John Henry Newman’s Understanding of the Sensus Fidelium and the Current Challenges of Synodality

The aim of the study is to offer Newman’s original intuitions about the concept of the sensus fidelium, which is of great importance to the Synod for the Synodal Church. The study presents the context and ideas of Newman’s article ‘On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine’ from the Rambler (1859). Then, it offers some of the primary challenges of the current synodal process in dioceses with questions to which Newman may offer the proper angle. In this way, the need for proper discernment of the sensus fidelium is to be pointed out so that both pastors and laity may live in the Church as in a true family.