The Theology and Ministry Program of the School of Humanities and the Loyola School of Theology invite you to the oral defense of the Ph.D. Dissertation/S.T.L. Tesina entitled “A CHURCH IN THE SPIRIT: The Reception of Vatican II’s Pneumatological Ecclesiology in Pope Francis’s Vision of a Synodal Church” by KENJIE I. CORTEZ on 17 April 2026, Friday, 10:00am-12:00nn at DLC 201 (Tipanan ni San Ignacio), 2/F Dela Costa Bldg., Loyola School of Theology. The Board of Examiners is composed of Br. Joaquin Yap, Jr., S.W., D.Phil. (Adviser), Fr. Emmanuel Marfori, S.Th.D. (Second Reader/Principal Examiner), Fr. Oliver Dy, S.J., S.T.D., Ph.D., Michael Jason Liberatore, Ph.D., and Fr. Ramon Echica, S.T.D. The defense is being held in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the civil degree Doctor of Philosophy in Theology and ecclesiastical degree Licentiate in Sacred Theology, both concentrating in the field of Systematic Theology. It is open to the public.
Abstract: This dissertation analyzes the reception of the Second Vatican Council vis-à-vis the Francis pontificate. It argues that the Argentine Pontiff’s twelve-year papacy has inaugurated a new phase in conciliar reception. The study establishes this claim by thematizing a specific dimension of Vatican II, namely, its pneumatological ecclesiology. It further examines how Pope Francis’s vision of a synodal Church has effectively advanced such a vision of the Church.
In articulating the Council’s pneumatology, this dissertation builds on the work of the Jesuit historian John W. O’Malley, particularly his insight into the conciliar texts’ “style of discourse.” Thus, the study identifies what might be called “seeds” of Vatican II’s pneumatological ecclesiology derived from its four Constitutions. Such seeds not only indicate Vatican II’s inchoate theology of the Spirit. More importantly, they underscore the Council’s pneumatological orientation, which presupposes a more integral appropriation of its vision of ecclesial renewal.
In conclusion, the study asserts that Pope Francis’s vision of a synodal Church marks a significant maturation of the Council’s vision of a Church in the Spirit, as expressed in the three aspects (following Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney) that constitute his signature project: Synodality as a noun, a verb (synoding) and an adjective/adverb (synodal).
