The Chapter Experience of the Order and the Synod
Testimony of Bro Carlos Alfonso Azpiroz Costa, OP, Archbishop of Bahía Blanca (Part One of Two)
Bro Carlos Alfonso Azpiroz Costa, OP, Archbishop of Bahía Blanca, Argentina, who participated in the work of both sessions of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission,” presents us with some insights for Dominican and synodal life in an extensive article that we are publishing in two parts. However, you can read or download the full article here.
Part One
Months after the conclusion of the 2nd Session of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission,” all that was experienced has been digested and, above all, the most important images remain, what remains beyond the anecdotal or what is forgotten.
The perspective of time and space then allows us to give thanks to God, to the Church, and to all those who, in one way or another, allowed me to participate in this Synod on synodality (to express it in simple terms): the trust of my brother bishops from the Argentine Episcopal Conference, which was entrusted with choosing some of the “Synodal Fathers,” and of Pope Francis, who confirmed this choice.
The possibility of contemplating the work of the Holy Spirit, defined in some way by Saint Basil the Great as harmony itself, calms the soul, leaving behind the nervousness typical of each personal intervention and listening to other members of the Synod, which could have been more cautious at the beginning and became much more contemplative afterward. Thanks be to God!
If the 2023 Assembly focused on what we usually call the status quaestionis, the second session provided greater confidence, openness of mind and heart, offering us a “resolutive path” with very concrete indications that can serve as a guide for the mission of the Churches, on the different continents, in different contexts.
The experts, whether participants in the two Sessions or not, have given, and continue to offer, very profound analyses of the Final Document. Because this – in a sense – is just beginning!
In some ways, it has unfolded similarly to the General Chapters in the life of the friars of the Order of Preachers, which meet every three years (though the frequency has changed over the more than 800 years since the confirmation of the Order). When each session begins, and as we listen to the first interventions (in committees or plenary meetings), we all wonder: where will the reflection lead? What conclusions will be drawn from so many varied topics? Sometimes, there are even friars who whisper, “Where are we headed?” Some certainly question whether anything meaningful will emerge from the apparent disorder of proposals, discussions, and differing viewpoints, etc.!
It cannot be otherwise. Everything that concerns the life of the Order around the whole world is subject to total reflection, total discernment, and ultimately total definition, legislation in the broadest and most analogous sense of our way of being and speaking: constitutions, ordinations, recommendations, admonitions, suggestions, invitations, etc.
In each Chapter, especially the “General” ones (which certainly demands and expresses this “walking together” typical of synodality), we are many, all very different, coming from very diverse parts of the world! What can we say that is new without breaking the unity or “unanimity” itself of the Order in its tradition and perpetual novelty? (the unanimity of the Word: having one heart and one soul toward God).
Little by little, in the patient dialogue, in the presentation of the conclusions, the necessary pruning, correction or amendment of texts, the final approval, we discover again that, indeed, the Holy Spirit is harmony! We also reconfirm the necessary consolation, St. Dominic’s promise to his friars who were mourning his imminent departure: he would be more useful to them after his death than he was in life… and so it is!
Let me use the example we are all familiar with from our local, provincial, and general or universal way of life to contemplate, try to understand and ruminate on what we experience in the Paul VI Hall, although from the year 2021 onwards we have already been able to experience it in various ways at the level of the whole Church.
I have not left the Order, but I think the first “postcard from the soul” that I would like to highlight—following the way of being and governing the Order—is the experience of listening to one of our brothers and his contribution to the “Synod of Synodality.” It is not mere chance, nor the result of a lottery, nor do I think it is the fruit of compromises or parlor pacts, to witness that presence and preaching (he was a “Spiritual Assistant” or something like that and not a “Synodal Father,” technically speaking). I am referring to our beloved Bro Timothy Radcliffe, OP.
His presence and preaching, I repeat, can manifest all the deepest rhythms of our life and mission: contemplating (listening to God and the brothers; seeing them and presenting them to God; speaking to Him about the men and women of our time) and giving to others the fruit of what we contemplate (preaching, speaking to the brothers about God; speaking to them about what God is working in them).
Months after the conclusion of the second session (Saturday 26 October 2024), I believe that both in the retreats prior to both sessions (2023 and 2024) and in his reflections during the sessions, without participating directly in some of the 37 working tables, his words have indicated the main keys to understanding what we have in our hands and hearts today: the Conclusions of 2023 and the Final Document of 2024.
I believe that the titles of each “chapter” of the Final Document and the references to the apparitions of the Risen Jesus (the weaving of his words), save the essence of that preaching. The document—let us say—has been inspired in some way by the rhythm of that preaching, it has received in an incisive way the intuitions that our brother has been unpacking, like a seed in a soil that I believe, thanks to the work of the first session (2023), appeared more fertile in the second (2024).
With this sort of prologue, I can try to draw some answers to the questions proposed, without claiming to be exhaustive! On the contrary, the capitular experience of the Order and that of this Synod allow me to stammer out something that may be useful to whoever has the patience to read or listen to me.
I still recall (at the time I was still living in Rome, in Santa Sabina) the speech of Pope Benedict XVI—the Christmas greeting to the Roman Curia—on 22 December 2005. The date is not difficult to remember: the 789th anniversary of the confirmation of the Order of Preachers by pope Honorius III. Among the themes that the Pope addressed to his Curia, he underlined that of the “hermeneutics of the Second Vatican Council on the 40th anniversary of its solemn closure (8 December 1965).”
I refer specifically to what he defined as “the hermeneutics of reform in continuity and not in rupture.” It is about renewal within the continuity of the single subject—the Church—which the Lord has given us; a subject that grows in time and develops, but always remains the same, the single subject of the People of God journeying on the way.
For many, in fact, the Council meant a “break” with what had gone before. Because it was a break from the previous tradition. Of course, some rejoiced precisely because of this, because everything was new everywhere and this total break was long awaited, promising, and necessary; others, on the contrary, wept for the times gone by and condemned the Council for having caused this break.
Meanwhile, the post-conciliar magisterium continued with patience and hope, helping the reflection and real assumption of the profound conciliar, i.e., synodal, reflection.
I believe that these lamentations, very briefly evoked above, still persist. To better express myself, let me quote the Exhortation Gaudete in Domino of Saint Paul VI (9 May 1975, Holy Year!). I am thinking, as an example, of n. 74: Let the agitated members of various groups therefore reject the excesses of systematic and destructive criticism! Without departing from a realistic viewpoint, let Christian communities become centers of optimism where all the members resolutely endeavor to perceive the positive aspect of people and events. “Love does not rejoice in what is wrong but rejoices with the truth. There is no limit to love’s forbearance, to its trust, its hope, its power to endure.” (1 Cor 13:6-7)
Fr. Carlos Azpiroz Costa, OP (Buenos Aires, 1956), a member of the current Province of San Agustín in Argentina and Chile, studied for a doctorate in Canon Law at the Angelicum. He served as Master of the Order from 2001 to 2010 and is currently the Archbishop of Bahía Blanca, Argentina.
