Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 6, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).
The synodal process promoted by Pope Francis is coming to dioceses across the United States, each of which is being asked to hold “listening sessions” throughout Lent about the structure and organization of the Church.
Pope Francis initiated the worldwide Synod on Synodality in October 2021 and held the first global assembly at the Vatican in October 2023. The gathering included cardinals, bishops, members of the clergy, and lay Catholics and centered on discussions about the structure and organization of the Church, along with other topics. The Vatican will hold the final meeting of the synod in October of this year.
Per Vatican instructions, each diocese is expected to host local gatherings to discuss similar questions with members of the clergy and lay Catholics. The guidelines for American dioceses, set by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, urge clergy and lay Catholics to pray and spiritually prepare for local meetings through the beginning of 2024 and hold between two and three “listening sessions” during Lent.
The USCCB is requesting that the dioceses focus on two “guiding questions”:
- Where have I seen or experienced successes — and distresses — within the Church’s structure(s)/organization/leadership/life that encourage or hinder the mission?
- How can the structures and organization of the Church help all the baptized to respond to the call to proclaim the Gospel and to live as a community of love and mercy in Christ?
Julia McStravog, the USCCB’s senior adviser for the synod, told CNA that the process could vary from diocese to diocese, noting that each diocese “will ultimately decide how to implement what we ask of them.” The local synodal structure in a given diocese will be “dependent upon how the dioceses choose to go about it,” she said.
“Synodality happens at the local level,” McStravog added.
People who desire to participate should “be in touch with the diocese,” McStravog said. The USCCB will also host a public webinar next week that will discuss the local synodal process.
When holding the listening sessions on these questions, the bishops’ conference suggested that dioceses hear from “voices that may not have been heard in earlier stages of the synod” or from “other groups that were underrepresented in your diocesan consultations.” Only about 1% of Catholics worldwide took part in the previous synodal stages.
McStravog said this could also vary from diocese to diocese but that two groups the USCCB is paying particular attention to are “migrants” and “the poor,” both of which the Vatican has asked bishops to focus on. She said other voices include priests in general as well as deacons.
The bishops further encourage each diocese to collaborate with Catholic organizations such as schools, colleges, nonprofits, and health care facilities. They further request that the dioceses “focus upon the voices of the people of God.”
The global assembly last October covered a variety of topics, such as the organization and the structure of the Church, as well as discussions on more controversial topics, such as blessings for same-sex couples and women’s ordination. The synodal report did not offer definitive conclusions on these questions, but the topics of women’s access to the diaconal ministry and priestly celibacy were listed as “matters of consideration.”
McStravog said, however, that as the synod has gone on, the Church is trying to “narrow in” on certain topics, such as structure and organization, which is what the Vatican directions “wanted local churches to focus on.”
When asked whether the diocesan synodal process will address concerns from traditional Catholics about recent promulgations over the past few years, such as restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass, McStravog said previous documents have noted that “liturgy is becoming a pressure point” in the United States but that she is “not sure how much that will come up” given that the focus is on organization and structure.
Following the listening sessions, the bishops’ conference is requesting that each diocese create a 3- to 5-page synthesis document based on the listening sessions and submit those documents to the USCCB by April 8, which is about a week after Easter.
The bishops will then work on a “regional synthesis process” from April 9 to April 22 and then draft a “national synthesis” by May 14. The USCCB will submit its national synthesis document to the Vatican’s synod secretariat by May 15, which will precede the Vatican’s next global synodal assembly in October of this year.
After the October assembly, the synod will produce a final report, which will be submitted to Pope Francis.
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Julia Mc Stravog and the theology of job security…
Wondering here if these warmed-over leftovers will again redefine bishops–the Successors of the Apostles–“primarily as facilitators,” as the half-pregnant topics of “structures, organization and leadership” are groomed toward, what, “inverted-pyramid” congregationalism?
Is the agenda less to talk about it, than by default to already to do it? The Anglicanization of the Catholic Church…this as the Anglican ecclesial communion, itself, is rupturing over the same militant ambiguities: https://theweek.com/religion/1021097/african-anglican-leaders-threaten-split-from-church-of-england-over-same-sex-union
Some “synthesis!”
