From the Council to Synodality: The Role of Medellín and the Theology of the People

This article reconstructs the historical–theological genealogy linking the Second Vatican Council to the synodality promoted by Francis and continued by Leo XIV, through two fundamental mediations: the conciliar reception carried out at the Second General Conference of CELAM, held in Medellín in 1968, and the development of the Theology of the People within the Argentine Episcopal Conference. The central thesis holds that the contemporary origins of synodality—understood as a way of being Church rather than a management method—can be traced back to Vatican II and have taken on distinctive features in the Latin American pastoral and theological itinerary. The study employs two complementary methodological approaches: a genealogical historical–theological method for the first two sections, based on intertextual criticism of primary sources, and a theological-systematic method for the third, oriented toward analyzing the challenges of the synodal process in its dimensions of sensus fidei fidelium, decision-making, and structural conversion. The results show that the categories of the Theology of the People—people, culture, history, and popular piety—offer specific hermeneutical resources for articulating the participation of the faithful in ecclesial processes of discernment that inform decision-making within the Church, and that the Latin American tradition constitutes a contribution to the contemporary ecclesiological debate on synodality.