The Catholic Church is right now undergoing a synodal process launched by Pope Francis last October. This will go on for two years to give the faithful time and opportunity to express their opinions.
Comprising a diocesan, a continental and a universal phase according to a predetermined timeline, the pre-synod will culminate in the Synod of Bishops in October 2023.
In a pastoral message marking the launching of the Synod in the local churches of the Philippines, the then President of the CBCP, Archbishop of Davao Romulo G. Valles, reiterated the view that the Synod is a journey and not just a meeting or an assembly.
“It is a convocation guided by the Spirit for the challenge of mission. St. John Chrysostom aptly said that the ‘Church and synod are synonymous,’” he wrote.
The dynamics are, therefore, of a journey. All the faithful will be walking together, listening to one another, and to the Holy Spirit. The Spirit speaks not only through the clergy but also through the laity, and even blows outside the Church.
The synodal journey will include also those outside the Church, the lapsed Catholics, the disaffiliated, those on the fringes of the Church and society. They will be listened to in order to determine which issues should be reflected upon in the Synod.
Thus, the preparatory document of the Synod does not propose doctrines, but rather, gives some themes, and above all, indications to promote the reflection, first at the local level-until August 2022- and, after, at the continental level, up until September 2023. In October 2023, the Synod will be held in Rome with the participation of Bishops from all over the world.
In the Philippines, the bishops have concluded the pre-synodal consultations at the diocesan level and submitted their reports to the CBCP last month. There follows a three-day assembly at the national level to be held on March 7-9, where the bishops will submit a national report to the Synod General Secretariat by April 2022.
After centuries of clericalization of the Church, it will not be enough for the year of 2022 to restore synodality as the natural way of functioning of the Church. This dynamism that Pope Francis intents to instill in the Church will take many years to accomplish.
Our hope and prayer is that both the faithful and the clergy continue “walking together” the path of synodality. This synodal way is the DNA of the Church, and therefore, ought to be her distinctive feature of being and acting.