Listening sessions?? Do they not mean “gripe sessions”??? This has already been a large disaster in Germany. I suppose the Vatican has learned nothing. People who are content with church structure and theology will not bother to attend these sessions mostly likely, because they have no agenda to push and have better things to do. The sessions will then be over-run by the shrill and the demanding, who are a definite minority but always make the most noise.I am seriously sick of hearing over and over about the idea of women in the diaconate and the celibacy issue. Further, where do they get off giving special attention to migrants ( who already absorb too many church resources) and the poor? What makes the poor more deserving to be listened to than those who are in actual fact donating money so the church can accomplish it’s mission and “stay in business” if you will. Evidently these days following the rules and the law and achieving enough success to help your church financially now makes your opinions less worthy to be heard. A lot of us have had more than enough of this garbage.
Wow – seems like you have your own agenda!
I am sick to death of the synod. Enough already.
Can we meet and talk about talking more about meeting?
We’ll do that at some future Synod on Synods on synodalites called for by Pope Francine I.
Dialogue: ˈdīəˌlôɡ Definition: As a verb, Take part in a conversation or discussion to resolve a problem where I pretend to listen to you and then I do what I had already planned to do. Synonym: synod
This type of activity has been oftentimes referred to as “contemplating one’s navel.” As a male of the species I can say that men are not wired to sit around and talk all day. It’s not our mode of operating.
I tend to agree: “The emphasis on conversation between clergy and laity is good in principle, but much of it, again, is navel-gazing. Lumen gentium (37–38) envisions a mature laity who are confident in living their faith in the world…” (“A Muddled Report for a Messy Synod”, Dec 5, 2023).
Carl, I swear, I did not plagiarize your piece. 🙂
Dreaming of Synodaling…
Me: “Hello everyone. I’m Fool.”
Fellow Synodalers: “Hello Fool! Welcome.”
And just like that, I begging to finally feel empowered…
I thought we already did these listening sessions last year…??
What? No trip to Rome?
During Lent? Marzo è pazzo!
No, the next paid vacation for the Synod of Sycophants is in October.
To be fair, Synodaling is no fun. It’s like sitting through Kabuki Theater, slowly inventing religion with weaponized boredom.
It is probably appropriate that these Synodal listening sessions are taking place during Lent, a penitential season.
The purpose is to replace penitential Lent with the post sin-odd dally-meetings. No time for Stations of the Cross?
And the synodal topic is the new trinitarianism: structure/ organization/ and leadership:
Structure: the fluid opposite of a needed spinal implant?
Organization: roundtable talk as the needed replacement for pre-Vatican II and “backwardist” Friday night Bingo?
Leadership: leadership-from-behind, which finds its analogue in the piggy-backed posturing of Fiducia Supplicans?
Keep the peasants distracted with synodality’s new trinitarianism…
…whilst the embedded leadership elites, behind the Wizard-of-Oz curtain, decide (deicide?) about such oxymorons and deaconesses and the blessing of same-sex pairings; aka “irregular” couples, unions, serial bigamy, and cohabitation;….And, gradually [“gradualism”!] not clearly excluding [inclusivity] polygamy, incest, bestiality, and rape as unilateral outreach?
Our former priest, in dealing with both the parish and the k-8 school issues, remarked once that, “some Catholics are born with a lemon in their mouth.”
A bishop or priest’s job would be a lot easier if the world did not run on money, or on staying compliant with the state and local authorities on questionable mandates and rules. Which political party in power actually cares about the poor, and not their voting power?
Good luck with the America’s synod. Might want to include the corporations that are running the country in your invitations, in order to get their perspective.
It does dishearten good Catholics when we seem to be experiencing deja vu in this round 2. My heart goes out to the poor and the migrants, but clearly the Church is ignoring the faithful as an earlier comment stated. Those good people who go to daily Mass are the ones the Church should really be talking with. They will tell you to keep your eyes on Jesus. Nothing else is worth talking about.
“Where have I seen or experienced successes — and distresses — within the Church’s structure(s)/organization/leadership/life that encourage or hinder the mission?”
I’ll tell you where I’ve seen distresses…half of the priests I’ve encountered since childhood presented as overtly homosexual and one tried to get me in bed when I was 18. I know they’ve made my life harder as an evangelist because I constantly have to answer for their misdeeds, but the Bishops won’t even admit the source of the issue. Additionally, multiple priests have warped the liturgy and thumbed their noses at the rubrics because of their personal agendas. A Monsignor I currently work with, at the beginning of Mass, rather than saying, “Let us call to mind our sins” says, “Let us call to mind the places in our lives that need healing”. Monsignor, stop trying to soften it. We sin. We need to know that we sin. God wants us to know that we sin so that we can get serious about changing.
Lastly, I’ve noticed that the only bishops who publicly promote orthodoxy are silenced, ridiculed and fired without explanation. There. I’ve participated in the synodaling.
