Synodality is a concept that gained popularity in the Catholic Church during the pontificate of Pope Francis. Already the first centuries of Christianity had an impact on the formation of the synodal path of the Church. The Second Vatican Council laid the foundation for the renewal of synodal life through the doctrine of the collegiality of bishops. Post-conciliar canon law created the possibility of organizing universal, regional and diocesan synods. In order to explain the process of development of the awareness of synodality in the Church throughout history, the author analyses and explains the basic concepts in the point explicatio terminorum (1), then describes selected synodal and conciliar events that have accompanied the history of the Church (2), points to a legacy that has survived to the present day (3) and shows the current state of the range of activities conducive to the formation of the faithful for synodality in the Church (4).

Institution of the Synod of Bishops was established by Pope Paul VI in his motu proprio Apostolica sollicitudo dated 15 September 1965. Successive legal image of the institution was defined by the Post-Conciliar Code of Canon Law of 1983, in can. 342-348. Also, in the years 1966, 1969, 1971, and 2006 there were published rules of the Synod of Bishops. Therefore, one may say that all Popes who ruled during councils, i.e. Paul VI, John Paul II, and Benedict XVI shaped the legal image and practical operation of the institution of the Synod of Bishops. One cannot also ignore a very important fact that on 15 September 2018 the present pope, Francis, pub35 Znaczenie instytucji Synodu Biskupów dla współczesnego Kościoła lished the Episcopalis communio apostolic constitution about the Synod of Bishops. Until now, there have been twenty-eight congregations of various meetings of the institution of the Synod of Bishops. However, the mentioned group should also be enlarged by so-called Dutch Synod. The institution of Synod of Bishops is a special and standing out institution in the Post-Conciliar Church. This is due to several elements, namely, not only the regular character of having meetings of the Synod of Bishops, but also the undertaken and analysed synodal problematic aspects that concerned various and important issues of life and functioning of the current Church. In this context, a special accent must be drawn to the indication of the theological and legal character of the institution that causes that we deal with a dynamic institution that shapes the life of the Post-Conciliar Church and by its structure encourages to have interest in the Synod of Bishops both on the doctrinal and factual level. Convening the Synod of Bishops is itself a major ecclesiastical event that engages not only the person of the Bishop of Rome, who is utterly responsible for its convention, but also the entire Church to a greater or lesser extent, and specifically the episcopate that is engaged in parallel in relation to the distincted stages of the Synod, i.e. its preparation, deliberations during the convened assembly, and the post-synodal stage that relates to fulfilment of synodal decisions. Considering this mainstream, one should also mention doctrinal messages of Synods of Bishops together with their propositions that directed the Magisterium of Bishops of Rome towards these areas that were considered a necessary aspect of their deliverance, essentially by publishing post-synodal apostolic exhortations which, in turn, very generally speaking had a successive influence on everyday life of the Church after the Second Vatican Council in many areas of the Church.

Synodal conversion is the return of the Church to community missionary activity – to proclaim the Gospel everywhere. It consists in changing the way of thinking about the Church, changing the way of being in Sympozjum the Church, and changing the way of perceiving the Church. This change should be made by meeting the community, listening to the Holy Spirit and one another, in order to discern well what the Paraclete is saying to the Church today.

Pope Francis has guided the Church so as to make her more synodal in character, which is why another Synod of Bishops already deals with the issue of synodality and is committed to find its appropriate shape. It is vital to analyse thoroughly the origins of this matter since only then it will be possible to deal with it correctly and to apply it in the mission of salvation pursued by the Church. In the teachings of pope Francis we can find clearly defined principles which may constitute a foundation for correctly understood synodality which can be incorporated in the life of the Church on different levels of her activity. These principles constitute an appropriate preparation for the present Synod of Bishops and the appropriate orientation for its proceedings and particular undertakings.

In recent decades the topic of the relationship between primacy and synodality has increasingly come up in ecumenical dialogues. It especially refers to the official catholic-orthodox dialogue, started from its first document adopted in Munich in 1982 to the recent documents of Ravenna (2007) and Chieti (2016), addresses the issues of primacy and synodality in the context of Eucharistic ecclesiology. The study of the St. Irenaeus’ Working Group published in 2018 is another important document on the same content. The aim of the article Synodality and Primacy as a Challenge in Catholic- Orthodox Ecumenical Dialogue is to show the development of a synodal and primacy thought in the work of the International Mixed Commission for Catholic-Orthodox Dialogue. It both estimates the state of synodality in the Orthodox Churches from the perspective of Eastern theology and presents a document produced by the St. Irenaeus Group who aspires to contribute to an official Catholic-Orthodox dialogue. The noticeable impasse in the dialogue is, largely due to ecclesiology that reduces the Church to the local level, Orthodox ethnophilicism, competition for primacy in the Orthodox world between the Moscow and Constantinopolitan patriarchates and the denial of the legitimacy of the development of the primacy of the Bishop of Rome in the first and especially the second millennium. The denial is shown also by many Catholic theologians.

Community life, along with the practice of the evangelical counsels in imitation of Jesus Christ, is one of the essential elements of religious life. The article discusses the theological sources of the religious community, showing its biblical foundations and the inspiration which it draws from the inner life of the Holy Trinity. The second part presents some practical and contemporary elements of the community dimension.

The Holy Eucharist, in which Christ the Lord Himself is present, offered and eaten, gives true life and growth to the Church founded by Him. The sacrament of the Eucharist, in its sacrificial dimension, makes present the one sacrifice of Christ the Savior which was accomplished in the Paschal 138 ks. Robert Ptak SCJ Mystery. The Church, as the Mystical Body of Christ, in every Eucharistic celebration celebrated in the community of the faithful, builds a spiritual bond known as communio. The Eucharistic Sacrifice becomes for the faithful in their daily lives a sacrifice of the Holy Mass.