Walking Together Means Actually Walking

The Greek word synodos means "walking together on the same road." It's a beautiful image. But lately I've been thinking about a practical problem with the metaphor: what happens when some people on the road want to stop and rest, and others want to keep moving?

Reports from across the country this month show a Church in transition. Some dioceses are diving deep into synodal implementation — hosting listening sessions, creating lay commissions, inviting young adults and immigrants into conversations about the future of the parish. Others are treating synodality as a Vatican project that doesn't quite apply here.

I understand the hesitation. Change is uncomfortable, especially in an institution that measures time in centuries. And there are legitimate concerns about what synodality looks like in practice. How do you balance lay input with episcopal authority? How do you prevent "listening sessions" from becoming complaint sessions? How do you ensure that synodality doesn't just mean more meetings?

These are fair questions. But here's what I've learned from seven years of working with CCOC: the alternative to messy engagement is not clean governance. It's silence. And silence is what got us into trouble in the first place.

When the Grand Jury Report dropped in 2018, one of the most devastating revelations wasn't just the abuse itself — it was the silence. The institutional silence. The culture of "we handle things internally." The assumption that the clergy knew best and the laity should trust and pray.

Synodality breaks that pattern. It doesn't replace episcopal authority — it enriches it. When a bishop hears directly from a young mother about why she's struggling to stay in the Church, or from a retired teacher about what financial transparency would look like in her parish, or from a survivor about what genuine accountability means — those conversations change the quality of leadership. Not by diminishing it, but by grounding it in reality.

CCOC's focus group on Pathways to Lay Leadership has been studying exactly this. How can lay Catholics take on meaningful roles in parish governance — not just serving on advisory councils that advise but don't decide, but genuinely sharing in the responsibility of running a faith community?

The answer isn't simple, and that's fine. What matters is that we're asking the question. What matters is that we're walking.

I'd like to see the Diocese of Pittsburgh take a more visible step into this national conversation. We have the infrastructure — CCOC's focus groups, the Association of Pittsburgh Priests, active parish councils. What we need is the invitation. A signal from diocesan leadership that says: we want to walk together, and we mean it.

Thanksgiving is next week. A good time to gather around tables, break bread, and talk about what matters. The synodal process starts right there.