October 4, 2023 at 1:53 p.m.

Synod begins work with focus on Holy Spirit and listening

SYNOD 2023: Pope Francis said synodal process "is not easy, but it's beautiful, very beautiful."
Pope Francis is seen on a monitor as he speaks to participants in the assembly of the Synod of Bishops during their first working session in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican Oct 4, 2023. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
Pope Francis is seen on a monitor as he speaks to participants in the assembly of the Synod of Bishops during their first working session in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican Oct 4, 2023. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez) (Courtesy photo of Lola Gomez)

By Cindy Wooden | Comments: 0 | Leave a comment

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis opened the work of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops asking members to meditate on ancient theological texts about the Holy Spirit, have the courage to be honest about their disagreements and focus much more on listening than on sharing their opinions.

The synodal process "is not easy, but it's beautiful, very beautiful," Pope Francis told some 364 other synod members and 85 non-voting experts, ecumenical delegates and facilitators the afternoon of Oct. 4 as the synod work began in the Vatican audience hall.

Synod members begin small-group discussions on 'synodality'

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The 364 members of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops and the 85 experts, facilitators and ecumenical delegates accompanying them began their work in earnest Oct. 5, meeting, sharing and praying in small groups.

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, relator general of the synod, introduced the work late Oct. 4, asking members of the assembly to prepare for the small-group discussions by reflecting in prayer on the Gospel story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, who recounted their life with Jesus, their "hope and enthusiasm," but also their "disillusionment, frustration, anger and fear" after his death.

Although they initially do not recognize the risen Jesus walking with them, "they are not afraid to entrust all this to the mysterious wayfarer, and so they discover that listening to his Word dissolves their heaviness and transforms their desolation into a consolation that grows," Cardinal Hollerich said.

"I do not know if we will have many moments of desolation in our walking together," the cardinal told synod members, "but I am confident that by the work of the Holy Spirit, consolation will enter our hearts, which is the condition for undertaking a good discernment."

The theme of the synod is: "For a synodal church: Communion, participation, mission." As the synod assembly proceeds through Oct. 29, its members will discuss the issues in the gathering's working document in order, beginning with the foundational question of what are "the characteristic signs of a synodal church?"

Topics to be addressed later in the month include being a sign and instrument of union with God and unity with humanity, how to share gifts and tasks in the service of the Gospel and what processes, structures and institutions create a missionary synodal church.

Most of the synod's work was scheduled to take place in small groups, arranged by language and with a mix of cardinals, bishops, priests, religious, lay women and lay men. The 35 working groups, with 10-12 people each, include 14 groups working in English, eight in Italian, seven in Spanish, five in French and one in Portuguese.

Pope Francis, president of the synod, does not attend the sessions when the work is devoted to small group discussions.

The synod members were asked to begin by focusing on the assembly working document's assertion that "a synodal church is founded on the recognition of a common dignity deriving from baptism, which makes all who receive it sons and daughters of God, members of the family of God, and therefore brothers and sisters in Christ, inhabited by the one Spirit and sent to fulfil a common mission."

After morning prayer Oct. 5, the groups began with each member sharing, for a maximum of four minutes, "what seems most important and most meaningful, what they feel emerges most strongly from their memory" of the input of the various synod listening sessions over the past two years regarding what contributes to or detracts from strengthening that model of a synodal church.

Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Dicastery for Communication and president of the assembly's Commission for Information, told reporters Oct. 5 the morning work followed the model of "spiritual conversation": members shared their experience and after a pause for silence and prayer, each person shared what struck or touched them most about what the others had shared. After more silence, they began trying to list common traits and obvious differences in what they had heard.

Each working group will be asked to draft a short report on their conversation, vote on whether it accurately reflects the discussion and then choose someone to read it to the whole assembly. After a discussion of all the reports in the full assembly, each group will decide whether or how to amend their reports before turning them into the synod secretariat for inclusion in a summary report on that section of the synod's work.

