Local input sought for Synod of Bishops

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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Catholics soon will have the opportunity to participate in a worldwide effort to understand where the Universal Church is today and to chart a course for its future.

In October 2023, the worldwide Synod of Bishops will meet in council in the XVI Ordinary General Assembly. With input and feedback gathered from all the Church, from the clergy to Catholics in the pews to those at the peripheries, the bishops will develop a plan for the Church to move forward in journeying together and with fellow Christians. Recent Synods for the Pan-Amazon Region (2019) and Synods for Ordinary General Assembly (2013, 2014, 2015, 2018) have addressed a wide range of topics.  The Synod of Bishops, however, is quite different because it will involve people world-wide to participate and have their voices carry forward.

“The ability to imagine a different future for the Church and her institutions, in keeping with the mission she has received, depends largely on the decision to initiate processes of listening, dialogue and community discernment, in which each and every person can participate and contribute,” states the Preparatory Document for the synod, which was sent to all dioceses.

Beginning this month, the Church is launching an effort in its parishes, ministries, schools, community and social institutions and outreach efforts to hear how the People of God perceive where the Church is today and where it should be headed in the future. The theme of this process is “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission.”

“In a synodal style we make decisions through discernment of what the Holy Spirit is saying through our whole community,” said Father John Evans, pastor of St. Thomas More Parish in Cottonwood Heights, who is coordinating these efforts for the Diocese of Salt Lake City.

Pope Francis will formally launch the process of the Synod of Bishops with a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 10. It will be preceded by a day of reflection in the synod. On Oct. 17, Bishop Oscar A. Solis will open the synod process in the Diocese of Salt Lake City with a 6 p.m. Mass at the Cathedral of the Madeleine. He invites the members of the Diocesan Pastoral Council and other representatives from each diocesan ministry and organization, especially the youth, lay ecclesial ministers, multi-cultural groups and the deans to join him that evening.

Then, over the next four months, this feedback will be gathered in listening sessions in various communities. In the Diocese of Salt Lake City, a team that will be led by Fr. Evans is being formed to develop listening sessions and other resources to ensure the outreach involves not just those actively serving in the Church but also those at the peripheries, including the homeless and the disenfranchised.

The primary question to be addressed through this process has been outlined in the Preparatory Document:

“A synodal Church, in announcing the Gospel, ‘journeys together:’ How is this ‘journeying together’ happening today in your particular Church? What steps does the Spirit invite us to take in order to grow in our ‘journeying together’?”

Church leaders hope to “gather the wealth of the experiences of lived synodality, in its different articulations and facets, involving the Pastors and the Faithful of the particular Churches at all the different levels,” the Preparatory Document says.

Baptized individuals especially are being asked to participate in this process, Fr. Evans said. “Secondary are others who seek to help us in this effort; for example, those who have left the faith, [those of] other faith traditions and people of no religious belief.”

Once the dioceses in the United States have gathered this information, it will be submitted to the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops to be joined with feedback from assemblies of the Church across the world and distilled into a final document which will be used by the Synod of Bishops to guide the Church. Church leaders stress that the result of this extraordinary gathering of perspectives will be more than words written on paper but will form a guide to help lead the faithful confidently along the path God has ordained for them and for the Church.

As with other synods, “The purpose … is not to produce documents, but ‘to plant dreams, draw forth prophecies and visions, allow hope to flourish, inspire trust, bind up wounds, weave together relationships, awaken a dawn of hope, learn from one another and create a bright resourcefulness that will enlighten minds, warm hearts, give strength to our hands,’” as stated by Pope Francis in his 2018 address at the opening of the Synod of Bishops on Young People.