synodality or evangelisation? process, power, and the unresolved crisis under pope leo xiv
The question now confronting the Church—whether she will be defined by synodality or restored to evangelisation—is not a matter of emphasis, but of identity. Recent commentary has suggested that Pope Leo XIV is quietly rebalancing priorities away from the procedural paradigm of synodality—that is, the model of governing the Church through structured consultation, listening processes, and collective discernment—toward the apostolic mandate of evangelisation. Yet such a reading, while superficially reassuring, risks obscuring a more fundamental problem: a shift in emphasis does not resolve a crisis whose doctrinal roots remain intact.¹
The Church does not exist to deliberate without end. She exists to proclaim. Before all structures, consultations, or pastoral frameworks, there stands the command of Christ: “Going therefore, teach ye all nations… teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.”² This mandate is not developmental. It is definitive. The Church is missionary because she is entrusted with a truth already revealed—not one to be negotiated through process.
The apostolic mandate and the non-negotiability of truth
The earliest witnesses of the Church understood her authority not as the product of consensus, but as the transmission of revelation. St Irenaeus of Lyons grounded ecclesial certainty in apostolic succession, insisting that the faith has been handed down publicly and verifiably through the episcopate.³ St Augustine of Hippo likewise affirmed that the Church’s role is not creative but custodial: she guards and transmits what she has received.⁴ Mission presupposes doctrine; proclamation presupposes authority. Where certainty is weakened, evangelisation inevitably falters.
From synod to system: the institutionalisation of ambiguity
Synods themselves are not new. What is new is the elevation of synodality into a governing paradigm. Under Pope Francis, synodality was described as “what God expects of the Church in the third millennium.”⁵ This formulation effectively reframed ecclesial life around process rather than proclamation. The consequences are now visible. The German Synodal Way advanced formal resolutions calling for the blessing of same-sex unions, reconsideration of priestly celibacy, and structural limitations on episcopal authority.⁶ These proposals directly engaged questions long treated as doctrinally settled—such as the Church’s consistent refusal to bless unions contrary to her moral teaching and the reservation of priestly ordination to men as definitively taught in the modern magisterium.⁷ At the universal level, the Synod on Synodality (2021–2024) repeatedly surfaced calls for the reconsideration of women’s ordination and moral doctrine, even where no formal changes were enacted.⁸ The effect was unmistakable: the appearance of doctrinal fluidity.
Modernism: the underlying framework
These developments are not isolated phenomena but expressions of a deeper theological pattern identified by Pope St Pius X as Modernism—the view that doctrine emerges from and evolves with human experience rather than being definitively revealed and binding. In Pascendi Dominici Gregis, he located its root in the relocation of religious truth from divine revelation to subjective experience.⁹ Contemporary synodal language—appealing to “lived experience,” “discernment,” and “listening processes”—reflects the same epistemological shift. The 2023 Instrumentum Laboris explicitly treated the experience of the faithful as a theological locus, thereby reinforcing this orientation.¹⁰ The terminology has changed; the principle has not.
Evangelisation without certainty: a contradiction in terms
In response to these developments, renewed emphasis on evangelisation—associated now with Pope Leo XIV—is presented as a corrective. Yet evangelisation presupposes clarity. Pope Paul VI defined it as the Church’s deepest identity, her reason for existence.¹¹ But a Church uncertain of her teaching cannot convincingly proclaim it. Empirical reality underscores the point. In Western Europe, weekly Mass attendance has declined dramatically, with countries such as France and Germany reporting single-digit participation among self-identified Catholics.¹² Over the same period, priestly vocations have fallen sharply in Europe and North America.¹³ These trends coincide not with a lack of pastoral initiatives, but with decades of doctrinal ambiguity and adaptation. The conclusion is unavoidable: mission fails where message is unclear.
What this looks like on the ground
For the ordinary Catholic, this crisis is not abstract. It is experienced in parishes where teaching varies from priest to priest, where moral questions receive inconsistent answers, and where the faithful are left uncertain about what the Church actually requires them to believe and practice. It is visible in declining attendance, weakening sacramental life, and the growing perception that doctrine is negotiable. Where clarity disappears, confidence follows—and with it, commitment.
Leo XIV: recalibration without resolution
Against this background, the pattern under Pope Leo XIV is clear: synodality is being de-emphasised, evangelisation rhetorically reasserted, yet without any corresponding effort to identify or correct doctrinal error. Recent papal communications emphasise unity, dialogue, and mission while avoiding explicit engagement with contested theological questions.¹⁴ This reflects a broader postconciliar instinct: crisis interpreted as communicative rather than doctrinal, and addressed through adjustment rather than correction. The result is recalibration without resolution.
Historical precedent: clarity, not process, resolves crisis
The Church’s historical response to doctrinal crisis has been neither procedural nor indefinite. The Arian controversy was resolved through definition and condemnation, not through iterative consultation. St Athanasius of Alexandria did not seek consensus on Christ’s divinity; he defended it against denial.¹⁵ The pattern is consistent across the Church’s history: renewal follows clarity, not ambiguity.
Conclusion: adjustment or restoration
The present trajectory suggests recalibration rather than restoration: synodality de-emphasised, evangelisation reasserted, Modernism unaddressed. If this remains the operative framework, the outcome is foreseeable. A Church that adjusts its language without correcting its theology will continue to experience doctrinal confusion, pastoral inconsistency, and missionary decline. The choice before Pope Leo XIV is therefore not strategic but existential: either restore the primacy of revealed truth through clarity and definition, or continue to manage decline through process and adaptation. Only the former has precedent in tradition; only the former has produced renewal.
¹ The Catholic Herald, “Synodality or evangelisation: where will Leo lead the Church?”, accessed 2026.
² Matthew 28:19–20 (Douay-Rheims).
³ St Irenaeus of Lyons, Adversus Haereses, III.3.1 (PG 7:848–849).
⁴ St Augustine of Hippo, Contra Epistulam Manichaei, 5 (PL 42:176).
⁵ Pope Francis, Address for the 50th Anniversary of the Synod of Bishops, 17 October 2015.
⁶ German Synodal Way, Final Resolutions (Frankfurt, 2023).
⁷ Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Responsum ad dubium on same-sex blessings (15 March 2021); Pope John Paul II, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (1994).
⁸ Synod of Bishops, Continental and General Assembly Reports (2022–2024).
⁹ Pope St Pius X, Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907), §§7–10.
¹⁰ Synod of Bishops, Instrumentum Laboris (2023), §§27–35.
¹¹ Pope Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, 14.
¹² Pew Research Center, Being Christian in Western Europe (2018), country-level data tables.
¹³ Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), Global Catholic Vocations Trends (2020).
¹⁴ Vatican Press Office, Letters and Addresses of Pope Leo XIV (2026).
¹⁵ St Athanasius of Alexandria, Orations Against the Arians, I.1–3.
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