Pope Francis has restructured the preparation process for the upcoming Synod of Bishops to further include the voices of the laity, priests, and religious from dioceses around the world.
DARIO VITALI
Consultant, General Secretary of the Synod
“The Pope asked several times that listening be a fundamental principle in the life of the Church. In a democracy what works in general is the opinion of the majority. In the Synodal Church, the principle that regulates the life of the Church is the 'sensus fidei.' This is, the voice of the Holy Spirit manifested through the baptized.”
The Pope has announced that the preparation stage for the Synod will be extended, and divided into three phases.
As a result the upcoming Synod will take place in the Vatican in 2023, one year later than originally announced.
Pope Francis will open the consultation phase to take place in dioceses in October 2021, and which will last until April 2022.
During this initial phase each bishop is asked to meet with the local Church to discuss the topics of the Synod. They will then complete a questionnaire prepared by the Vatican to be submitted to their bishops' conference.
Each bishops' conference will send a summary of the results to the Vatican.
The organizers of the Synod in Rome will also gather input from the Vatican Curia, theological institutions, pontifical universities, and religious and lay organizations.
With this information the Vatican will release a working document for the Synod in September 2022 ahead of the next phase of preparations.
The process reflects Pope Francis' idea of synodality as a communal journey for all Catholics.
POPE FRANCIS
'I thank you for your document because today we think synodality is going around hand-in-hand and celebrating with the youth, don't we? Or rather that it is asking a series of questions: what do you think about female priests? And if the majority agrees, you do it. No, synodality is an ecclesial path driven by the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit there is no synodality. You did a good job in contributing to this. Thank you'.
In the next phase of preparations, bishops' conferences throughout each continent will discuss the Vatican's working document before sending their own proposals to Rome.
The Vatican will then put together a second draft of the working document to open the final stage of the Synod: the meeting of bishops in Rome which will take place in October 2023.
Javier Romero
TR: Justin McLellan
VM
