‘ Bishop of Rome’: A Theologically Fruitful Clarification of the Church as a Communion of Believers

COMMENTARY: The new document helpfully lays out the internal Catholic debates about the nature and role of the papal office.

The Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, headed by Cardinal Kurt Koch, recently published a lengthy new text on the question of the papacy and ecumenical relations.

The document, “The Bishop of Rome: Primacy and Synodality in the Ecumenical Dialogues and in the Responses to the Encyclical Ut Unum Sint,” is not a magisterial text like an encyclical or apostolic exhortation, but is rather a “study document” intended to reopen ecumenical conversations that have been stalled.


However, I think its true value will most likely end up being something that is only tangentially related to its legitimate ecumenical aims. Indeed, with its exhaustive listing of the various discussions that preceded it, the text shows us that the ecumenical movement remains mired in a series of impasses that are unlikely to be resolved any time soon. And the issues involved go far beyond the single question of papal authority.

Therefore, the document’s initial impact will, in my view, be the reinvigoration of internal Catholic discussions about the proper exercise of the papal office. I think the text itself gives evidence of an awareness of this reality in its repeated emphasis on the need for a more “synodal” Church. The ongoing processes established by Pope Francis relating to the Synod on Synodality create a context for this document that makes its relevance for Catholic discussions of the topic even more pronounced, if not urgent. Indeed, the text itself implies that the best way for the Church to appear authentically committed to the ecumenical cause is by taking very real concrete steps in the direction of a less papally-centered Church.


Therefore, the ecumenical aims of the text are in a direct relationship with the Church’s own internal efforts at reform. And given the intractable nature of so many of the ecumenical debates — debates that are amply documented in the text — one gets the distinct impression that there is a “hidden audience” that this text intends to reach, and that is the audience of those who will be involved in the upcoming synod, either directly or indirectly.

To that end, one of the document’s most important features is that we are given very concrete indications, perhaps for the first time, of just how the Vatican under Pope Francis is defining the term “synodality.” This is important since one of the chief criticisms of the synodal process has been an ongoing lack of definitional clarity on the topic, causing many to question the legitimacy of the entire process and view it more as a stalking horse for various liberal causes rather than a true exercise in the reform of the papal office.

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