The most telling sign that Pope Francis’ synod reforms might just be starting to take root came while I watched participants file out after the first meeting. I have covered every synod assembly during the Francis pontificate, and would regularly go up to the Paul VI Hall in the Vatican to interview some of the cassock-wearing cardinals and bishops as they wandered in and out.

The launch of the two-year synod process last weekend looked very different. This time I watched as female and male lay theologians, religious sisters and young delegates filed out of the hall alongside the cardinals. When I went over to talk to Cardinal Mario Grech, the head of the synod office, he was wearing a simple clerical suit and had taken off his Roman collar. It struck me that this synod points to a Church as the whole People of God – the hierarchy with priests and laypeople, not detached from them.