A common response by Christian Churches to the great challenges of each time: Synodality (method) and Identity (model)

Francis has emphasized that the only way to be Church in the 21st century is to be "synodal". What is meant by synodal? It is a word of Greek origin and means ‘walking together’. In truth, if, through baptism, we are all members of the Church, then we must all participate, be heard, because what belongs to everyone by everyone must be decided and assumed. The Church must be the result of a process that listens to and involves all members of the great community of Christians, so that, after being inspired by the Holy Spirit, it witnesses to humanity, in its multiplicity of languages and cultures, the new commandment, of love and inclusion.

For Lima's document (1982), “synodality” has three dimensions: “personal”, “collegial” and “community”.

Today's problems are as complex as they are global, with planetary crises such as the health crisis, the environmental crisis, the economic and social crisis, the migration crisis, the refugee crisis, the crisis of international political institutions, the crisis of democracy, the crisis of minorities, the crisis of human exploitation or the religious crisis. Humanity has never faced so many and serious threats as today, climate change; scattered wars; nuclear war; NBIC (nanotechnologies, biotechnologies, artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences, neurosciences); digital battles; digital control by States; transgenic babies; experiments with hybrids; uncontrollable migrations; the techno-economic-political struggles for global supremacy; the drugs; global structural injustice; the trampling of human rights.

The origin of the planet's major global problems is human, "anthropogenic" and, therefore, Francis proposes urgent intervention in these areas of human life and the planet: 1. the global climate crisis; 2. the growing technocratic paradigm; 3. the fragility of international politics; 4. international conferences on the problems and results to be expected; 5. spiritual motivations: a "situated anthropocentrism".

To face the fragility of world politics, Francisco insists that "it is not enough to think about the balance of power, it is also necessary to respond to new challenges and react with global mechanisms to environmental, health, cultural and social challenges, above all to consolidate respect for most basic human rights, social rights and care for our common home."

French economist Gaël Giraud proposes that another type of economic globalization be proposed, with the necessary energy transition, and another type of globalization, which considers the viability of a shared world, structured by international institutions that are capable of taking charge the global assets that belong to humanity: “the Amazon, the seabed, the atmosphere, fishing reserves, fresh water, space, among others.

Contemporary globalization itself is, in the words of Ruy Blanes, “covered by the multiplication of stances: transnational movement, global consciousness” and incorporates “complexities, ironies and contradictions that, deep down, constitute it as a contemporary phenomenon. If, at first, we thought that globalization would result in a process of standardization, today we realize how wrong we were”, because, for anthropologist James Ferguson, “contemporary globalization suggests, above all, an overlapping of spaces, enclaves and mobilities”.

It may seem like an impossible utopia, but if Christian churches propose it, as a starting point for a revolution of humanity, it would create an ethical and spiritual duty for humanity to commit to it. For Francisco, it is necessary for each Christian to allow themselves to be affected, so that later, in the words of the philosopher Hans Jonas, we move to act in such a way that the effects of our action are compatible with the permanence of an authentically human life on Earth.