St. Christine’s Parish Synodal Questionnaire |
If you wish to read the entire Synod 2021 - 2023 Pamphlet follow the link below:
The Synod on Synodality: Communion, Participation, and Mission is a two-year process of listening and dialogue beginning in 2021 and concluding in 2023.
Dear Friends,
Pope Francis has called us to engage in this global dialogue at this particular moment in the Church’s life for a very specific reason. It is not to solve one specific issue or revise a piece of doctrine. It is to regain our ability to listen, to demonstrate the interdependence of our respective journeys of faith, and remind us that the Holy Spirit is “at work in every place and time.” (from Adsumus Sancte Spiritus) The “Synod on Synodality: Communion, Participation, and Mission” is a two-year process of listening and dialogue beginning in 2021 and concluding in 2023.
Pope Francis invites the entire Church to reflect on a theme that is decisive for its life and mission: “It is precisely this path of synodality which God expects of the Church in the third millennium.” This journey, which follows in the wake of the Church’s “renewal” proposed by the Second Vatican Council, is both a gift and a task: by journeying together and reflecting together on the journey that has been made, the Church will be able to learn through her experience which processes can help her to live communion, to achieve participation, to open herself to mission. (Courtesy of USCCB).
It is especially important that this listening process happen in a spiritual setting that supports openness in sharing as well as hearing. For this reason, you are encouraged to root the local experience of the Synodal Process in meditation on Scripture, the liturgy, and prayer. In this way, our journey of listening to one another can be an authentic experience of discerning the voice of the Holy Spirit. Authentic discernment is made possible where there is time for deep reflection and a spirit of mutual trust, common faith, and a shared purpose.
The preparatory Document reminds us of the context in which this Synod is taking place – a global pandemic, local and international conflicts, growing impact of climate change, migration, various forms of injustice, racism, violence, persecution, and increasing inequalities across humanity, to name a few. In the Church, the context is also marked by the suffering experienced by minors and vulnerable people “due to sexual abuse, the abuse of power, and the abuse of conscience perpetrated by a significant number of clerics and consecrated person”.[1] With all this being said, we find ourselves at a crucial moment in the life of the Church and the world. The covid-19 pandemic has made existing inequalities explode. At the same time, this global crisis has revived our sense that we are all in the same boat, and that “one person’s problems are the problems of all.”[2] The context of the covid-19 pandemic will surely affect the unfolding of the Synodal Process. This global pandemic creates real logistical challenges, but also offers an opportunity to promote the revitalization of the Church at a critical time in human history, when many local Churches are facing various questions about the path forward.
In the midst of this context, synodality represents the path by which the Church can be renewed by the action of the Holy Spirit, listening together to what God has to say to his people. However, this journey together n