This paper argues that the Synod on Synodality calls the Church to confront not only structural and procedural inequalities, but also those ritualized and embodied within the liturgy itself. Liturgy is not a neutral practice: it forms bodies, distributes roles, and implicitly teaches who matters in the ecclesial community. Who speaks and who listens, who is visible and who remains hidden, who presides and who responds, who decides and who follows. In this sense, liturgy becomes a primary site where ecclesial inequality is embodied, normalized, and transmitted.
At the heart of the synodal process lies the insistence that the Church is first and foremost a listening people. Yet this synodal vision stands in tension with a liturgical structure that often remains largely one-directional, operating as a ritual economy flowing from altar to pew. This paper explores how such a configuration risks undermining the Church's synodal conversion by reinforcing asymmetries of voice, visibility, and authority that obscure the equal baptismal dignity of all the faithful.
Drawing on the ecclesiology of the Synod on Synodality and the theology of baptism articulated by Vatican II, the paper proposes a normative account of liturgical equality as neither sameness nor role interchangeability, but as the equal ritual visibility of baptismal dignity within a differentiated sacramental economy. It argues for a de-hierarchicalization of liturgical forms, not through de-sacramentalization or the abolition of distinct ministries, but through a reconfiguration of symbolic and performative structures so that differentiation no longer collapses into domination. Ultimately, the paper contends that liturgy is a decisive test of synodal credibility: a Church that seeks to listen synodally must also learn to worship synodally.