Dr Larry Chapp joins Mark Lambert for a wide-ranging and candid conversation about Pope Leo XIV, the legacy of the Francis pontificate, synodality and the growing crisis of theological ambiguity within the Catholic Church.

Has precision in Catholic theology become a casualty of the synodal age?

From Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich publicly questioning the Church’s teaching on homosexuality while serving as Relator General of the Synod, to Sr Nathalie Becquart insisting that synodality is “not a programme” even as the Church enters an official implementation phase, Larry and Mark examine a deeper problem: what happens when ambiguity ceases to be an accident and becomes a method?

The discussion explores the tensions between contemporary synodality and the ecclesiology of Lumen Gentium, Ut Unum Sint and Dominus Iesus, as well as Pope Francis’s influential image of the “polyhedron” and the danger of confusing legitimate Catholic diversity with contradictory understandings of truth.

They also turn to Pope Leo XIV. More than a year into his pontificate, has Leo done enough to confront the theological and institutional confusion he inherited? Larry remains sympathetic to the new Pope, but his message is becoming increasingly urgent: the time has come to “clean the stables.”

Is Leo quietly correcting the Francis pontificate? Is he attempting to stabilise it? Or are Catholics entitled to expect much greater clarity and decisive action?

A serious conversation about truth, authority, synodality and the direction of the Catholic Church with theologian and writer Dr Larry Chapp of Gaudium et Spes 22.