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St Peter's Basilica, the Vatican

Pope Francis has launched the most ambitious Catholic renewal project for 60 years with a listening exercise that aims to give every member of the 1.3 billion Church a stake in its future. A new podcast series tells the story of the reform process.

Through a “synodal” process, the Pope is asking Catholics to help re-imagine the future of the Church, and grapple with questions such as the role of women, evangelisation, priesthood, serving the marginalised and global governance. It has the potential to reshape the Church forever.

This new podcast on synodality is presented by Christopher Lamb. Christopher is the Vatican Correspondent for The Tablet and is a doctoral researcher in synodality at the Centre for Catholic Studies, Durham University. The series is sponsored by the Centre for Catholic Studies at Durham University in partnership with The Tablet.

Episode 1 is now available and asks, "What is a Synod?" The episode focuses on why a global synodal process is needed, what it might achieve and the opposition it is already facing. Among those interviewed for this episode are Sister Nathalie Becquart, from the synod office in Rome, Fr Hans Zollner, the Church's leading expert child protection, and Fr Jan Nowotnik, Director of Mission for the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales.

Listen on Soundcloud, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.