The General Secretariat of the Synod presented on Tuesday, September 7, the preparatory text and the vademecum that will guide the main themes of the next Synod on synodality.
Newsroom (September 9, 9:00 PM Gaudium Press) The preparatory document entitled “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission” is accompanied by a vademecum, a kind of manual adaptable to the different diocesan realities, which will serve to facilitate listening to the people of God and increase their participation.
Divided into 4 sections (Call to walk together, A constitutionally synodal Church, Listening to the Scriptures, Synodality in action: tracks for consulting the People of God) the document makes the point that the Church is already synodal, but there is a need to put it into practice through concrete actions.
For this reason, the published documents favour this synodal process from now on. In fact, Pope Francis will begin the synod on October 10 in Rome. The following Sunday, October 17, the bishops from around the world will officially open the time of listening to the people of God that will run until April 2022 in the dioceses. Finally, October 2023 will be the official conclusion of the Synod.
This first synodal period is a “consultation” of the faithful. A consultation that proposes to strengthen “communion” and encourage “mission” through the fundamental question that the document poses: “How is ‘walking together’ in your particular Church today?” To this end, the faithful are invited to reflect on the lived experiences within each diocese taking into account the existing relationships between the faithful, religious and clergy, but also in relation to institutions, such as charities, hospitals, schools, etc.
The text closes by reaffirming the need to arrive at concrete actions for synodality: “the purpose of the Synod, and therefore of this consultation, is not to produce documents, but rather ‘to make dreams come true, to arouse prophecies and visions, to make hopes flourish, to stimulate trust, to bind up wounds, to interweave relationships, to resurrect a dawn of hope, to learn from one another and to create positive images that enlighten minds, inflame hearts, give strength to hands“.
Compiled by Zephania Gangl
