One of the assumptions that animates many conversations surrounding a more synodal Church is that a more “democratized” Catholic Church is by definition a better Church. We heard a lot of chatter in last year’s Synod on Synodality about a Church that listens to “the people of God.” And those two concepts – a democratized Church and the Church as the people of God – were often conflated to mean almost the same thing. This conflation is incorrect. When properly understood, the “people of God” metaphor, used in Lumen Gentium, not only does not endorse a more democratic Church, it implies the opposite.