The Synod teaches us that discernment, consensus-building, decision-making, transparency, accountability, and even performance evaluation must all be renewed if they are to serve a truly synodal Church. Reflecting on synodality, I see clearly that it requires nothing less than the conversion of these processes (cf. Final Document, 81-104).
The beating heart of this ecclesial conversion is at the local level. It is in the diocese, where the bishop, clergy, religious, and laity journey together, that synodality is tested and lived. I believe our bishop has a unique responsibility: he is both the guardian of apostolic tradition and the final decision-taker.
Yet, the Synod says his decisions must never ignore the voices of the People of God and must not depart from the fruits of consultation that lead to agreement.
The Synod’s view is this: decision-making and decision-taking are not rivals but partners. Decision-making is the shared process of mutual listening, discerning, and consulting–a breathing space where true and participatory communion is experienced. Decision-taking, on the other hand, belongs to those entrusted with ordained ministry, who bear the pastoral and theological duty of deciding in fidelity to Christ and in service to our Mother Church.
COMPETENT AUTHORITY
Synodality does not abolish hierarchy; it presupposes it. As St. Ignatius of Antioch reminded us: “Nothing without the bishop.” The bishop’s authority–and that of the episcopal college and the Bishop of Rome–is inviolable because it safeguards unity and apostolicity. The Second Plenary Council of the Philippines in 1991 was very clear on this: The bishop is the number one agent of renewal. He “is the visible foundation of unity in the diocese, but he can also be a stumbling block of this unity” (PCP II, Acts and Decrees, 59-60).
Hierarchical authority is not absolute power. It is pastoral service: a shepherd’s authority exercised in agape for the sake of synodal communion, participation, and mission. Then, the challenge is to hold these two together: wide participation that honors the dignity of all the baptized and Christ-instituted leadership that guides us. Only when both are embraced can we walk the synodal path as one People of God.
Correspondingly, I think it is urgent for bishops, together with their synodal teams, to strengthen diocesan councils–pastoral, financial, and lay councils–so that they truly reflect synodal and inclusive participation. This means revising statutes, clarifying provisions, and ensuring that these bodies are not token structures but real instruments of communion, participation, and mission.
In several forums I have attended, I have listened to lay leaders who feel unsure of what is expected of them. Others have said they feel reduced to passive recipients of decisions already made by their pastors. As I recall the words of St. Cyprian of Carthage, “Nothing without your advice and the consent of the People” (cited in Final Document, 88), their voices remind me that synodality cannot remain an idea but must take concrete shape in the life of the local Church.
In my understanding, decision-making and decision-taking belong to a single process, inseparable yet distinct. Decision-making is the murmuring of the Spirit in the Body, the fruit of dialogue, prayer, and discernment of all baptized. Decision-taking belongs to the bishop and legitimate pastors, but it must remain connected to the voices that preceded it. To act “as if consultation had not taken place” would be to wound the Body and obscure the Spirit’s work (cf. Final Document, 91).
CONSULTATIVE VOTE
“Consultative vote” in Canon Law? I know that some people point to Canon Law’s phrase tantum consultivum, or “merely consultative vote,” as if consultation were of little weight. But I see it differently. A wider synodal consultation is not empty, for it constitutes the Spirit speaking through the baptized. For this reason, I support a careful re-examination of Canon Law in light of synodality, so that consultation and deliberation are seen not as rivals but as complementary.
Authority in the Church, then, is not command from above but service within. It is harmonizing the apostolic authority of the bishop with the prophetic voice of the laity. True leadership listens, discerns, and acts in communion and participation. And when a final decision is made, I believe we are called to receive it not with blind obedience, but with reverent trust in the Spirit guiding the Church.
“Nothing without the consent of God’s People” is not just a slogan–it is a way of being Church. It reminds me that authority and participation, hierarchy and communion belong together, like different voices in one symphony conducted by the Holy Spirit.
José Mario Bautista Maximiano is the lead convenor of the Love Our Pope Movement (LOPM) and author of the book Church Reforms 4: Pope Leo XIV, Church Reforms, and Synodality (Claretian, 2025). Church Reforms 1, 2, 3, and 4 are available at Lazada and Shopee. Email: jomaximiano@gmail.com
