The 21 Ecumenical Councils," Catholic Answers, 6/1/1993. https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/the-21-ecumenical-councils
John Henry Newman, Arians of the Fourth Century, (Longmans, Green and Co., 1908). https://www.newmanreader.org/works/arians/index.html
“Arian controversy,” Wikimedia Foundation, last modified March 1, 2023, 12:41 (UTC). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arian_controversy
“Council of Constance,” Wikimedia Foundation, last modified July 12, 2023, 05:28. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Constance
