Introduction
by Leonard Swidler
Our title points
us in the direction that we as Catholic women and men want to go. Syn
in Greek means "with"
or "together,"
and ’odos means "way" or "path";
so, People's Syn’odos means the "People's
Path Together."
There is still more to be gotten out of our title. "People,"
we know, comes from the Latin Populus. As we may have learned in
primary school, the Greek word for "people"
is Demos and the Greek word for "rule"
is Kratia, and from those two words we derive the term "Democracy,"
the "Rule
by the People." Why do the "People
Come Together"? Why do we hold a Demos Syn’odos?
So the "People
Can Rule," Demokratia.
How do we know that the "People
Should Rule"
in the Catholic Church? First, from Scriptures: Because all people are made in "God's
image"
(Genesis 1:26), "knowing
good and evil"
(Genesis 3:25). Second, from Tradition: Most recently the Pope together
with all the bishops proclaimed that, "All
[Catholics] are led to..., wherever necessary, undertake with vigor the task of
renewal and reform,"
and insisted that all Catholics' "primary
duty is to make an honest and careful appraisal of whatever needs to be
renewed and achieved in the Catholic household itself" (Vatican Council II, "Decree
on Ecumenism").
This was a continuation of the tradition from the very beginning of the
Christian Church when all the faithful gathered together to choose a successor
to the Apostle Judas (Acts 1:15-26). Two other 1st-century
documents confirm this approach: "You
[the Faithful] must, then, elect for yourselves bishops and deacons..."
(Didache, 15:1-2); bishops should be chosen "with
the consent of the whole Church...."
( 1 Clement, 44,5).
This practice passed into the post-Apostolic period, as evidenced by one of the
oldest known synods (2nd century) that all the faithful participated
in early synods: "For
this reason believers in Asia often assembled in many Asian
localities, examined the new doctrines, and condemned the heresy"
(Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History (PG 20, 468). St. Cyprian (3rd
century) bore witness to the custom of the people having the right not only to
elect, but also to reject and even recall bishops: "The
people themselves most especially have the power to chose worthy bishops or to
reject unworthy ones"
(Epistle, 67, 3, CSEL, 3.2.737). Following the old Roman
principle, "Whatever
affects everyone must be decided upon by everyone,"
St. Cyprian very often convoked synods: "Concilio
frequenter acto"
(Epistle xxvi), and wrote to his priests and deacons: "From
the beginning of my episcopate I have been determined to undertake nothing on my
own private judgment without consulting you and gaining the assent of the people"
(PL 4, 234).
Catholic schoolgirls and schoolboys may have heard the stories of the elections
of St. Ambrose as bishop of Milan and St. Augustine bishop of Hippo (4th
and 5th centuries) by the acclamation of the people: "We
elect him!"
["Nos
elegimus eum!"]
A little later Pope St. Celestine (d. A.D. 432) said: "No
one is given the episcopate uninvited. The consent and desire of the clerics,
the people, and leadership are required"
(Epistle, iv, 5; PL, 50, 431). That redoubtable Pope St. Leo the
Great (d. A.D. 461), who faced down Attila the Hun and saved Rome from the sack,
wrote: "Let
him who will stand before all be elected by all"
(Epistle, x, 4; PL, 54, 634). These principles from the early
centuries of Christian practice were reiterated in various synods until at least
as late as the Council of Paris in A.D. 829. Basically the election of bishops
by the clergy and people remained in effect until the 12th
century--over half the present span of Christianity.
Even at the beginning of
the United States of America, our first bishop, John Carroll, and his two
coadjutor bishops were, with the full approval of Rome, elected at least by all
of the priests of the U.S.; Carroll then proposed a similar election of all
subsequent bishops in America--only to be blocked by Rome. One of Carroll's
greatest successors, John England, Bishop of the Carolinas 1820-1840, governed
his diocese with a Constitution, which the entire diocese approved before
it took effect; he likewise, following the Constitution, held an Annual
Diocesan Convention, at which he gave a full accounting of all activities,
including the finances (Leonard Swidler, Toward a Catholic Constitution,
118-25). Following his example, perhaps unconsciously, Pope Paul VI in 1965
called for the drafting of a Catholic Constitution, and appointed a
Committee which wrote several versions of a Catholic Constitution, a
Lex Fundamentalis Ecclesiae, which, unfortunately was aborted by Pope
John Paul II.
In brief: the Peoples Synod is calling for a Return to Tradition,
the Tradition of holding a
"DemosSyn’odos,"
of the "People
Coming Together,"
so the "People
Can Rule,"Demokratia. |
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