That synod on the laity expired quietly on Friday October 30 unloved, unmourned, largely unreported. Most of those who were inside put on a brave front, tried to salvage something from the wreckage, and claimed to have had an intense experience of ‘affective collegiality’. This is the warm glow that comes from brothers (and a few sisters) celebrating their unity, and hugging it to themselves. It is contrasted with ‘effective collegiality’, in which Pope and bishops combine to get things done. So far this pontificate has been stronger on affective than effective collegiality.

Archbishop Roger Mahoney gave the game away in a casual remark as he departed, early, for Los Angeles: ‘It doesn’t matter what the Synod is about, what matters is that it should meet.’ Mahoney was a papal nominee at the Synod, so he probably is privy to the mind of the Pope. But what contempt this remark reveals for the laity who in some countries were extensively consulted in advance of the Synod. The four bishops from the United States, for example, held elaborate and costly meetings involving over 200,000 laypeople. Their speeches to the Synod in the first week faithfully reflected what they had heard. They had done what the Synod Secretariat told them to do: consulted. The results of their consultation were spurned, mocked, one could almost say.