Our parish recently concluded a series of listening sessions for the Church’s Synod to be held in Rome next year. Synods are periodic gatherings of bishops that assist the Holy Father to address vital questions of faith, morals, or discipline. The upcoming Synod is different in that Pope Francis has widened the scope of participation beyond a group of select bishops to include the entire People of God. Pope Francis hopes that by learning from the experience of all its members, the Church can strengthen its communion, participation, and mission.
During in-person meetings as well as through on-line submissions, participants were able to share their experience of the Church in an open and impartial setting. The basic question considered was: “What have been the joys and obstacles in your journeying together with the Church?”
The sessions were overseen by Jeffrey Carter, Joan DeGregory, and Len Commini , and lay volunteers who assisted as facilitators and note-takers. I am most grateful for their generosity. The contributions—all anonymous—have been compiled, reviewed by our pastoral council, and submitted to the diocesan synod committee. They will eventually make their way to the national Bishop’s Conference and then to Rome. I found the submissions encouraging. Others were discouraging and challenging. I was very much encouraged by those participants who spoke about the positive influence of the Church in their lives. They felt a joy in being able to serve the Church in various ministries and affirmed that the sacraments were a source of strength for daily life. Many remarks were rather disconcerting and even sad. Not a few participants shared their hurts and frustrations with the Church, seeing it as a “cold” institution that was and is unwelcoming, judgmental and uncharitable. A few participants spoke of their pain in seeing loved ones drift away or leave the Church. Some were themselves hurt by a representative of the Church. The merger of parishes was also raised as a source of pain. Others used the sessions to advocate for changes in Church teaching, e.g. a greater role for women. All sessions lamented the impoverished state of catechesis and called for programs and schools that strongly and clearly set-forth the Church’s doctrine at every level. Many remarks reflected a poor or erroneous understanding of the Church teachings on the part of the contributors which accounted for some of the hurt.
A few “parish-based” suggestions made their way into the sessions: the need for creating a greater sense of community by involvement beyond worship, better liturgical music, relevant homilies, engaging youth, greater outreach to those who feel alienated from the Church (e.g., divorced and remarried, LGBTQlA+) The contributions provided much food for reflection and certainly made this pastor more acutely aware of people’s joys and pains. Let us pray that this extraordinary process will be a great help to the Church in its pastoral mission.