As the youth synod entered its final week, there was an air of optimism among the bishops. They had spent almost a month listening to the concerns of young people and were brimful of ideas about how to reach the next generation. The atmosphere of anger and recrimination at the family synod of 2014-15 was almost forgotten. The bruises inflicted then were healing.
But just as the bishops prepared to summarise their discussions in a final report, synod organisers attempted to push the assembly in a different direction. Everyone had assumed up to that point that the central theme of the youth synod was the pastoral care of young people. But the draft final report seemed to propose that it was also about something else entirely: “synodality”.
