The Vatican presents the Preparatory Document for the Synod of Bishops

On Tuesday, September 7, the Holy See published the Preparatory Document for the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, accompanied by a Vademecum detailing the structure of the Synod, its phases and its methodology.

The Synod, which will have the title “For a Synodal Church: communion, participation and mission”, will begin on October 9 and 10, 2021 in Rome and on October 17 in each particular Church. The process will end at the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October 2023. Ultimately, this is a Synod on Synodality.

The essential question to which the Synod of Bishops will try to answer is the following: “How is this“ journey together ”which allows the Church to proclaim the Gospel, according to the mission entrusted to her; And what steps does the Spirit invite us to take in order to grow as a Synodal Church? “.

The objectives of the Synod, according to the Preparatory Document, are above all “to recall how the Spirit has guided the path of the Church in history and calls us today to be together witnesses of the love of God” .

Then, “to live a participatory and inclusive ecclesial process, which offers everyone – in particular those who for various reasons find themselves in marginal situations – the possibility of expressing themselves and of being heard in order to contribute to the building of the People of God “.

Third, “to recognize and appreciate the richness and variety of gifts and charisms that the Spirit freely distributes, for the good of the community and for the good of the whole human family”.

A fourth objective is “to experiment with participatory ways of exercising responsibility in proclaiming the Gospel and in the commitment to build a more beautiful and liveable world”.

Also “examine how responsibility and power are experienced in the Church, and the structures with which they are managed, bringing to the surface and attempting to convert prejudices and disorderly practices that are not rooted in the gospel” .

The sixth objective cited by the Preparatory Document is “to support the Christian community as a credible subject and reliable partner in the paths of social dialogue, healing, reconciliation, inclusion and participation, reconstruction democracy, the promotion of fraternity and social friendship ”.

“Regenerate relations between members of Christian communities, as well as between communities and other social groups, for example communities of believers of other faiths and religions, civil society organizations, popular movements, etc. “, would be the seventh objective.

Finally, “to promote the enhancement and appropriation of the fruits of recent synodal experiences at the universal, regional, national and local levels”.

According to the Vademecum, a document distributed with the Preparatory Document, the Synod will have four phases.

The first would be the Diocesan Phase, a listening phase where the contribution of parishes, lay movements, schools and universities, religious congregations, Christian communities, social action groups, ecumenical and interfaith movements and other groups will be approached.

The second phase will have as protagonists the Episcopal Conferences and the Synods of the Eastern Churches, which will be responsible for compiling all the contributions of the Diocesan Phase and will elaborate a synthesis in a Presynodal Meeting. From this meeting will come a first Working instrument to be published by the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops.

The third phase will be the continental phase, where, in different continental meetings (seven in total, one per continent), seven final documents will be produced which will shape the second. Working instrument, who will be the one who will guide the work of the Synod Fathers during the Assembly in October 2023.

Finally, the fourth phase will be the celebration of the Assembly of the Synod of Bishops chaired by Pope Francis in Rome.

The Preparatory Document, it will be recalled, is an instrument “to promote the first phase of listening to and consulting the People of God in the particular Churches”, which will take place from October 2021 to April 2022.

A call to walk together

The Document presents the Synod as a call to walk together in a context of epoch changes in a society marked by the global tragedy of the COVID 19 pandemic, inequalities and injustices in a humanity that “appears more and more shaken by processes of massification and fragmentation ”.

This situation, “which, despite the great differences, unites the whole human family, tests the Church’s capacity to accompany individuals and communities”.

In the particular case of Christians, it is specified that it cannot be ignored. Thus, while there are countries and regions of the world where the majority of the population is Catholic or belongs to different Christian denominations, “there are other countries in which Catholics are in the minority; in some of these countries, Catholics, along with other Christians, suffer forms of persecution, even very violent ones, and often martyrdom ”.

“If, on the one hand, a secularized mentality predominates which tends to expel religion from the public space, on the other, there is a religious fundamentalism, which does not respect the freedom of others, feeds forms of ‘intolerance and violence, which are also reflected in the Christian community and in its relations with society ”.

A synodal church

The Document also recalls that synodality is a very old tradition in the Church. The Church, it is stressed, is “constitutively synodal”. Synodality “is much more than the celebration of ecclesial meetings and episcopal assemblies, or a simple matter of internal Church administration; synodality indicates the specific way of living and working of the Church ”.

Listen to the scriptures

Likewise, a relationship is established between the “walking together” of the Churches in the Synod and listening to and putting into practice the Word of God.

In this sense, it is defined as appropriate that the construction of a Synodal Church is inspired by two images of Scripture: the representation of the community scene “which constantly accompanies the path of evangelization” and “the experience. of the Spirit in which Peter and the early community recognized the risk of placing unjustified limits on the sharing of faith ”.

To read the Preparatory Document go HERE.

To read the Vademecum go HERE.