Diocesan Synod Today. In What Shape?

The Second Vatican Council shaped a new model for a diocesan synod, which was adopted, among others, in Poland, and is characterised by a departure from making the norms of particular law and the popularisation of the council teaching in particular Churches. On the other hand, after the promulgation of the new Code of Canon Law in 1983, the diocesan synods adjusted the diocesan law to the code norms. When this period of the reception of the code law to the diocesan legislation achieved its result, the final resolutions of the subsequent diocesan synods, which were usually extensive, do not meet — to a large extent — the requirements set by the documents of the Holy See: Instruction of the Congregation for Bishops and the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Nations of 1997 and the Directory of the Congregation for Bishops Apostolorum successores of 2004. The author calls for the use of these enunciations so that diocesan synods can be an effective tool for the renewal of a particular Church.