Church Reform in a New Cultural and Ecclesial Context: Diagnoses and Positive Starting Points

Carlos Schickendantz discusses why the Church's governance needs reform and the extent to which the Second Vatican Council recognized this. He explains how the Church should incorporate accountability into its structure and why its hierarchy should share power with the laity. Schickendantz describes why the sexual abuse crisis highlights the exigency for these reforms and how they all have precedents in thought resulting from the Second Vatican Council. The current synodal process also addresses two other important contemporary issues: women’s role in the Church and “the inclusion of marginalized people in a decolonial perspective.” As Schickendantz writes, “The synodal process, which must include multiple spaces for listening especially to those marginalized in society and the church, recognizes in each person and social group a wisdom necessary for the mission of the Church. There is no enlightened minority that knows what is best for the Church. And the social and cultural peripheries have a privileged point of view, as theologies based on the option for the poor have shown.” Some of the Church’s recent experiences in Latin America are offered to illustrate the synodal process in action.