Pope Francis will choose the ‘big questions’ for further Synod study, but the local Church has a role too

Pope Francis will provide input on the “big questions” to focus on at the next session of the Synod on Synodality next October, the Vatican revealed in a new document Tuesday.

Examples include questions related to the ordination of women to the diaconate, revisions to canon law pertaining to the Oriental Churches, and a review of the Vatican document Ratio Fundamentalis, which serves as the basis for the formation of priests and deacons.

Those were among the topics deemed “matters of great relevance” that came up during the synod’s first session in October and require consideration “at the level of the whole Church and in collaboration with the dicasteries of the Roman Curia,” according to the new document.

A list of these topics will be sent to Pope Francis for review, and the Pope will indicate sometime in January which topics require further study. The new document does not detail who the experts are or how they will be selected.

Released on Dec. 12 by the General Secretariat of the Synod, the Vatican office coordinating the ongoing synodal consultative process, the four-page document, titled “Towards October 2024,” details “the steps to be taken in the months between now and the Second Session of the Synodal Assembly.” 

The first monthlong session of the Synod on Synodality, a multiyear process initiated by Pope Francis to enhance the communion, participation, and mission of the Church, concluded on Oct. 29 with the finalization of a 42-page synthesis report. The October 2024 session is expected to produce a final report, which will be presented to Pope Francis for his consideration in issuing any related teaching. 

The new document calls for feedback on the synthesis document from local and national levels. Emphasizing that this is not to be construed as “a question of starting the synodal process from scratch or repeating the process of listening and consultation undertaken during the first stage,” it notes that “each local Church is invited to focus on those aspects that enable it to make a contribution in the light of its own situation, character, and experience, sharing good practices that represent visible and concrete signs of synodality.”

According to the document, this process will be a moment for dioceses to reflect on the “fundamental questions” that are to be guided by the central aim of the synod’s central question: “How can we be a synodal Church in mission?”

“The local Churches are also invited to go through the entire Synthesis Report and collect the requests that are most consonant with their situation,” the document states. “On this basis, they will be able to promote the most appropriate initiatives to involve the whole people of God.”

Once this process is complete, these various reports submitted by the dioceses will be compiled into an eight-page document and sent to the General Secretariat of the Synod by May 15, 2024, forming the basis of the Instrumentum Laboris (or working document) that will be used by assembly members of the synod’s second session in October 2024. 

Meanwhile, the Ordinary Council of the Synod of Bishops has released comprehensive guidelines outlining the Catholic Church’s approach to the second session. The guidelines emphasize deepening synodality with a missionary perspective and broadening experiences of synodality at the local level.

Local dioceses are called upon to reflect on two main themes:

Deepening: Promoting reflection on differentiated co-responsibility in the mission of all members of the People of God. This involves consultations with people and groups expressing diverse experiences, skills, charisms, and ministries, seeking input on “how” to grow as a synodal Church.

Broadening: Encouraging new initiatives for a synodal church on a mission. This includes training and listening experiences involving individuals not previously engaged, those in conditions of poverty, social marginality, Christians of different denominations, and people of other religions.

To facilitate local discussion, a work sheet is available on synod.va.

Bishops’ conferences will guide local Churches, reflecting on differentiated co-responsibility and elaborating on contributions for submission to the General Secretariat by May 15, 2024. 

Listening at the local level: a crash course, but not the last one

Although the listening circles of 2022 are long gone, their impact is still being felt in Star of the Sea Parish as part of its year-long centennial activities.

Sister Nancy Brown, SC, OBC, a sister of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul (Halifax), visited Good Shepherd Church to walk parishioners through individual and communal discernment and their use personally and in the parish community.

Discernment, she said, is all about listening – to our own hearts as well as those of others and the Holy Spirit. Listening well challenges the individual to be open to other perspectives without judgment or debate. 

As one parishioner put it, “The whole process of discernment requires both the head and the heart and a commitment to spend time praying and reflecting before looking at the pros and cons of an important decision, either for myself or within a parish group.”

The synod process is reminding Catholics that through their common baptism, laity, clergy and religious are all co - responsible for the Church’s life and mission. The parish mission statement is “To follow Jesus Christ and invite others to do the same,” but how to do that can be difficult and confusing, and discernment can help parishioners understand how to fulfill the mission, individually and as a parish, in the “mission territory” of South Surrey/White Rock. 

At the parish level, the process requires communal discernment in decision-making and the use of spiritual conversations in the parish to inform councils and committees of convergences and divergences within the parish community.

The very use of synodality is a new way of being church, Sister Brown said, as the synod logo so clearly emphasizes: the people of God walk together as equals on the same path, led by a child. Pope Francis’ hope is that the synodal process will continue in the ordinary life of the Church, with members identifying “which pathways the Spirit invites us to walk along more decisively as one People of God.”

The concept of listening without judging and simply accepting and respecting others with dignity drew positive feedback from participants, and Sister Brown said discernment, if used appropriately, is a gift that can transform not only the individual but the community of believers.

The presentation was followed by a workshop on spiritual conversations the next day at Star of the Sea Parish Center in White Rock with Sister John Frances La Fever, FSE, walking participants through the workings of spiritual conversation at the level of personal experience rather than in generalities. By sharing from the personal level, trust and communion grows.

Likewise, Father  Jean-Pierre Ducharme, OFM, of St. Joseph the Worker in Richmond, described the spiritual conversation process with a Scripture reflection on the Disciples on the Road to Emmaus. The Church, he said, “is constitutionally synodal – I cannot be a Christian or a Catholic and be opposed to synodality.” In Jesus’ manner of engaging with the disciples, despairing followers gain hope from dialogue with a stranger. Rather than impose himself, Jesus asks questions and eventually accepts their invitation to dinner. But once faith is achieved, Jesus’ purpose is accomplished and he disappears. 

As Pope Francis often says, synodality is a time of listening to the Spirit, requiring an attitude of openness, faith, and freedom. A synodal church is a church that listens, he says, understanding that as we walk together, listening involves being in tune with the Spirit speaking to us and through each other.

The objective of the spiritual conversations workshop was not to provide a temporary or one-time experience of synodality but rather to provide an opportunity for parishioners to discern together how to move forward on the path toward being a more synodal church in the long term. Several participants asked for more training to understand the process better and more instruction on the preparation required for spiritual conversations.

For Pastor Father Augustine Obiwumma, Star of the Sea can become a listening parish, and more training to help with synodal listening and spiritual conversations will likely be offered as groups prepare for future spiritual conversation assemblies.

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