The Synods during the John Paul years were engineered.  John Paul was so disengaged from the process, so uninterested in the interventions of the Synod Fathers, that he could  be observed reading his breviary during the Synod sessions.  The Synods in the Francis era are like those in the immediate post-Vatican II years: the Fathers are not only free to speak their minds, the pope encourages them to do so.  It IS refreshing.