ROME — Welcoming the Italian bishops’ decision to begin planning a national synod, Pope Francis told them that it must begin at the grassroots with “the smallest parish, the smallest diocesan institution.”
“The synod must begin from the bottom up,” he told the bishops May 24 at the spring assembly of their conference. “This will require patience, work, allowing people to talk so that the wisdom of the people of God will come forth because a synod is nothing other than making explicit what Lumen Gentium said: The whole people of God – all of them, from the bishop on down – is infallible in belief,” the pope said. “They cannot err when there is harmony among all.”
Lumen Gentium, the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, said: “The entire body of the faithful, anointed as they are by the Holy One, cannot err in matters of belief. They manifest this special property by means of the whole peoples’ supernatural discernment in matters of faith when ‘from the bishops down to the last of the lay faithful’ they show universal agreement in matters of faith and morals.”
Pope Francis did not realize his introductory words were being broadcast. He had asked Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti of Perugia-Città della Pieve, president of the conference, if journalists were present. When the cardinal said no, the pope said, “I can speak freely now,” but the live feed continued for a few minutes.
The pope told the bishops he was pleased with the work they had done in reorganizing the diocesan and regional tribunals, apparently in reference to his earlier request that they be reorganized particularly to handle marriage cases more quickly and pastorally.
He also told them he was worried about the criteria used to admit men to diocesan seminaries, especially without checking whether they had been asked to leave other seminaries or religious orders.
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