Pope Francis has approved the launch of a new three-year process promoting synodality in the worldwide Church, culminating in an ecclesial assembly at the Vatican in 2028.
In a March 15 letter to the world’s bishops, Vatican Cardinal Mario Grech said the pope had “definitively approved the start of a process of accompaniment and evaluation of the implementation phase” of the 2023-2024 synod on synodality.
Grech, the secretary general of the General Secretariat of the Synod, said Pope Francis had made the decision March 11, as he recuperated from double pneumonia at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital.
What’s planned for the next three years? And what’s an ecclesial assembly? The Pillar takes a look.
But first, a quick recap of how we got here.
Journeying together
On Oct. 10, 2021, Pope Francis celebrated a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica launching a global “synodal process.” The Church, he explained, would embark on a “journey together,” toward an assembly of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican.
“The synod is a process of spiritual discernment, of ecclesial discernment, that unfolds in adoration, in prayer, and in dialogue with the word of God,” he said.
Synod organizers say the somewhat improvised process that followed can be classified, with hindsight, into three phases.
The first was marked by “the consultation of the people of God,” at diocesan, national, and continental levels.
The second involved “the discernment of pastors” at the two sessions of the synod on synodality in Rome. The synod on synodality had several original features: a large number of “non-bishop” participants, including many women, round tables, and a discussion method known as “conversation in the Spirit.”
The third part is the implementation phase, which began the moment Pope Francis formally adopted the synod on synodality’s final document as “part of the ordinary Magisterium of the Successor of Peter” on Oct. 26, 2024.
Given the magisterial nature of the text, he said in a follow-up note in November 2024, it should be “welcomed and received” by Catholics around the world.
But how, exactly, are local Churches expected to implement the final document? After all, the text doesn’t present a simple checklist of changes to help realize its goal of forging a “missionary synodal Church.”
Even after the three-year synodal process, many Catholics would struggle to explain the term “synodality.” The final document defined the concept as “a path of spiritual renewal and structural reform that enables the Church to be more participatory and missionary so that it can walk with every man and woman, radiating the light of Christ.”
But that definition is arguably more aspirational than instructive. Which changes will promote authentic renewal and reform, and which will lead to a dead end?
At the end of the synod of the synodality, many Church leaders waited for further indications from Rome about how to implement the final document. Others confidently took decisions they believed to be “in the spirit of Pope Francis and the Synod of Bishops.”
Meanwhile, a body known as the XVI Ordinary Council, consisting mainly of figures elected by their peers at the synod on synodality, prepared a blueprint for the synod’s implementation, to be presented to Pope Francis so that he could decide what happens next.
A three-year plan
In his letter to bishops, Cardinal Grech said the pope had approved a three-year pathway to the 2028 Vatican ecclesial assembly.
He explained that in May 2025, the Vatican will publish a “support document,” offering local Church guidelines on the implementation phase.
From June 2025 to December 2025, local Churches and the international groupings they belong to will focus on “implementation paths.”
In the first half of 2027, dioceses worldwide will hold “evaluation assemblies.” In the first half of 2028, such assemblies will be held on a continental level.
In June 2028, the Vatican will drop a working document for the Vatican ecclesial assembly, which will be held in October of that year.
Grech told bishops the implementation phase should not be thought of “as merely the ‘application’ of directives from above, but rather as a process of ‘reception’ of the orientations expressed in the final document, adapted appropriately to local cultures and the needs of communities.”
“At the same time, it is essential to move forward together as the whole Church, harmonizing this reception across different ecclesial contexts,” wrote the Maltese cardinal. “This is the reason for the process of accompaniment and evaluation, which in no way diminishes the responsibility of each Church.”
Not a synod
Grech’s letter did not offer an exhaustive description of the 2028 ecclesial assembly. Indeed, he said little more than that it would not be “a new synod” and “the focus will be on consolidating the path taken so far.”
What’s the difference between a synod and an ecclesial assembly? In broad terms, a synod is a gathering largely of bishops, while an ecclesial assembly also includes many representatives from other walks of Church life.
For example, the first Ecclesial Assembly of Latin America and the Caribbean, held in Mexico City in November 2021, brought together around 200 bishops, 400 priests and religious, and 400 lay people to discuss the challenges facing the Church in the two regions.
The distinction between synods and ecclesial assemblies arguably has become a little blurred following the synod on synodality, given its broad list of participants. But by defining the 2028 event as an ecclesial assembly, the Vatican is marking it as something different from the periodic assemblies of bishops held in Rome since Paul VI established “a permanent council of bishops for the universal Church,” known as the Synod of Bishops, in 1965.
The synod on synodality’s official title was the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, signifying its position in the line of episcopal assemblies since 1965. But the 2028 gathering will have no such lineage.
Does this make the Vatican ecclesial assembly unimportant? Not according to Cardinal Grech.
In an interview with Vatican News, he said the Rome meeting would “be able to offer the Holy Father valuable insights — fruits of a real ecclesial experience — to aid his discernment as the Successor of Peter, with perspectives to propose to the entire Church.”
Grech presented the ecclesial assembly as the latest in a long line of firsts established by Pope Francis.
“I would say that the 2021-2024 synod was a ‘first’ in many ways,” he said. “It was the first time that the regulations of Episcopalis Communio [the 2018 apostolic constitution on the Synod of Bishops] were fully applied.”
“It was the first time that the entire Church — and everyone within it — had the opportunity to participate in the synodal process. It was the first time that non-bishop members participated in the assembly. It was the first time that a final document was immediately approved by the Holy Father, thus becoming part of his ordinary Magisterium.”
“Now, in the third phase of the synodal process, we have another first: an ecclesial assembly.”
While ecclesial assemblies have taken place at a regional level, they have never been held “at the level of the entire Church,” Grech noted.
While plans for the 2028 Vatican ecclesial assembly are at an early stage, they will be partly inspired by the continental gatherings during the consultation phase of the 2021-2024 synodal process.
What about the ‘study groups’?
Catholics following the global process closely may be wondering what happened to the 10 study groups that Pope Francis established in February 2024 to consider hot-button topics raised at the synod on synodality’s first session.
The pope asked the study groups to consider such controversial issues as the possibility of women deacons, reporting, if possible, by June 2025. By asking them to report months after the close of the synod on synodality, the pope effectively removed them from the assembly’s deliberations — to the frustration of some participants.
Grech told Vatican News that, as of March 2025, it was “still difficult to say when the groups will conclude their work.”
“As indicated a year ago when they were established, the groups are asked to present their conclusions to the Holy Father ‘possibly by June 2025,’” he recalled. “Some of the groups should be able to meet this deadline. Others, on the contrary, may need additional time, but will still offer an interim report on their work by the end of June.”
Also continuing its work is a canonical commission, established in October 2023 and available to advise the study groups, and a group focused on polygamy operating under the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM).
How will these bodies fit into the three-year plan ending with the ecclesial assembly?
In his letter to bishops, Grech said the new process would provide “the framework within which to place the many and diverse initiatives for implementing the orientations of the synod, particularly the results of the work of the study groups and the contributions of the canonical commission.”
How will all this activity be directed toward a coherent goal? While the cardinal did not explicitly address this point, he stressed in the Vatican News interview that the new initiative, just like the one before it, would take place under the guidance of the pope, “who is the principle of unity in the Church and the guarantor of the synodal process.”
