Pope Francis asserts that without the presence of the Holy Spirit, there is no synod

When there is a month left before the opening of the Synod of Bishops in the Amazon, Pope Francis stressed that synodality is not about investigating or doing politics as it can in parliament.

As the Holy Father explained on Monday 2 September at the hearing, he granted the Vatican to the bishops who are celebrating in Rome the synod of the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church, if the Holy Spirit is not present in the works of the synod, none There is a synod.

In his speech, the pontiff badured that there was a danger: "believe today that to draw a synodal path or to adopt a synodal attitude is to conduct an opinion poll."

"No, the synod is not a parliament. Things must be said, discussed as usual, but it is not a Parliament. A synod is not in agreement as in politics: I give you this and you give me that. No. A synod should not make a sociological inquiry, as some believe: Let's see, let's ask a group of laypeople to investigate, whether to change this, this, this … ".

Pope Francis insisted: "If there is no Holy Spirit, there is no Synod. If the Holy Spirit is not present, there is no synodality. "There is also no synodality" there is no church, the identity of the church. And what is the church there? "The identity of the church" St. Paul VI has made it clear: the vocation of the Church is to evangelize, that is to say that its identity is Evangelize ".

That is why he recommended to the Greek Catholic bishops of Ukraine to celebrate their synod "with this spirit, with the Holy Spirit. Pray the Spirit. Talk to each other about everything you want … Think about Ephesus, how they quarreled! But they were brave … And in the end, the Spirit said, "Mary, Mother of God." This is precisely the way. It is the spirit. Because we do not want a congregational church, but a synodal church. Go like this.