{"id":13442,"date":"2021-10-15T17:23:49","date_gmt":"2021-10-15T17:23:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/?p=13442"},"modified":"2021-10-15T17:23:49","modified_gmt":"2021-10-15T17:23:49","slug":"vatican-synod-is-not-exempt-from-risks-says-pope-francis-at-opening-of-two-year-synod-of-bishops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/2021\/10\/15\/vatican-synod-is-not-exempt-from-risks-says-pope-francis-at-opening-of-two-year-synod-of-bishops\/","title":{"rendered":"VATICAN: \u201cSynod is not Exempt from Risks,\u201d Says Pope Francis at Opening of Two-Year Synod of Bishops"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA<\/em><\/p>\n

At the launch of a two-year process for Synod of Bishops aimed to encourage full participation and involvement of all the baptized of the Catholic Church on synod of synodality, Pope Francis has disclosed three risks which if not well addressed may hinder success of the Synod process.<\/p>\n

\u201cSynod, just as it offers us a great opportunity for a pastoral conversion in a missionary and also ecumenical key, is not exempt from\u00a0some risks,\u201d the Pontiff said while addressing<\/a> delegates during the synod launch Saturday, October 9, highlighting three risks as \u201cformalism, intellectualism and immobility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking about formalism, Pope Francis acknowledged that a \u201cSynod can be reduced to an extraordinary event, but a facade, just as if one were looking at a beautiful facade of a church without ever setting foot inside it.\u201d Rather, \u201cSynod is a path of effective spiritual discernment, which we do not undertake to give a beautiful image of ourselves, but to better collaborate in the work of God in history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Therefore he said, \u201cIf we speak of a synodal Church we cannot be satisfied with the form, but we also need substance, tools and structures that favor dialogue and interaction in the People of God, especially between priests and laity.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his observation, \u201cSometimes there is some elitism in the presbyteral order that makes it detach from the laity;\u00a0and the priest eventually becomes the “owner of the shack” and not the pastor of a whole Church that is moving forward,\u201d hence the reason for stressing about tools and structures on interaction between priests and laity.<\/p>\n

Concerning intellectualism\u00a0as another risk which can lead to \u201cabstraction,\u201d he warned during the opening of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly, making \u201cSynod a kind of study group, with cultured but abstract interventions on the problems of Church and the evils of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is \u201cwhere we proceed in a superficial and worldly way, ending up falling back into the usual sterile ideological and party classifications and detaching ourselves from the reality of the holy People of God, from the concrete life of the communities around the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Pope further stressed on the temptation of immobility as yet another risk that can make people reason “it has always been done this way better not to change.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who move within this horizon, even without realizing it, make the mistake of not taking the time we live in seriously. The risk is that it will eventually adopt old solutions to new problems: a new cloth patch, which eventually creates a worse tear,\u201d the Pope said and continued, \u201cFor this reason it is important that the Synod be truly such, an ongoing process;\u00a0involve, in different phases and starting from the bottom, the local Churches, in a passionate and embodied work, which imprints a style of communion and participation marked by mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the Saturday\u2019s opening session for the synod slated for October 2023 and themed \u201cFor a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission,\u201d the Pope noted that it is the Holy Spirit to guide and give graces on way forward for the entire 2-year preparation \u201cto listen to each other and to initiate discernment in our time, becoming in solidarity with the toils and desires of humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Synod is not a parliament, the Synod is not an investigation of opinions (but) an ecclesial moment,\u201d Pope Francis cautioned in his address at the new Synod hall in Vatican adding that \u201cthe protagonist of the Synod is the Holy Spirit.\u00a0If there is no Spirit, there will be no Synod.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vatican through the\u00a0Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (CICLSA) in their earlier message<\/a> in preparation for the synod, has urged all Christians as well as Religious men and women to \u201cpray, reflect, discuss and share their experiences, insights and desires\u201d and at the same time \u201cBe open to the challenge offered by the three significant words of the theme of the Synod of Bishops on the Synodal Church: communion, participation and mission.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA At the launch of a two-year process for Synod of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13312,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amecea-news","category-vatican"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13442"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13443,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13442\/revisions\/13443"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}