Normativity, Ecclesial Identity, and the Risk of Functional Secularization
Abstract
In the context of contemporary synodal processes within the Roman Catholic Church, vision documents increasingly seek to offer orientation for ecclesial future formation. This article provides a theological-canonical analysis of two representative texts: Verbonden met elkaar in Christus – Kompas voor de toekomst (Diocese of Roermond) and Het Kruis als toetssteen. Van inspiratie naar werkdocument voor de geestelijke onderscheiding van de synodale weg van de Kerk (Geudens, 2026).
The central thesis argues that the divergence between these texts is not primarily methodological or pastoral, but criteriological and normative. At stake is the question of where the ultimate measure of synodal discernment is located: in procedural consensus and contextual rationality, or in received revelation, sacramental life, and the Cross of Christ. Drawing on conciliar ecclesiology, canon law, and recent synodal documents, the article identifies the risk of functional secularization and formulates normative criteria for authentically ecclesial synodal discernment.
Keywords
Synodality; Cross; Ecclesiology; Tradition; Eucharist; Canon Law; Discernment; Normativity
1. Introduction: The Question of Normative Criterion
Current synodal dynamics within the Catholic Church unfold in a context marked by secularization, institutional contraction, and cultural pluralization. Vision documents that accompany these processes are not merely pragmatic instruments but implicitly theological texts, since every proposal for ecclesial future formation presupposes a specific understanding of truth, authority, and legitimacy.
The decisive question is therefore not: Which synodal method is most effective?
Rather:
From where does synodal discernment receive its normative authority, and by what criterion are ecclesial decisions to be judged?
This question reaches to the heart of Catholic ecclesiology, in which the Church does not constitute herself autonomously but exists as a community that receives her identity, truth, and mission.
2. Two Texts, Two Criteriological Paradigms
2.1 Synodality as Contextual and Procedural Orientation
The diocesan vision Verbonden met elkaar in Christus – Kompas voor de toekomst presents synodality primarily as a process of shared discernment within a changing social and ecclesial context. Key notions such as connection, meaning, proximity, participation, and network formation function as guiding categories.
While Christ is explicitly mentioned, the manner in which Christ normatively determines discernment remains largely implicit. The future is explicitly “not sought in holding on to the past,” a statement understandable with regard to cultural forms, yet problematic when it implicitly affects Tradition as bearer of Revelation. In this paradigm, synodality tends to function as a procedure of legitimacy: orientation emerges through participation and consensus.
2.2 Synodality as Reception of Revelation and Worship
By contrast, Het Kruis als toetssteen approaches synodality as a fundamentally spiritual reality. Here, synodality is not a method but a mode of ecclesial obedience. The Cross of Christ is explicitly identified as the hermeneutical and normative center of discernment.
The Cross is not employed symbolically, but theologically: it reveals the truth about God, humanity, and salvation, and thus functions as the criterion by which ecclesial fruitfulness must be measured. Synodality is thereby ordered not to procedural efficiency, but to conversion, worship, and receptivity.
3. Functional Secularization as an Ecclesiological Risk
The primary critique of the procedural paradigm may be summarized by the notion of functional secularization. This does not imply a denial of God, but rather a situation in which God remains verbally acknowledged while no longer functioning as the constitutive source of orientation.
This manifests itself in:
- a shift from revelation to experience as primary reference point;
- synodality understood chiefly as procedural legitimation;
- liturgy treated primarily as a community-binding moment;
- ecclesial relevance justified in societal rather than sacramental terms.
Such a dynamic stands in tension with Dei Verbum, which affirms that the Church does not generate truth but receives it (DV 10).
4. Tradition as Normative Source, Not Cultural Reservoir
Within Catholic theology, Tradition is not historical heritage but the living transmission of revealed truth. Scripture and Tradition flow from a single divine source and together constitute the depositum fidei, authentically interpreted by the Magisterium (DV 10).
When Tradition is reduced to “the past,” it loses its normative force and becomes subject to selective appropriation. Synodality then risks becoming an autonomous source of truth, a possibility explicitly excluded by canon law (cf. CIC 747 §1).
5. The Cross as the Hermeneutical Center of the Church
The Cross constitutes the decisive locus of revelation, unveiling the paradoxical logic of divine love. Ecclesiologically, this implies that the Church’s identity is not derived from effectiveness or visibility, but from fidelity in vulnerability.
Lumen Gentium 8 describes the Church as a pilgrim people, marked by weakness yet sustained by grace. Any ecclesial future vision that seeks to neutralize loss, suffering, or marginalization contradicts this cruciform identity.
6. Synodality: Obedience before Consensus
Recent magisterial and theological documents emphasize that synodality is not a governance technique. The International Theological Commission states in Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church that synodality is a modus Ecclesiae, rooted in prayer, discernment, and sacramental communion.
Pope Francis similarly warns in Evangelii Gaudium against a Church absorbed by structures and plans devoid of spiritual depth (EG 26, 95). Canonically, participation remains ordered to hierarchical responsibility (CIC 127; CIC 212), distinguishing synodality from democratic governance.
7. The Eucharist as Constitutive Source of Synodality
According to Sacrosanctum Concilium 10 and CIC 897, the Eucharist is the source and summit of ecclesial life. Here the Cross is not merely remembered but sacramentally made present.
When the Eucharist is reduced to a functional symbol of community, its constitutive power is diminished. Synodality then risks devolving into ecclesial activism detached from sacramental reception.
8. Normative Criteria for Ecclesial Discernment
From the foregoing analysis, five normative criteria emerge:
- Primacy of worship over decision-making
- Received truth over procedural consensus
- Tradition as normative source, not cultural archive
- Eucharist as the center of ecclesial praxis
- Spiritual fruitfulness as primary measure of vitality
These criteria are theologically necessary, even where they resist managerial efficiency.
9. Conclusion
The divergence between the examined texts is not a matter of tone or pastoral intent, but of normative criterion.
Synodality without the explicit primacy of God risks becoming ecclesial management.
Spirituality without ecclesial ordering risks becoming disengaged from history.
Only where the Cross functions as criterion and the Eucharist as source can synodality remain authentically ecclesial—not as a self-designed future, but as a future received in obedience.
References
Primary Sources
- Geudens, J., Het Kruis als toetssteen. Van inspiratie naar werkdocument voor de geestelijke onderscheiding van de synodale weg van de Kerk (2026).
- Geudens, J., Verbonden met elkaar in Christus – Kompas voor de toekomst: een voorzichtige analyse (2026).
- Diocese of Roermond, Verbonden met elkaar in Christus – Kompas voor de toekomst (2025).
Magisterial and Conciliar Documents
- Francis, Evangelii Gaudium (2013).
- International Theological Commission, Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church (2018).
- Second Vatican Council: Dei Verbum; Lumen Gentium; Sacrosanctum Concilium.
- Code of Canon Law (CIC), 1983.
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