I’ll tell you where –
Navigator, thanks for your truth-telling. We need more witnesses like you to indict the bad players in the Church.
Even in the guitar swinging 70s we were taught in religion class that you cannot take away the core parts of the mass but can only add on.
You were sent to heal the contrite…
You came to call sinners…
You plead for us at the right hand of the Father..,
Simple, powerful, directly to the point of the existence of the Church and our faith in Christ.
Rediculous. A tried and true way to imply you are listening while pursuing your own agenda.
Exactly, Mr.Carl.
🙂
Several years ago I joined a Daylily gardening club hoping to learn more about growing that flower.
Each meeting began with a review of the minutes of the previous meeting, talk about when the next meeting would occur, and updates on members who were under the weather, etc. Then door prizes were given out and they’d adjourn the meeting for refreshments. Never once did I hear anything about daylilies.Nada.
You should have brought a petunia to a meeting and asked the group if anyone knew what was wrong with your daylily. ha ha
The chatting reminds me of our phone service being on a party line growing up, competing with a lot of stay at home moms for phone line time.
Julia McStravog, the USCCB’s senior adviser for the synod is the equivalent of a school marm instructing her class of third graders. Except her wards are grown men wearing purple zucchettos instructed to Listen, listen, listen and continue to listen. As if they have nothing to convey. Apostolic successors reduced to buffoons. Another travesty product of the Synodal Church.
Saying that they’re reduced to buffoons is unfair, rather bishops are neutralized from fulfilling their mission. There are many who do well within their dioceses, what they require is the right leadership from Rome. If there were ever a time for bishops and all clergy to convey the Gospels with clarity and conviction it is now, when the world is on the path of self annihilation. This Synod is conceptually antithetical to the saving message of Christ.
AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
(Sorry to text yell, I just wanted some validation…)
I remember going to one of those “listening sessions” 30 some years ago when the topic was the US Bishops’ attempt to write a document about Women in the Church. The manipulative setup of the affair helped radicalize me into the critical person I am today. The voices of normal, faithful Catholics aren’t the ones that such programs are designed to “hear.”
1. I believe this is “the structure” of the Church established by Jesus:
A. Jesus = Head of the Body, and governs as King;
B. Bishops who are in Union with Jesus, as his Apostles were, and united around a faithful steward of Jesus, the Bishop of Rome, and by virtue of their union with Jesus, in union with their pastors and flocks.
C. Pastors who are in Union with Jesus, and by virtue of that, in union with their Bishop, etc.
D. Faithful laity, in union with Jesus, and by virtue of that, in union with their pastor, etc.
2. The “synod-bureaucrats,” led in their objectives by the Eminent Cardinal Hollerich, SJ, who has, with tacit approval of the Pontiff Francis, SJ, publicly declared himself opposed to the commands of Jesus regarding sexual morality, and very specifically so declaring that the revelation against sodomy is wrong, indicates that he and his fellow Synod bureaucrats are “colonized” by psycho-sexual-Marxist ideology, and as such they declare themselves opposed to Jesus, as he and his apostles are, in their high estimation, “wrong-headed” about sexual morality, and therefore not fit to rule the “new-Church” they seek to establish, to replace “The Body of Christ,” by decapitating it.
3. It is noteworthy that among the scriptures cited by “the-long-lent-of-the-2024-synod-bureacrat-series” is St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, Chapter 12, encouraging us to “offer our bodies as a living sacrifice” and warning us “do not be conformed to the world,” a piece of revelation in gigantic contradiction to the ideology animating the psycho-sexual Marxist-idelogues who are animating the “synod-manufactured-by-the-Pontiff-Francis.”
4. The only question to be answered is which characters, along with “His Emenince Hollerich, SJ” in the “publicly-apostate-anti-Christ-synod” are just using the quotation from Romans 12 as a Trojan Horse for their new-anti-Christ-ideological-cult.
Answer to question 1: distresses include women lectors and talk about deaconesses and blessings of “irregular” (i.e. sinful) unions. Also limiting access to the Traditional Latin Mass especially at the parish level. Let the bishop run the diocese, not Rome. Answer to question 2: more Adoration, more Holy Hours, Rosaries, prayers. More reverent masses with Catholic Gregorian chant and other music, not Protestant type music and church architecture. As to why the idea that discussion about liturgy might not come up because discussion is about organization, what about letting the organization discussion include the choice of Latin mass, kneeling for communion, Ad Orientem, etc be at the very local level, parochial and diocesan, not at Rome? That is part of the organization picture, isn’t it?
I recommend this, from Fr. kirby, at TCT, today:
https://www.thecatholicthing.org/