Synod secretariat’s shifting role shows growing influence

The Secretariat of the Synod has been handed new responsibilities.

When presidents of bishops’ conferences and Eastern Catholic patriarchs gather in Rome next month to discuss Amoris laetitia, their meeting will have been organized largely by the Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops.

But the meeting is not a synod. And its thematic framework was originally published by the Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life.

The no…