The Holy Spirit as the Protagonist of the Synod: Pope Francis’s Creative Reception of the Second Vatican Council

Abstract

This article argues that Pope Francis’s conviction that the Holy Spirit guides the synodal journey represents a creative reception of the Second Vatican Council. By highlighting the Spirit’s agency, Francis offers an alternative to Lumen Gentium’s often ornamental pneumatology. While thus confirming the council’s theological rather than institutional understanding of the church, he complements its christocentric focus. Moreover, by imagining synodality as a journey of dialogical listening and discerning, the pope emphasizes the practical dimension of ecclesiology, something that recalls the council’s pastoral spirit.