What is the Synod on Synodality? How do I participate?
Over the past few months, you have heard words like SYNOD ON SYNODALITY and BEACONS OF LIGHT. Are they the same thing? No, they are not the same. Each of them is completely independent from the other. Each would be happening even if the other did not exist. Right now, I want to help us better understand what the Synodon Synodality is because it is happening right now. Beacons of Light is barely getting started. Pope Francis has called for a Synod, a meeting of bishops, leaders of religious congregations and various church leaders from across the whole world, to meet in Rome during October 2023. As a first step, Pope Francis wants to hear Holy-Spirit-led input from every Catholic on earth, including every Catholic feeling estranged from the Church. He has called all the dioceses throughout the world to convene “consultative” meetings to be completed by April 2022.
Pope Francis is absolutely insisting on this synodal approach that involves hearing from all the baptized in discerning the will of God on how to accomplish the mission of the Church best on world-wide, diocesan, and local faith community levels. The Pope means all the baptized – all Catholics, regardless of how engaged they are in the faith, as well as non-Catholic Christians, the young, the old, the disabled, the poor, migrants and immigrants, women, religious, the laity and the clergy. The Pope wants us all to journey together, to gather in assembly and to listen to one another in order to hear the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
These are the ten themes to be addressed as part of the Synod on Synodality: Companions on the Journey, Listening, Speaking Out, Celebration, Sharing Responsibility for Our Common Mission, Dialogue in Church and Society, Ecumenism, Authority and Participation, Discerning and Deciding, and Forming Ourselves in Synodality.
In the coming six weeks, the Holy Father is inviting people from all walks of life to participate in one of the listening sessions around the Archdiocese. To learn more about this initiative by Pope Francis and to register for one of the listening sessions, please enter into the link: www.catholicaoc.org/synod. If you prefer to participate by paper survey, please let me know and I will help to get a survey into your hands.
Have a good week. Be safe. God bless us all. Fr. EJ