‘A ROLE TO PLAY’

Saying “everyone of us has a role to play,” Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger celebrated a special liturgy Oct. 24 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany to mark the start of the worldwide synod taking place in dioceses across the country and around the globe at the invitation of Pope Francis.

“Tonight we are launching what is a worldwide invitation from Pope Francis to become part of a synodal process. As I said, don’t look it up in the dictionary, you may not find it,” Bishop Scharfenberger said during his homily at the Sunday evening Mass. “If you come from an American background, you may be more familiar with the concept of a synod. You may have heard of diocesan synods, where everybody comes together and meets and talks and listens and maybe makes some plans of renewal. The word synod is basically just a fancy Greek word (for) coming together ... coming together in communion so we can listen. That’s the first step of it.”

The synod — with the theme “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission” — is an effort to give local Catholics an opportunity to give voice to their experience of faith and have a role in developing plans to direct the future of the Church. It is the first phase of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which will be held in 2023. The launch begins a two-year process that culminates in the Synod of Bishops
in October 2023. The synod is expected to adopt a final document that will guide the continuing development of a synodal Church going into the future.

“We are going to listen not only to the people that are good at talking a lot … we are going to try to find a way in which every voice can be heard and maybe not only those that are here with us in church,” Bishop added. “We talk a lot about people who we wish were here and we wonder why they’re not here. Why they don’t feel a part of the community. ... They may have something to say, there may be a reason they are not here. I am not going to presume what that is. Maybe they are not getting something that they need that they’re looking for that they should be finding here.”

Dioceses and parishes will be engaged in nearly six months of discussions and submit a summary of local discussions by April 1 to the USCCB, which will then present a final written report for the Vatican. Once the Vatican receives the worldwide diocesan reports, the Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops will draft by September 2022 a working document to guide continental or regional ecclesial assemblies that will take place by March 2023. Those assemblies will produce another set of documents that will help in the drafting of a second working document for the Synod of Bishops in October 2023. The synod is expected to produce a final document on synodality throughout the Church.

“Part of the synodal process is to listen to those that may not be affiliated, may not be regular church goers,” Bishop said. “People that may be engaged in different lifestyles that they feel they’re not welcomed here. ... Remember Jesus is here for every one of us and reaches out to those that are in the margins. … We are asking the Holy Spirit to help us to find and to reach out to those particularly in the margins. 

“We want everyone to feel they are a part. We are all members of the body of Christ. It’s a beautiful image that St. Paul uses that everyone of us has a role to play.”

— With CNS