A Council by Another Name?

The ongoing synodal process of the Catholic Church engages a new vision of being church within human history and society.

At the Synod on Europe in 1999, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini called for a new ecumenical council. Too wise to use this term explicitly, he said that he hoped “for the new century, an experience of universal encounter between the bishops.” Unresolved questions demanded sound answers: a lack of ordained ministers, the role of women in the church, the participation of the laity, new challenges regarding sexuality and marriage, ecumenism, and more. Since then, even more questions have been raised regarding the sexual abuse crisis, the experience of widespread discouragement, and polarization within the church.

In A Council by Another Name? world-renowned European theologian Christoph Theobald explains why synodality is a constitutive dimension of the church and urges readers, especially ecclesial leaders, to trust the synodal process and to engage in it in their rightful place. Based on conversion that is both personal and institutional, Theobald cites Pope Francis’s call for cooperation and creativity as an essential element for confronting the current difficulties effectively, approaching the future peacefully, and welcoming a new and decisive vision of the church within human history and society.

This is a Revised and Expanded Edition of the second French edition.

Christoph Theobald is a Franco-German Jesuit theologian. He is a professor emeritus of the Centre Sèvres, the Jesuit theological faculty in Paris, and the former editor-in-chief of the journal Recherches de science religieuse. He has published numerous books on theology and pastoral ministry.