VATICAN (CNS): As final plans are made for the continental phase leading to the Synod of Bishops 2023-24, the 30 bishops and coordinators responsible for the regional meetings met at the Vatican from November 28 to 29.
The meeting at the Vatican was meant to help finalise plans for the regional gatherings called to reflect on the Document for the Continental Phase, released in late October and echoing the themes that emerged from all the national syntheses of synod listening sessions and the contributions of religious orders, Catholic movements, Vatican dicasteries and nuncios from around the world.
Jean-Claude Cardinal Hollerich of Luxembourg, relator general of the synod, told Pope Francis late on November 28, that the synod process has faced “temptations” along the way.
The cardinal noted that particularly in the media, there is a temptation to politicise the Church, looking at it “with the logic of politics.”
He said, “Some have an agenda for the reform of the Church; they know very well what needs to be done and they want to use the synod for that purpose: this is instrumentalising the synod. This is politicising,” he said.
“On the opposite side are—to borrow your word—the ‘indietrists’ [literally, backwardists] who do not understand that a true Catholic tradition evolves while remaining a tradition in its time,” Cardinal Hollerich told the pope. “They, too, would like to put the brakes on the synod process.”
…the participants from around the world who met at the Vatican in late November ‘want to be able to enter into a true discernment, an apostolic, missionary discernment, so that the synodal Church can carry out its mission in the world
Cardinal Hollerich
However, the cardinal said that the participants from around the world who met at the Vatican in late November “want to be able to enter into a true discernment, an apostolic, missionary discernment, so that the synodal Church can carry out its mission in the world. We want to walk together with you and, above all, with the Holy Spirit and with Jesus, in order to mend our Church.”
Participants in the continental phase will be asked to discuss what in the document “resonates” with them or what they believe is missing, expained Xavière Missionary Sister Nathalie Becquart, one of the synod undersecretaries.
The Asian meeting will be held from February 23-27 in Bangkok, Thailand; while the Middle East meeting will be held from February 12 to 18 in Beirut, Lebanon. Catholics from Australia, New Zealand and other parts of Oceania will meet from February 5-9 in Suva, Fiji; while the bishops of Africa and Madagascar will sponsor a gathering in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, March 1-6.
The bishops of the United States and Canada have decided to hold 10 online sessions for their continental phase; the meetings, scheduled for 90 minutes, will take place from December 14 to January 21 with five sessions in English, three in Spanish and two in French.
The bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean also will hold multiple meetings, although all four will be in-person gatherings. The meetings are scheduled for El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Brazil between February 13 and March 10. The bishops also have decided that 55 per cent of the participants will be laypeople while 45 per cent will be bishops, priests, deacons and religious.
The European gathering is scheduled for February 5 to 12 in Prague with 200 people attending in person and up to 10 more delegates from each country following online.
