Notes

• [1]
  Pope Francis, Address on the 50^th Anniversary of the Institution of the Synod of Bishops, October 17, 2015: AAS 107 (2015).
• [2]
  Aldo Martin stressed that: “The concept of synodality which only appeared in theological, canonical and pastoral language in recent decades, seems to be rooted in Sacred Scripture: this is what shines out so evidently in the itc text”, making it possible to delineate, “a purely biblical synodal ecclesiology which could be systematically exhibited by articulating the following historical-narrative steps – a called, realized, structured, missioned and eschatologically oriented Church” (Appunti per un’ecclesiologia biblica a carattere sinodale. L’utilizzo della Sacra Scrittura, in La sinodalità nella vita e nella missione della Chiesa in La sinodalità nella vita e nella missione della Chiesa. Commento a più voci al Documento della Commissione teologica internazionale, edited by P. Coda and R. Repole [Bologna: edb, 2019] p. 19-20).
• [3]
  In this regard Roberto Repole emphasizes in the itc document, “the capacity to distinguish and correlate synodality and episcopal collegiality”, thereby leading, “clearly beyond the vision which seeks to identify synodality with episcopal collegiality; it is a matter of an element which is anything but secondary!” (Verso una teologia della sinodalità. Alcune considerazioni di fondo in relazione al secondo capitolo del documento, in La sinodalità nella vita e nella missione della Chiesa. Commento a più voci al Documento della Commissione teologica internazionale, cit., p. 50 and 52).
• [4]
  Pope Francis, Address on the 50^th Anniversary of the Institution of the Synod of Bishops, cit.
• [5]
  C. Simonelli, Memoriale del futuro. Il ricorso alle fonti come principio dinamico, in La sinodalità nella vita e nella missione della Chiesa. Commento a più voci al Documento della Commissione teologica internazionale, cit., p. 30.
• [6]
  R. Battocchio, Sul paragrafo 1.3 del documento La sinodalità nella vita e nella missione della Chiesa. Lo sviluppo della prassi sinodale nel II millennio (nn. 31-41), ivi, p. 40-41.
• [7]
  The Ravenna Document is the result of the Commission’s Tenth Plenary Session (Ravenna, October 8-14, 2007); the English original can be consulted on the Holy See’s website: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/ch_orthodox_docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_20071013_documento-ravenna_en.html. Italian, French and German translations of the document by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity are available. In his Address to the Delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople on June 27, 2015, Pope Francis reaffirmed that, “The careful examination of how in the Church the principle of synodality and the service of the one who presides are articulated, will make a significant contribution to the progress of relations between our Churches”.
• [8]
  The First Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution De Ecclesia Christi, Pastor aeternus, dh 3059. See the Second Vatican Council Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 18.
• [9]
  The First Vatican Council Dogmatic Constitution De Ecclesia Christi, Pastor aeternus, dh 3074. See the Second Vatican Council Concilio Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 25.
• [10]
  In paragraph no. 40 of the document, “Sensus Fidei in the Life of the Church,” the itc explains that «What it excludes is the theory that such a definition requires this consent, antecedent or consequent, as a condition for its authoritative status».
• [11]
  In my opinion, one of the most important gains in the document should be noted in the fact that episcopal conferences are recognized as structures specifically for the exercise not only of collegiality, but synodality as well at the same time (see nos. 7, 66, 89-91). In the second place, there is the fact that ample and articulated space, in general, is given to the theological and pastoral meaning of groupings of Churches on a regional and continental level (see nos. 85-87, 92-93). It is a matter of an acquisition indicating an orientation in harmony with Pope Francis’s explicit resolution to decentralize, beginning with the Evangelii gaudium. The most remarkable theological element in this context consists precisely in the value given to the dynamics of collegiality and synodality in the different geographic and cultural milieus where the one catholic Church takes on flesh in the koinonia of the different local Churches to exercise the diakonia of salvation with competent incisive impact in the cultural and social spheres.
• [12]
  Pope Francis’s recent apostolic constitution on the Synod of Bishops, Episcopalis communio, September 15, 2019, is important in this framework as an authoritative concrete sign of the commitment to renew this structure for the exercise of synodality on the level of the universal Church with the logic of activating «further development so as to do even more to promote dialogue and cooperation among Bishops themselves and between them and the Bishop of Rome» (no. 5).
• [13]
  Chieti Document, no. 1.
• [14]
  Ibid., no. 20.
• [15]
  Ibid., no. 21.
• [16]
  In this regard see A. Maffeis, La sinodalità come opportunità ecumenica, in L. Baldisseri (ed.), Il Sinodo dei Vescovi al servizio di una Chiesa sinodale. A cinquant’anni dell’Apostolica sollicitudo (Libreria Ed. Vaticana, Città del Vaticano 2016), p. 93-122; G. Gassmann, La sinodalità e il cammino ecumenico delle Chiese, in Associazione Teologica Italiana, Chiesa e sinodalità. Coscienza, forme, processi, a cura di R. Battocchio - S. Noceti (Glossa, Milano 2007), p. 109-112.
• [17]
  With the Ravenna Document, it is the first time in the Catholic-Orthodox dialogue that the issue of primacy on the level of the universal Church is confronted in a thorough way in the spirit of Apostolic Canon Paragraph 34. However, this does not mean reaching agreement concerning the tenor of historical testimony and concerning theological interpretations about the prerogatives of the Bishop of Rome as prótos on the universal level and the form in which such diakonía is to be exercised. Differences exist and persist in the understanding of both the way in which it must be exercised, as well as its Scriptural and Theological foundations deep down. I take this occasion to refer to my, The Concept of Unity in the Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, in POC 67 (2017), p. 276-293; and in general, J. Fameré’s, Scambio di doni: Chiesa cattolica e Chiese orientali. Per un consenso differenziato, in La riforma e le riforme nella Chiesa, cit., p. 408-421.
• [18]
  When he visited the Fanar for St. Andrew’s feast day on November 30, 2014, Pope Francis confirmed, “I want to assure each one of you here that, to reach the desired goal of full unity, the Catholic Church does not intend to impose any conditions except that of the shared profession of faith. Further, I would add that we are ready to seek together, in light of Scriptural teaching and the experience of the first millennium, the ways in which we can guarantee the needed unity of the Church in the present circumstances. The one thing that the Catholic Church desires, and that I seek as Bishop of Rome, ‘the Church which presides in charity’, is communion with the Orthodox Churches”.