Vatican City, Nov 30, 2014 / 05:57 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In keeping with his usual tradition on papal trips, Pope Francis held an in-flight press conference on his way back to Rome, in which he opened up about the debate surrounding last month’s Synod of Bishops.

“The Synod is a path, it is a journey, firstly. Secondly the synod is not a Parliament. It’s a protected space in which the Holy Spirit may speak,” the Roman Pontiff told journalists on his Nov. 30 flight back from Turkey.