"A certain asceticism" is needed for the synod, the pope said. He asked forgiveness from journalists trying to cover the monthlong meeting but insisted "a certain fasting from public words" would be needed to ensure the proper spiritual atmosphere for the synod members.

And, in fact, the synod rules distributed that evening said, "In order to guarantee the freedom of expression of each and all regarding their thoughts and to ensure the serenity of the discernment in common, which is the main task entrusted to the assembly, each of the participants is bound to confidentiality and discretion regarding both their own interventions and the interventions of other participants."

Pope Francis also repeated what he has said many times: "the synod is not a parliament" where the ideas of opposing parties will be debated and voted up or down along party lines. Neither, he said, is it "a meeting of friends" getting together to exchange opinions and try to solve problems they see around them.

"The synod is a journey that the Holy Spirit makes," he said, so constant prayer and listening are necessary to follow the path the Spirit indicates.

"The Holy Spirit triggers a deep and varied dynamism in the Christian community, the confusion of Pentecost," when people from every nation heard the disciples speaking in their own languages, the pope said. From the experience, the Spirit creates not uniformity, but harmony.

Differences of opinion will surface, he said. "If you don't agree with what that bishop or that nun or that lay person says, say it to their face. That's what the synod is for. To tell the truth, not the chatter under the table."

Pope Francis also acknowledged how people outside the synod members are offering "hypotheses about this synod -- 'But what will they do there?' 'The priesthood for women?' -- these are the things that are being said outside."

But what is happening, he said, is that the universal church has gathered in Rome to pause and to listen.

"The church has stopped, as the apostles stopped after Good Friday, on that Holy Saturday," closed in the Upper Room, he said. "But they were afraid; we are not. … It is a pause for the whole church to listen."

Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the synod, told the members, "Today the church is at a crossroads, and the urgent challenge, strictly speaking, is not of a theological or ecclesiological nature, but how at this moment in history the church can become a sign and instrument of God's love for every man and woman."

"God's love is the medicine that can heal today's wounded humanity, and as the church our mission is to be a sign of this love," he said.

In discerning the best ways to do that, Cardinal Grech said, participants should remember the assembly is not "an isolated act," but part of a process that began two years ago with local, diocesan, national and continental listening sessions.

The presence of members who are not bishops -- some 70 priests, religious, lay men and women -- is not meant to represent "the totality of the People of God," he said, but to "remind us with their presence" of the whole synod process and its invitation for all Catholics to participate, sharing their experiences of things that help or hinder their sense of communion, participation and mission.

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, relator general of the synod, noted how the members were gathered at round tables in the Vatican audience hall rather than in the rows of the synod hall to promote conversation but also to remind them of similar experiences they had at listening sessions in their parishes and dioceses.

"Bishops who were not very active in the process but have been elected by their (bishops') conferences," he said, "may face challenges at the beginning. On the other hand, there are the members who are not bishops. Many among them were particularly involved in the continental stage of this synod and are called to testify their experience."

In the synod discussions, he urged members to remember that each person, with his or her differences, is a Christian trying to follow the Lord.

"The church is the people of God, walking through history, with Christ in her midst," Cardinal Hollerich said. "It is only normal that there is a group walking at his right, another at his left, while some run ahead and others lag behind."

From any of those positions, he said, when a person looks at the Lord, "they cannot help but see the group that is doing the opposite: those walking on the right will see those walking on the left, those running ahead will see those lagging behind."

"In other words, the so-called progressives cannot look at Christ without seeing the so-called conservatives with him and vice-versa," he said. "Nevertheless, the important thing is not the group to which we seem to belong, but walking with Christ within his church."


Comments:

You must login to comment.

250 X 250 AD
250 X 250 AD

Events

October

SU
MO
TU
WE
TH
FR
SA
29
30
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
27
28
29
30
31
1
2
SUN
MON
TUE
WED
THU
FRI
SAT
SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT
29 30 1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31 1 2

To Submit an Event Sign in first

Today's Events

No calendar events have been scheduled for today.

250 X 250 AD