This article argues that Pope Francis’s conviction that the Holy Spirit guides the synodal journey represents a creative reception of the Second Vatican Council. By highlighting the Spirit’s agency, Francis offers an alternative to Lumen Gentium’s often ornamental pneumatology. While thus confirming the council’s theological rather than institutional understanding of the church, he complements its christocentric

This essay dwells on a crucially important dimension of the church’s synodal renewal: personal renewal. First, I suggest that, to bring out the notion’s full weight, it is helpful to link it to the Second Vatican Council’s teaching on the universal call to holiness and its transformation during the council. Second, I suggest that synodality enriches the council’s teaching by being more specific about what holiness entails and that it may provide the reception of the council’s teaching on holiness with a fresh impetus. In the conclusion, I suggest that thematizing personal renewal balances conceptual and spiritual approaches to ecclesiology.