In front of the faithful of the diocese of Rome, Pope Francis outlined the theme of the next synod : “For a synodal Church : communion, participation, mission”. It will be held over a period of two years starting this October.

During the first millennium, “walking together“, i.e. practising synodality, was the usual way of proceeding for the Church conceived as “People gathered by the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”. But how is this “walking together”, which allows the Church to proclaim the Gospel in accordance with the mission entrusted to her, realised today at different levels (from the local to the universal); and what further steps does the Spirit invite us to take in order to grow as a synodal Church?

This is the meaning of the journey to which we are all called during this synod: to rediscover the face and form of a synodal Church where “everyone has something to learn. The faithful, the College of Bishops, the Bishop of Rome, each one listening to the others; and all listening to the Spirit“. The ambition of this reform would be to allow a true renewal of relations between all the living forces that make up the Church in order to leave no one by the wayside by giving a voice to young people, women, the poor, the excluded… A better anchoring in the real and the present at the service of the common good, because everything is linked, as Pope Francis explains in his encyclical letter “Laudato Si'”.

As Nathalie Becquart, under-secretary of the Synod, says, “synodality is another way of being and thinking about the Church. It is a question of rediscovering the very nature of the Church in the first centuries, in order to better reach our contemporaries. This is the only way to transmit the faith.”

This process is ambitious. Pope Francis wants to move quickly so that the Church “rediscovers that it is a people that wants to walk together, among itself and with humanity“.

Other sources:

• For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission,
• Synod 2021-2023