Synodal Failures Amid White Supremacy: Lessons from the U.S. Church's History of Synods

Photo by Warren K. Leffler in (Library of Congress) via Unsplash

CONFERENCE: Catholic Theological Society of America

PANEL: Historical Theology II Topic Session

TIME: June 12, 2:45-4:30 p.m. (CST)

WHERE: Mills 7, Hyatt Regency St. Louis at the Arch (St. Louis, MO)

DID YOU MISS THE PAPER?

Keep an eye out for the anticipated article version of this conference paper. In the meantime, you can connect with the author on socials and view the paper précis below.

As synodal reform unfolds, some ecclesiologists have advanced Pope Francis’ call for “a sound ‘decentralization’” through the principle of ecclesial subsidiarity. Problematically, this approach ignores the U.S. church’s historical inability to attend to the sensus fidei of the periphery especially in the context of white supremacy. Mining the U.S. church’s history of national and local synods, I demonstrate the limitations of ecclesial subsidiarity in the context of white supremacy. Instead, I propose synodal reform proceed along two complementary paths – ongoing decentralization and synodal centralization – that would hold synodal bodies accountable to the sensus fidei of the periphery amid white supremacy.

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