HONG KONG (SE/KKP): The Diocesan Consultation Committee for the 16th Synod of Bishops on Synodality completed the first phase of the consultation in early August and submitted the report by email to the Vatican on August 11.
Based on information on the committee’s Facebook page, the diocese is now planning how to explain the report to the local Church and what direction the should be taken after the consultation. During the 10-month consultation period starting from mid-October 2021, the Diocese of Hong Kong organised briefings, spiritual formation meetings, and online activities.
The diocese distributed the Consultation Questionnaire for the Synod, both online and in print [Sunday Examiner, 21 November 2021] and received around 1,300 responses from parishioners, catechists and even non-believers, with 150 religious institutes, pious associations and spiritual groups participating both individually and collectively.
A total of 846 responses were submitted through Google Forms before the deadline in mid-May. There were 105 submissions from Catholic schools. The rest were received by post or by email.
The committee held 13 public meetings to consult members of the Church community, which nearly 1,200 people attended. More than 930 people participated in 170 spiritual conversations.
The committee reported that after a seminar on spiritual conversation held for priests, deacons, and seminarians in June at the Diocese Centre, Bishop Stephen Chow Sau Yan, SJ, expressed his admiration for the participation of all participants in the discussion. He felt a sense of unity among the brothers.
Father Aloysius Mak Ying-kin, parish priest at St. Joseph’s Church in Kowloon Bay, said he was glad that participants could share their feelings about their priestly ministries during the spiritual conversation and encouraged one another honestly. “I believe this attitude of mutual trust and open-mindedness is especially important while we implement the spirit of synodality,” he said.
The report submitted to the Vatican has three parts: Communion, Mission, and Participation. They further discussed the following topics: companions in the journey, listening, speaking out, celebration, sharing responsibility for our common mission, dialogue in Church and society, ecumenism, authority and participation, discerning and deciding, and forming ourselves in synodality.
The 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, under the theme of For a synodal Church: communion, participation and mission, is to be held in Rome in October 2023. During the two-year synodal process, which began in October 2021, Pope Francis invited the universal Church to express the spirit of synodality through reflection on the journeys that have been undertaken.
Synodality indicates walking together and listening to one another and, above all, to the Holy Spirit. The first phase of the synod was a consultation that included all the faithful in Churches across the globe, emphasising listening to all, especially laypeople.
