Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego, a key papal ally, spoke last February at the Religious Education Congress in Los Angeles, the largest annual gathering of Catholics in North America. Among other things, Cardinal McElroy extolled Pope Francis’s push for synodality – roughly meaning dialogue, participation and shared governance – in the Church.
When he was finished, one member of the audience asked a perceptive question: “Will Francis’s emphasis on synodality outlive him?”
McElroy’s answer was telling: “I hope so, I think so…I’m not sure.”
