A Synod Diary

Modeled on John Reeds celebrated Ten Days that Shook the World, his lively chronicling of the October 1917 Russian Revolution, this is a journal and commentary on and during the high point of the Bergoglio papacythe October 2023 and 2024 Synod on Synodality.

This is a sketchbook by a journalist and English literature professor, not a theologians measured summary of the synodal proceedings. The latter is, of course, indispensable to a full appreciation of what unfolded at the synodbut it is not what I set out to do. I wanted to create a written gallimaufry: a potpourri of perceptions, characters, factions and tensions, intrigues and turmoils, epiphanies and graced moments of insight.

From the author’s Prelude

Michael Higgins