Pope Leo XIV: Women and men in religious life ‘are called to become experts in synodality’
Pope Leo XIV praised religious women and men at the LCWR 70th anniversary, emphasizing their role in synodality and the Church’s mission. He highlighted the importance of synodal methods—listening, discussion, discernment—within religious communities and the wider Church. The Pope thanked religious institutions for evangelization, education, and care for the poor, urging them to continue fostering unity among diverse charisms. He urged religious to promote vocations and engage young people, noting a growing hunger for faith amid secularization.
about 2 months ago
Pope Leo XIV highlighted the vital role of women and men in religious life, urging them to become “experts in synodality” and to bring their diverse charisms into the Church’s mission of evangelization, education, and service to the poor. 1
The pontiff emphasized that all Christians are called to build communion through a synodal Church, where each person collaborates according to their unique charism and ministry. He noted that religious life, by its communal nature, offers a natural environment for practicing synodality. 1
Leo XIV thanked religious institutions for their longstanding contributions in evangelization, education, and caring for marginalized groups. He affirmed that the Church needs the “diversity and richness” of consecrated life to awaken the world to the Gospel. 1
Speaking at the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) 70th anniversary in Orlando, the Pope called for unity among institutes despite differing histories and apostolates, urging them to remember the specific charisms entrusted by their founders. 1
He observed a growing hunger for God even as secularization spreads, citing his recent journey to Spain where many young people are rediscovering the faith. Leo XIV urged religious men and women to introduce this way of life to seekers and to encourage courageous responses to Jesus. 1
The Pope concluded by wishing the assembly a fruitful gathering and placed their work under the maternal protection of Mary, Mother of the Church. 1
Synodality in religious life must foster unity, discernment, and vocation
Synodality in religious life must foster unity, deepen discernment, and awaken and accompany vocations. It is not merely a method for conducting meetings or distributing responsibilities. It is a spiritual way of living together—walking, listening, praying, discerning, and serving as one body in Christ.
The first fruit of synodality is communion. Religious life exists through a particular consecration to God that also establishes a communion among the members of an institute. Although shared traditions, constitutions, apostolic works, and structures support unity, its deepest foundation is communion in Christ.
This unity does not mean eliminating legitimate differences. Religious communities often include members of different cultures, generations, temperaments, and experiences. Pope Leo XIV emphasizes that:
“Missionary unity should not be understood as uniformity.”
Synodality therefore seeks to harmonize diversity for the sake of the common mission. Differences become a gift when members listen with humility, speak sincerely, accept fraternal correction, and remain open to a decision reached through common discernment.
Community life is consequently not an optional addition to religious consecration. It is a visible expression of communion in Christ. Prayer, work, meals, recreation, apostolic cooperation, and mutual support provide the ordinary setting in which fraternity becomes concrete. Such unity gives religious life apostolic strength and enables the continuing formation of its members.
Religious communities are thus called to become what one ecclesial document describes as “experts in communion”: witnesses and builders of unity within the Church and the wider world.
Synodality also requires ecclesial discernment—the prayerful process of seeking what the Holy Spirit is saying to the community and how the institute should respond faithfully to its charism and mission.
Pope Francis describes discernment as listening to the Lord, oneself, and others. It requires prayer, reflection, patience, courage, and sacrifice. It is not an attempt to impose personal preferences or to discover the easiest solution. Rather, it involves freedom before God and the willingness to act once the path becomes sufficiently clear.
For religious institutes, discernment must be both personal and communal. Each member has a responsibility to contribute his or her experience and judgment, but no one should treat a private opinion as identical with the will of God. Nor is communal discernment simply a democratic contest in which the majority automatically prevails. It is a shared search for fidelity to Christ, the Gospel, the founding charism, the Church, and the needs of the mission.
The 2024 Synod identifies consecrated life as a significant school of synodality because religious communities have long practiced:
This heritage, however, must not become static. Pope Leo XIV warns that the tradition of religious institutes must remain a living reality, capable of growth, purification, and renewed expression in changing circumstances. Governance should therefore encourage mutual listening, co-responsibility, transparency, accountability, and the responsible participation of members.
Authority has an important place in this process. Synodality does not abolish legitimate authority or weaken the responsibility of superiors. Rather, authority serves communion by safeguarding the identity of the institute, enabling participation, guiding discernment, and confirming the decision that best serves the Church’s mission. Pope Leo XIV explicitly presents synodality as a way of understanding authority more deeply: authority exists to safeguard communion, foster participation, and guide the common journey.
A third essential fruit of synodality is vocational fruitfulness. A vocation is never merely a private project of self-perfection. The Church’s vocational teaching insists that vocation is relational: it is a call from God that is received and lived within relationships with Christ, the community, and the Church.
A young person is unlikely to be attracted to consecrated life if he or she encounters isolation, rivalry, suspicion, or an excessively individualistic understanding of religious identity. By contrast, a community that visibly lives fraternity allows candidates to “come and see” the joy, sacrifice, prayer, and mission of religious life. Communities of welcome and vocation centers can offer young people a gradual path of accompaniment and discernment.
This has a direct pastoral consequence: vocations arise and mature in an ecclesial environment. Families, educators, priests, lay associations, bishops, and religious communities all share responsibility for presenting consecrated life clearly and supporting those who sense Christ’s call. Saint John Paul II stressed the need for ecclesial collaboration and a generous openness to the pastoral needs of the universal Church.
Religious communities must therefore ask not only, “How many candidates do we have?” but also:
A vocation is ultimately Christ’s call. The task of the community is to recognize, encourage, accompany, and test that call responsibly. The religious vocation leads to the total gift of self through the evangelical counsels and is ordered toward service of God and the Church.
Unity and discernment are not ends in themselves. They exist for mission. The 2024 Synod presents religious institutes as partners in the life of the local Church, serving in hospitals, prisons, schools, universities, migrant centers, places of poverty, and many other contexts. Their contribution is most fruitful when they work in synergy with the bishop and the wider ecclesial community.
Authentic synodality asks: How is the Spirit sending us today? The answer may require new forms of presence, collaboration among institutes, greater involvement of lay faithful, or the reorganization of ministries that no longer serve the original mission. Such changes must not be driven merely by decline, pressure, or managerial efficiency. They must emerge from prayerful discernment and fidelity to the founding charism.
Synodality also protects religious life from self-referential tendencies. Pope Leo XIV highlights dialogue, accountability, evaluation, and fraternal correction as means of resisting particularism and recovering charismatic fidelity. A community that listens well is better able to recognize both its gifts and its failures, and therefore better able to serve the poor, the Church, and the world.
To make synodality real, religious institutes should cultivate:
Synodality in religious life is a demand of consecrated identity, not an external program. Because religious are consecrated in Christ and called to live in fraternity, they are especially capable of demonstrating what it means to seek God’s will together.
When synodality is authentic, unity becomes communion rather than uniformity; discernment becomes a shared search for the Spirit’s direction; and vocation becomes a call nourished by credible fraternity and mission. Religious communities that live this way offer the Church and the world a visible sign that the Gospel can gather different people into one body and send them together in service of Christ.