“For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission” is the title of a journey solemnly begun on October 9-10, 2021, in Rome, and then again on October 17 in each particular Church around the world. On March 7, 2020, the announcement had been made that Francis wanted to hold the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October 2022 on the theme: “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission.”
At the end of last May, Cardinal Mario Grech announced that the Assembly would be postponed by a year, to 2023, in part for public health reasons, but above all to encourage a different and unprecedented approach. The Assembly has been conceived in three phases, taking place between October 2021 and October 2023: the first will be diocesan, the second continental and the third universal.
This methodology, which foresees the elaboration of two different instances of Instrumentum laboris, is intended to involve all the people of God in this synodal process, whose key points are participation, listening and discernment.
|
