On Sunday the 29th October, with the celebration of the Holy Mass presided over by Pope Francis, the first session of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which opened on the 4th October, came to an end.
“By the common grace of Baptism,” reads the Synthesis Report, “we have been able to live together with one heart and one soul, despite the diversity of origins, languages and cultures. As a choir we tried to sing in the variety of voices and in the unity of souls. The Holy Spirit has given us to experience the harmony that He alone knows how to generate: it is a gift and a testimony in a world torn and divided.”
“For four weeks, bishops, priests, deacons, religious and laity dialogued and discussed the many issues of to-day, walking together as baptized persons, in the diversity of charisms, vocations, ministries.” The final document, which is intended not to be a point of arrival, but rather a starting point towards the final phase of the Synod (scheduled for October 2024), is structured in three parts: The face of the synodal Church; All disciples, all missionaries; Weave bonds, build communities.
Amongst the themes addressed in the first part, a great deal of space is dedicated to the meaning of synodality, in a church that wants to be open to listening to everyone, valuing diversity and actively involving all the faithful. The issue of the poor is addressed on a broad spectrum, including not only people in obvious economic difficulties, but also migrants, minorities, exploited workers, the vulnerable, indigenous people, women victims of trafficking, the "new poor" resulting from wars, terrorism, climate change, and corrupt governments. For all these sufferers, the Church is called to commit herself personally to denunciation and active support without any discrimination or exclusion of anyone.
In the second part of the document, "All disciples, all missionaries", the equality of all the faithful within the Church is strongly emphasized: "Laymen and laywomen, those in consecrated life, and Ordained Ministers have equal dignity" (8 b), therefore the objective is to enhance and bring out the different charisms of each individual, whether lay or ordained.
A special mention is made of the role of women within the Church (9): for example, the hypothesis of the female diaconate is the issue that received the highest number of negative votes in the synodal assembly (see Results of the votes); but the Synod Fathers and Mothers proposed to continue in discernment using the results of the commissions specially created by the Pope and the research carried out so far. However, it confirms the need to involve women in decision-making processes, to combat forms of discrimination at work, including in ecclesiastical institutions, and to promote inclusive language in liturgical texts and Church documents.
Other topics in this section (diaconate, celibacy, the role of bishops, cases of abuse) will continue to be explored in depth in the near future.
In the third and final part of the document, "Weaving Bonds, Building Communities," attention is focused on all those dynamics that make people feel discriminated against by the Church today: marital situation, gender identity, sexual orientation are issues that must first of all be listened to, and not simply judged.
In paragraph 17, "Mission in the Digital Environment", the web also becomes a land of mission: digital culture is today "not so much a distinct area of mission as a crucial dimension of the Church's witness in contemporary culture. This is why it holds special significance in a synodal Church" (17b).
The report concludes with a look into the future: “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or with what parable can we describe it? Our Lord’s question throws light on the work that now lies ahead of us. It is not a matter of dispersing ourselves over several fronts, reducing everything to a logic of efficiency and proceduralism. Rather, it is a matter of grasping, among the many words and proposals of this Report, what appears as a small seed, yet one that bears the future, and of imagining how to bring it to the soil that will enable it to grow and mature for the benefit of many.”
Download the full text of the Synthesis Report
