By our baptism we all share the Spirit’s gift of discernment. By calling for “a synodal Church” Pope Francis is enabling a different method of being Church, founded on the teachings of Vatican II, to be enfleshed at last. Yet the bishops of England and Wales state: “Every member of the Church has the right to speak, and the obligation to allow those charged with the work of discernment the freedom to do so.”

If the bishops alone ever had the gift of discernment, which I challenge, then they abrogated that “right” by their moral and theological failures in the handling of the sexual abuse crisis. 

The call by the bishops to be allowed alone to discern the way forward is a power-grab designed to strangle a Synodal Church at its conception, and to frustrate Francis’ intentions before they can breathe. The bishops know this and must be resisted.