Wed Jan 7, 2026 - 10:10 am EST (LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Robert Barron has said that synodality, which questions settled doctrine, must not become a “permanent feature of the Church.” In a statement published on January 6 on X, the bishop of Winona-Rochester in southern Minnesota said, “I understand that one of the topics under consideration at the Consistory of Cardinals is synodality. I’m speaking as a bishop who was an elected delegate to both rounds of the Synod and Synodality in Rome and who has just presided over a local synod in my own diocese.” “Synods are good and useful tools for the determination of practical pastoral strategies, but they oughtn’t to be forums for debate regarding doctrine,” he stated. “When settled teaching becomes a subject for synodal determination, the Church devolves into relativism and self-doubt – as is clearly evident in the misconceived ‘Synodal Way’ in Germany.” He cited three theologians who co-founded the Communio journal, Joseph Ratzinger …