The Ears of the People are Holier than the Hearts of the Priests
In a recent address to the Italian Bishops Conference, Pope Leo said:
“Synodality, which implies an effective exercise of collegiality, requires not only communion among yourselves and with me, but also attentive listening and serious discernment of the requests that come from the people of God.”
The pope is clarifying that synodality is something distinct, something more, than collegiality, than fraternal discussion between clerics.
Just a few days later, in his Apostolic Letter, In Unitate Fidei, commemorating the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, Pope Leo gives an historical case study for why dialogue and collaboration between clerics and lay people, the entire People of God, is necessary.
Leo spoke about how it was the Arian heresy that denied the divinity of Christ that promoted the Council of Nicea. Then he said:
“As we have already said, Nicaea clearly rejected the teachings of Arius. However, Arius and his followers did not give up. The Emperor Constantine himself and his successors increasingly sided with the Arians. The term homooúsios became a bone of contention between the Nicene and anti-Nicene factions, thus triggering other serious conflicts.
Saint Basil of Caesarea eloquently described the ensuing confusion by likening it to a nighttime naval battle in a violent storm. Saint Hilary, on the other hand, testified to the orthodoxy of the laity in contrast to the Arianism of many bishops, acknowledging that ‘the ears of the people are holier than the hearts of the priests.’”
The ears of the people are holier than the hearts of the priests.
Address to the Italian Bishops
https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/speeches/2025/november/documents/20251120-assisi-cei.html
In Unitate Fidei
https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/apost_letters/documents/20251123-in-unitate-fidei.html
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What I found interesting was the statement that Nicea remains the confession of most of Protestantism-a fact denied by the biblicism of the radical Dissenting tradition and its abandonment by mainline Protestant elites. Once one shifts to limiting Nicea to a historical rather than truthful statement about God, it will go - now more likely to be Nestorian but abandoned in the name of abandoning Greek metaphysics. I hope to post in Nicea, the recent Catholic statements, Newman and Wittgenstein for my next Substack.