I think it is not a true Synod. This is because a true Synod, according to the perennial teaching and practice of the Catholic Church, is an assembly of the Magisterium, the shepherds of the Church, whom God gave the task to teach and to govern the flock. This is the divine structure of the Church, and the first aim of a Catholic Synod, from the beginning, was to protect and defend the Catholic Faith from errors, from misinterpretation, from ambiguities, and also to enforce and promote Church discipline, the holiness of the life of the clergy, the discipline of the faithful, and the holiness and sacredness of divine worship.
This, in general, was always the aim of a Synod or a Council.
In our case, for the first time in the history of the Church, lay people who do not belong to the Magisterium were included, having the same rights to vote on issues that belong to the Faith. They were given the right to vote and to give judgment. And so, it became a debating club with only the appearance or the name of a Synod, but it was not a true Synod. It resembled a parliament, a modern parliamentary structure, which has already existed in Protestant churches since Martin Luther. These are assemblies where lay people decided on matters of faith, as in the Anglican Church and the broader Protestant world.
Therefore, we must state and regret that such a non-Catholic method was declared to be a Synod.
Of course, bishops have always consulted holy or competent lay people who were also knowledgeable in theology. But we must distinguish. Consulting them is one thing. Giving them the same rights and placing them on the same level is another. This is not Catholic.
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