VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) – An Orthodox bishop attending the Synod on Synodality has directly rejected the argument that the synod is an imitation of Eastern synodal events, due to the implementation of lay voters.
Speaking October 9 at the morning session of the synod, the representative of the Ecumenical Patriarch – the Orthodox Metropolitan of Pisidia Job Getcha – gave a contrast between the Vatican’s synod and Eastern synodal events.
“The understanding of synodality in the Orthodox Church differs greatly from the definition of synodality given by your present assembly of the Synod of Bishops,” he declared.
Vatican proponents of the Synod on Synodality have often argued in defense of the event, saying that is simply an extension to the Western Church of the synods that take place in the Eastern Church.
This has come under particular scrutiny since the radical move by the Vatican in April to allow laity to vote in the synod for the first time.
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Getcha – who is participating in the Synod on Synodality as a fraternal delegate, meaning that he does not hold a voting right at the event – presented one of the first signs of public dissent to the synod process which has taken place at the synod itself.
Getcha quoted from the Apostolic Canons (the speech is now found online) to declare “a synod is a deliberative meeting of bishops, not a consultative clergy-laity assembly” (emphasis in original).
While Hollerich and Pope Francis have previously spoken about “harmony” rather than “unity,” Metropolitan Getcha stated that “concord/homonoia which is expressed through the synodal consensus reflects the Trinitarian mystery of the divine life.
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He took direct aim at lay people having a vote at the Synod on Synodality, stating:
In light of this, we could say that the understanding of synodality in the Orthodox Church differs greatly from the definition of synodality given by your present assembly of the Synod of Bishops.
Getcha did offer examples of “certain historical circumstances the Orthodox Church,” involving joint voting by laity and clerics in “synod-decision making,” along with current process of appointing bishops in the Church of Cyprus.
In Cyprus, he noted, laity are involved in the “first stage” of electing a bishop, during which they vote with clergy from a list of candidates. The next step is by the bishops alone, who choose between the three leading candidates.
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Getcha took pains to describe this as a peculiar scenario. “Nevertheless, the case of the Church of Cyprus constitutes an exceptional case in contemporary Orthodoxy, where, otherwise, the practice of synodality implies exclusively an assembly of bishops,” he said.
Thus, the Holy and Great Council (Synod) of the Orthodox Church which gathered in Crete in 2016 was made up of 162 delegated bishops, while the 62 advisors (clergy, monastics and laity) that were present did not have the right neither to speak, nor to vote.
Speaking at a conference in Rome October 3, Cardinal Raymond Burke also rejected the argument that the Synod on Synodality mirrors the East.
“I have regular contact with Eastern bishops and priests, both Catholic and Orthodox, all of whom have told me that the way the synod is organized has nothing to do with Eastern synods,” he said.
This applies not only to the place of the laity in these assemblies, but also more generally to the way they operate and even the issues they address. There is confusion around the term synodality, which people artificially try to link to an Eastern practice but which in reality has all the characteristics of a recent invention, especially with regard to the laity.
He added how a “change in the Church’s self-understanding has as a further consequence a weakening of teaching on morals as well as discipline in the Church.”
“I do not linger long on these points, dramatically known by all: moral theology has lost all its points of reference,” he added. “It is urgent to consider the moral act in its totality, and not only in its subjective aspect.”
READ: Greek Catholic bishop: Rome’s definition of ‘synodality’ does not exist in Eastern churches
Indeed, the Greek Byzantine Rite Catholic Bishop Manuel Nin previously stated explicitly that a process of synodality whereby “everyone, laity and clergy, acts together to reach some ecclesiastical, doctrinal, canonical, disciplinary decision … does not exist in the East.”