Authentic synodality does not lead to divisions in faith and morals, Assyrian church leader says (Fides)

The Fides news agency has interviewed Mar Awa III, the Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East. The church ceased to be in full communion with the Holy See following the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus (431).

Asked to comment on synods, the prelate said that authentic synodality “is more suitable to manifesting consensus around the depositum fidei [deposit of faith], and to guarding it together.”

“An authentic synodal dynamic arises precisely from the fact that the bishops and all the baptized walk together in the same faith, and converge in seeking together the most suitable forms and practices to bear witness to the same faith in the present time,” he continued. “If the synodal dynamics express the path of the whole Church in the footsteps of the faith of the Apostles, they cannot be used to open divisions among the members of the Church on questions of faith or morals.”