Diocesan Synods in the Czech Lands – an Unused Instrument?
Diocesan Synods in the Czech Lands – an Unused Instrument?

Summary/Abstract: This article is dedicated to synodal activities, that is, the celebration of provincial councils and diocesan synods, in the Czech lands. It shows that they were rather exceptional. This was caused both by the then legislation of canon law based on contemporary ecclesiology and by ecclesiastical-political circumstances, but also by the development of other structures of coordination and cooperation, especially the establishment of other advisory bodies of the diocesan bishop after Vatican Council II. Since the promulgation of the Code of Canon Law of 1917, only one proper diocesan synod has been held in Brno, in 1934. Further, after the plenary council of the Church in the Czech Republic (1997–2005), only one attempt was made for the diocesan synod in the Diocese of Ostrava-Opava, which resulted in an informal ‘Little Priestly Synod’ of 2013, which was the maximum attainable.

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