Austrian theologian: Ending synodal process would be an ‘ecclesiological problem’

(LifeSiteNews) — A theological adviser to the Synod on Synodality has called for the process to continue indefinitely, declaring that synodality is not a project with an “expiration date.”

Klara-Antonia Csiszár, a pastoral theologian who serves as vice rector of teaching and research at the Catholic Private University of Linz, gave an interview to katholisch.de – the online news portal of the German Bishops’ Conference – in which she argued that synodality should be made permanent. According to katholisch.de Csiszár served as a theological advisor to the Synod on Synodality and recently organized a conference called “Shaping Synodality in Europe” in Wels, Austria.

The theologian was asked whether the synodal process would ever come to an end, to which she replied: “I hope not! I hope it will lead to a culture of togetherness in which everyone is truly welcome in the Church, and no one is excluded.”

“Pope Francis described this with his famous ‘Todos, Todos, Todos,’ [everyone, everyone, everyone]” she continued.

“If everything were to end with the Church Assembly in 2028, that would, in my view, be an ecclesiological problem. Synodality is not a project with an expiration date; rather, it describes how the Church, by its very nature, lives out its mission. If the process were to simply end, we would have consulted the baptized – as bearers of the faith – only once and then turned them back into spectators. And many people who have been enthusiastic about this path would feel that it leads nowhere.”

She said that Pope Francis was a “prophet” who “flung open the doors” and now Pope Leo XIV could “permanently establish what has been begun.”

“I wouldn’t say that synodality isn’t equally important to Pope Leo. He speaks of it time and again and has also devoted several pages to the topic in his encyclical Magnifica humanitas.”

“Therefore, I am confident that synodality will not disappear again, but rather that it will be transformed into a lasting culture.”

The interviewer cited critics of synodality who say the process has not led to more people attending Mass and receiving the sacraments, especially in Western Europe.

“I don’t think we should measure success in the Church that way anymore,” Csiszár said. “We moved away from the idea of recruiting people for the Church decades ago.”

READ: Bishop Schneider: Synodality is a ‘code word to undermine Catholic doctrine’

“Pope Francis has repeatedly emphasized that the Church grows through attraction – when we can offer people something and they see how we treat others. Then they will naturally become interested,” she continued. “We can see – for example, in France with the sharp rise in the number of adult baptisms – that the question of God is increasingly being asked again in Europe. There are various developments there that I find very exciting. But we really shouldn’t measure success by how many more people suddenly join the Church, but rather by how well we’ve been able to foster a sense of community in our respective contexts.”

The multi-year, global Synod on Synodality initiated by Pope Francis, and the term “synodality,” have been used in recent years to push a modernist, heterodox agenda, attacking perennial Church teaching on priestly celibacy, the solely male priesthood, as well as the nature of marriage and sexual ethics under the guise of “listening” to the wishes of lay Catholics.