Julieann Moran (Gen Sec) and Fr Declan Hurley (Chair) of the Synodal Pathway have formally responded to a recent editorial in the Irish Catholic – The Synod that forgot to save the Church – The Irish Synodal Pathway process is a serious undertaking by serious people. But who is it for?

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Synodal Pathway responds to our editorial

 Julieann Moran June 11, 2026

Dear Editor,

Your editorial, ‘The Synod that forgot to save the Church’ (The Irish Catholic, May 28 2026) raises important questions about the future of the Church in Ireland and the role of the Irish Synodal Pathway within it. But its emphasis is misplaced. In May 2025, when the newly elected Pope Leo XIV spoke from the balcony, he stated: “We want to be a synodal Church”. The point is to be synodal.

The analysis speaks generously about the sincerity and commitment of those involved in the Irish Synodal Pathway to date. Indeed, The Irish Catholic has covered both the Universal Synod and the Irish Synodal Pathway consistently, with enthusiasm, from the beginning. This is to be commended. If the synodal process remains unknown to many Irish Catholics after several years of consultations, gatherings, conversations, assemblies, articles, interviews and extensive media coverage, then perhaps this reveals something broader about patterns of ecclesial engagement at this time.

The wording of the title of the editorial is unfortunate, because surely we can all agree that the Church is not ours to save. Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the world, and the Church is His Body, the pilgrim People of God journeying through history under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The task before us is not institutional self-preservation but a discernment, taken together, of what God is asking of the Church in Ireland at this particular moment in history.

Alive

In this context, the purpose of the Irish Synodal Pathway is that we may become more alive in our Baptism, more missionary, and more empowered to proclaim the Gospel in our time.

Unfortunately, the editorial presents an imprecise choice between Synodality, and the “real” challenges around diminishing numbers of clergy, and parish and diocesan restructuring. Synodality is not an alternative to these concerns. It is a way of addressing them as the whole People of God.

The Church will not be renewed by structural reorganisation alone. We could become administratively very efficient while remaining spiritually diminished. Parish mergers, declining vocations, and demographic realities, especially around young people, are serious issues, but renewal also requires listening (as a theological act), formation, healing, co-responsibility, discernment, and renewed participation in the life and mission of the Church. These are not distractions from mission. They are essential to it.

The question asked throughout that process was simple but profound: ‘“What does God want from the Church in Ireland at this time?’”

The priorities explored by the Working Groups of the Irish Synodal Pathway did not emerge from the preferences of a small insider circle. They emerged from years of prayer, consultation, listening and discernment involving dioceses, parishes, movements, ministries, clergy, religious and lay people across Ireland. The question asked throughout that process was simple but profound: “What does God want from the Church in Ireland at this time?”

The responses from the faithful across the island revealed a desire for a more missionary and listening Church with a longing for belonging, deeper faith formation, healing, shared responsibility and lay ministry, the fuller participation of women, and stronger accompaniment of families and young people. The Working Groups have worked to translate these into practical proposals for renewal at parish, diocesan and national level.  The groups were not established to replace canon law, diocesan planning processes, or the ordinary responsibilities of bishops and priests. They were established to discern a focused number of practical proposals emerging from the synodal listening process itself.

Reality

Participation in the synodal process may have been uneven at times, and that reality should be acknowledged honestly, but this is why synodality is asking something much more demanding of the whole Church. Synodality asks lay people to move from passive observation to active co-responsibility. It asks bishops and clergy to move beyond inherited patterns in which discernment and decision-making were often concentrated in a few hands. This kind of ecclesial conversion will not happen overnight. In some places, the synodal invitation was embraced. In others, there was hesitation, uncertainty, or resistance. But this does not mean the process is unimportant or irrelevant. Rather, it reveals how deeply synodality is challenging long established habits within the Church and how necessary this journey of renewal remains.

The editorial is correct when it identifies one thing: “the Church in Ireland is facing profound challenges that cannot be minimised”

In its analysis, the editorial misconstrues the nature of synodality when it reduces representation to geography, networks, or institutional affiliation. Synodality is not a contest between interest groups, ideological factions, or regions, competing for influence. It is a spiritual process rooted in baptism and in the conviction that the Holy Spirit speaks through the whole People of God.

For this reason, the members of the Working Groups were invited because of their experience, competence, pastoral insight, and capacity for discernment. Bishops are not participating in these groups as external overseers. They too were invited and are participating in a synodal manner alongside lay women and men, priests, deacons and religious in this shared task of renewal.

The editorial is correct when it identifies one thing: the Church in Ireland is facing profound challenges that cannot be minimised. But realism without hope reduces the Church to a problem to be managed rather than a mystery to be lived; it reduces us to speaking only in the language of decline rather than the language of Easter. At Pentecost, the Apostles wrestled with conflict, fear, exclusion, and uncertainty about their mission.  But they did not respond by retreating into self-protection. They gathered, listened, prayed, discerned together, and then they went out and they spoke and acted in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Future

The future of the Church in Ireland will require courage, sacrifice, conversion, and hope. It will require bishops, priests, deacons, religious, and lay people to walk together. It will require difficult decisions, but also deeper trust in the Holy Spirit who continues to guide the Church. And the Church cannot save itself. It belongs to Christ, who alone is its Saviour.

Our task is to listen together for where God is leading us now, and to have the courage to follow under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

The editorial repeatedly asks who the synodal process is for. Pope Leo XIV, speaking to the Italian Bishops as recently as May 28 puts it clearly, “A synodal Church is one in which everyone, in accordance with their own vocation, can offer the gift received from the Spirit for the common good … It is not a matter of imitating external organisational models, nor of reducing everything to administrative efficiency, but of asking ourselves what form today helps Pastors and local Churches to proclaim the Gospel more effectively, to walk together, and to make effective, orderly and fruitful participation possible.”

This is a clear, if powerful, call to action by the Holy Father. We all have responsibility to join the hopeful journey of the Church in Ireland towards the National Synodal Assembly on October 17 and beyond.

Yours faithfully,

Julieann Moran
General Secretary, Irish Synodal Pathway

Fr Declan Hurley

Chairperson, Irish Synodal Pathway