After reciting the Angelus, the Pope indicated that the process of communion has borne fruitful fruits and therefore requires a period of maturity. Therefore, the XVI Ordinary Session of the Synod of Bishops will take place in two parts in October 2023 and in October 2024.
(Vatican news network) Pope Francis has in mind the process of communion with the Church, but remembers “do not be in a hurry”. This is what the Pope underlined after having guided the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square to recite the Angelus on October 16. He recalled that, on 10 October last year, the 16th regular session of the Synod opened with the theme “The Church as one: communion, participation and mission”, “since then the synod has been held in the local Churches. The first stage it is listening and discerning ”.
The Pope stressed that “this process of fraternity has borne fruitful fruits” and that a moment of maturity is needed. “Therefore, to give more time to discernment, I have decided that this Synod will take place in two sessions. The first session will be from 4 to 29 October 2023, the second session will be held in October 2024. I believe this decision will help to understand the breadth of communion as a Church, a spirit that we all live as brothers and sisters witnesses to the joy of the Gospel ”.
On the same day, the secretariat of the Synod issued a notice, explaining that “Pope Francis on the Pontifical Constitution of Bishops in Communion” “provides for this possibility” in point 3. This decision “was born from the theme of the Synod, which, for the its breadth and importance, wished to be the subject of continuous discernment, not only by the participants in the Synod, but also by the whole Church ”. This is in line with the ongoing scholarship process.
“The Synod is not an event, but a process, in which all the people of God are invited to walk together, in the direction that the Holy Spirit helps them to discern, to carry out the will of the Lord for his Church”. read the announcement. Therefore, this regular session of the Synod will also present a procedural dimension, reflecting a ‘walking on the itinerary’, aimed at fostering a more mature reflection for the greater good of the Church “.
Furthermore, the Synod Secretariat also indicated that the next period would be better fixed for the holding of two sessions of the XVI Ordinary Synod of the Synod of Bishops, as well as an intermediate period. “This listening process begins in 2021 with the local Church, that is, with the People of God around the Pastor; appeals to the Episcopal Conferences and Synods of the Eastern Catholic Church ”.
“Since the local Church started the discernment process, 112 of the 114 Episcopal Conferences and all the Eastern Catholic Churches have been involved. Now, to continue the process of the continental phase, there will be a synod of bishops on the continents from January to March 2023. As a summit, the meeting will revisit the path we have undertaken, starting from the documents of the stage of the continent, and continuing the process of listening and discernment according to the uniqueness of the society and culture of each region, so that we can complete the final step of this spiritual journey. “.
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