This week a select group of Catholic bishops, clergy and lay people flocked to Rome for a three-week “synod on synodality.” If the topic sounds obscure and mind-numbing, it is both. The gathering is meant to be a conversation with the pope about pressing concerns within the church. The problem is that synodality is hardly the most urgent issue facing the Catholic world; it’s an ambiguous theological concept that, in the end, will mean whatever the pope wants it to mean. And that’s likely the point. Pope Francis has very different priorities from his predecessors and intends to pursue them, solidifying his place as the most authoritarian Roman pontiff in decades.