XVI ORDINARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS
FOR A SYNODAL CHURCH:
COMMUNION, PARTICIPATION, MISSION
For the First Session
(October 2023)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword
The journey so far
A working tool for the second phase of the synodal journey
The structure of the text
A. For a synodal Church. An integral experience
A 1. The characteristic signs of a synodal Church
A 2. A way forward for the synodal Church: conversation in the Spirit
B. Communion, participation, mission. Three priority issues for the synodal Church.
B 1. A communion that radiates: How can we be more fully a sign and instrument of union with God and of the unity of all humanity?
B 2. Co-responsibility in Mission: How can we better share gifts and tasks in the service of the Gospel?
B 3. Participation, governance and authority: What processes, structures and institutions in a missionary synodal Church?
WORKSHEETS FOR THE SYNODAL ASSEMBLY
Introduction
Worksheets for B 1. A Communion that radiates
B 1.1 How does the service of charity and commitment to justice and care for our common home nourish communion in a synodal Church?
B 1.2 How can a synodal Church make credible the promise that “love and truth will meet” (Ps 85:11)?
B 1.3 How can a dynamic relationship of gift exchange between the Churches grow?
B 1.4 How can a synodal Church fulfil its mission through a renewed ecumenical commitment?
B 1.5 How can we recognise and gather the richness of cultures and develop dialogue amongst religions in the light of the Gospel?
Worksheets for B 2. Co-responsibility in Mission
B 2.1 How can we walk together towards a shared awareness of the meaning and content of mission?
B 2.2 What should be done so a synodal Church is also an ‘all ministerial’ missionary Church?
B 2.3 How can the Church of our time better fulfil its mission through greater recognition and promotion of the baptismal dignity of women?
B 2.4 How can we properly value ordained Ministry in its relationship with baptismal Ministries in a missionary perspective?
B 2.5 How can we renew and promote the Bishop’s ministry from a missionary synodal perspective?
Worksheets for B 3. Participation, governance and authority
B 3.1 How can we renew the service of authority and the exercise of responsibility in a missionary synodal Church?
B 3.2 How can we develop discernment practices and decision-making processes in an authentically synodal manner, that respects the protagonism of the Spirit?
B 3.3. What structures can be developed to strengthen a missionary synodal Church?
B 3.4 How can we give structure to instances of synodality and collegiality that involve groupings of local Churches?
B 3.5 How can the institution of the Synod be strengthened so that it is an expression of episcopal collegiality within an all-synodal Church?
ABBREVIATIONS
AA Vatican Council II, Decree Apostolicam actuositatem (18 November 1965)
AG Vatican Council II, Decree Ad gentes (7 December 1965)
CA St. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus annus (1 May 1991)
CL St. John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles laici (30 December 1988)
CV Francis, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christus vivit (25 March 2019)
PD General Secretariat of the Synod, For a Synodal Church. Communion, Participation, Mission. Preparatory Document (2021)
DCS General Secretariat of the Synod, For a Synodal Church. Communion, Participation, Mission. “Enlarge the space of your tent (Is 54:2). Working Document for the Continental Stage (2022)
DV Vatican Council II, Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum (18 November 1965)
EC Francis, Apostolic Constitution Episcopalis communio (15 September 2018)
EG Francis, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium (24 November 2013)
FT Francis, Encyclical Letter Fratelli tutti (3 October 2020)
GS Vatican Council II, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes (7 December 1965)
IL Instrumentum Laboris
LG Vatican Council II, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium (21 November 1964)
PE Francis, Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium (19 March 2022)
SC Vatican Council II, Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium (4 December 1963)
UR Vatican Council II, Decree Unitatis redintegratio (21 November 1964)
INSTRUMENTUM LABORIS
Foreword
“May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to think in harmony with one another, in keeping with Christ Jesus, that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 15:5-6).
The journey so far
1. The People of God have been on the move since Pope Francis convened the whole Church in Synod in October 2021. Beginning at their most vital and elementary level, the local Churches across the globe have initiated the consultation of the People of God, starting with the basic question formulated in no. 2 of the Preparatory Document (PD): “How does this ‘journeying together,’ which takes place today on different levels (from the local level to the universal one), allow the Church to proclaim the Gospel in accordance with the mission entrusted to Her; and what steps does the Spirit invite us to take in order to grow as a synodal Church?”. The fruits of the consultation were collected at the diocesan level and then summarised and sent to the Synods of the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Episcopal Conferences. In their turn, each drafted a synthesis that was forwarded to the General Secretariat of the Synod.
2. In order to serve a new stage in the ongoing synodal process, the Working Document for the Continental Stage (DCS) was drafted from the reading and analysis of the documents collected. The DCS was returned to the local Churches around the world, inviting them to engage with it and then to meet and enter into dialogue at the seven Continental Assemblies. During this time, the work of the Digital Synod also continued. The aim was to focus on the insights and tensions that resonated most strongly with the experience of the Church on each continent and to identify, from the perspective of each continent, the priorities to be addressed in the first session of the Synodal Assembly (October 2023).
3. This Instrumentum Laboris (IL) was drafted on the basis of all the material gathered during the listening phase, and in particular the final documents of the Continental Assemblies. Its publication closes the first phase of the Synod, “For a Synodal Church: communion, participation, mission” and opens the second phase, composed of the two sessions[1] (October 2023 and October 2024) in which the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops will take place. Its aim will be to continue to animate the synodal process in the ordinary life of the Church, identifying which pathways the Spirit invites us to walk along more decisively as one People of God. The fruit for which we ask at the next Assembly is that the Spirit inspire the Church’s walking together as the People of God in fidelity to the mission that the Lord has entrusted to it. Indeed, the purpose of the synodal process “is not to produce documents but to open horizons of hope for the fulfilment of the Church’s mission” (DCS, 6).
4. The journey so far, especially the continental stage, has made it possible to identify and share the particular situations experienced by the Church in different regions of the world. These include the reality of too many wars that stain our world with blood leading to a call for a renewed commitment to building a just peace, the threat represented by climate change that implies a necessary priority of caring for the common home, the cry to oppose an economic system that produces exploitation, inequality and a throwaway culture, and the desire to resist the homogenising pressure of cultural colonialism that crushes minorities. Situations of persecution to the point of martyrdom and emigration that progressively hollow out communities, threatening their very survival are deeply lamented. The local Churches have spoken of their concern to be equipped to address urgent social realities, from the growing cultural pluralism that now marks the entire planet, to the experience of Christian communities that represent scattered minorities within the country in which they live, to the experience of coming to terms with an ever more advanced, and at times aggressive, secularisation that seems to consider religious experience irrelevant, but where there remains a thirst for the Good News of the Gospel. In many regions, the Churches are deeply affected by the crisis caused by various forms of abuse, including sexual abuse and the abuse of power, conscience and money. These are open wounds, the consequences of which have yet to be fully addressed. To the penitence it owes to victims and survivors for the suffering it has caused, the Church must add a growing and intensified commitment to conversion and reform in order to prevent similar situations from happening again in the future.
5. It is in this context, diverse but with common global features, that the synodal journey takes place. The Synodal Assembly of October 2023 will be asked to listen deeply to the situations in which the Church lives and carries out its mission. What it means to walk together gains its missionary urgency when this question is asked in a particular context with real people and situations in mind. What is at stake is the ability to proclaim the Gospel by walking together with the men and women of our time, wherever they are, and practising the catholicity that emerges from walking together with the Churches that live in conditions of particular suffering (cf. LG 23).
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