You Are Invited: To Be Part of a Listening, Synodal Church

“As I mentioned during my presentation on the Synod at our gathering in November, the USCCB Synod Team has prepared guidelines for listening sessions and synthesis preparation for the Interim Stage Synthesis; the guidelines are attached. This guidance is based on communications to the episcopal conferences of the world from the Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops. The aim is to assist local dioceses in planning realizable consultative activities during this time, in ways that contribute to the preparation for the October 2024 Assembly in Rome.”

Bishop Daniel E. Flores, Letter to Bishops, Jan. 2, 2024

BISHOP
KEVIN J.
SWEENEY

In my column last week, I mentioned that our diocese will be offering “Listening Sessions” as part of the “Interim Phase” of the Synod on Synodality. I wish to return to this topic and, especially, to this “invitation” to each member of the Church. The invitation is also offered to those who may find themselves “outside” the Church or on the “margins” of the Church and/or society.

On this past Tuesday, Feb. 27, we held a “listening session” for priests, which not only offers our priests an opportunity to participate directly in the synodal process but also, we hope, serves as a “preparation” for the upcoming “diocesan-wide” listening sessions.

I am happy to let you know that the 50 priests who participated in the listening session were filled with great enthusiasm and encouragement, as they had an opportunity to honestly and openly share with one another their hopes, dreams, and concerns for our Church at this moment in our history.

Now, we need your help and participation. I hope that many readers were able to participate in some way in the initial Synodal listening process that took place in the early months of 2022. All that we heard at that time, from thousands of people throughout the diocese, became part of a “Diocesan Report,” which contributed to regional and “continental” reports that were used to form the agenda, topics, and themes that were discussed by the Synod Delegates at the first “Assembly” in Rome this past October. I hope that most readers are familiar with the “Synthesis Report,” entitled “A Synodal Church on Mission,” which was produced by that assembly. It is available at the link below this column.

As I mentioned in my column last week, the Synod delegates, in the introduction to the synthesis report, speak very personally to each one of us (all the baptized):

“After a month of work, the Lord is now calling us to return to our Churches to hand over to all of you the fruits of our work and to continue the journey together. Here in Rome, we were not many, but the purpose of the Synod path called by the Holy Father is to involve all the baptized. We ardently desire this to happen and want to commit ourselves to making it possible.

When we first offered listening sessions in the initial phase of the Synod on Synodality, in the first half of 2022, I felt that I was a “new bishop” and that I was still “getting to know” the diocese. Two years later, although I still sometimes feel like a “new bishop” who is still getting to know the wonderful Church and people of our diocese, I feel that I am in a much better position to hear what is shared with me on a day-to-day basis. I also feel that, in collaboration with our diocesan leaders, I will be better able to hear what will be offered and shared at the upcoming listening sessions.

We face many challenges as a diocese and as the universal Church, but we are living in historic times. In his more than 10 years as our Holy Father, Pope Francis has certainly challenged us to be a welcoming, inclusive Church as we remain faithful to the revealed Truth of Scripture and the Magisterium. Some (many?) of our sisters and brothers are still struggling to understand Pope Francis’ “approach,” but we have an opportunity to strengthen our unity as the “one Body of Christ.” The Synod on Synodality is a true opportunity to live out our common “Baptismal call” to holiness as members of the “mystical Body of Christ” (the Church).

Each year, during this holy Season of Lent, we are united with one another and the whole Church by our common “Lenten practices” of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. We journey together as the whole Church, preparing to recall and celebrate the great mysteries of our salvation during Holy Week, the Triduum, and Easter. This year of 2024, we have an additional opportunity to share in the life and unity of the Church by participating in a Synodal listening session. Following the leadership and example of Pope Francis and the synod delegates, these listening sessions will not be simple “parliamentary procedures” or “town hall meetings.” The method that will be used for these “encounters” is called “Conversations in the Spirit” and emphasizes time for quiet, silent prayer, listening to God’s Word, to one another, and to the Holy Spirit.

Especially after the listening session with our priests this past week, I am very much looking forward to our diocesan listening sessions. I am confident that many will respond to this invitation. I know that many have already registered.

The dates, times, and locations for the listening sessions are as follows:

• Wednesday, March 13, at Reverend Brown School in Sparta, from 7 to 9 p.m.
• Monday, March 18, at Pope John Paul II School in Clifton, from 7 to 9 p.m.
• Saturday, March 23, at St. Paul Inside the Walls in Madison, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.

For more information and to register to attend a listening session, you can go to our diocesan website.

I look forward to seeing you at one of the listening sessions as we continue to journey together as a listening, synodal Church.

The second reading for the Fourth Sunday of Lent (Cycle B) is from Saint Paul’s Letter of the Ephesians. As Lent progresses and our understanding of the synodal process — and our contribution to it — grows, we remem­ber the Apostle’s exhortation to us, “Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of good­ness and righteousness and truth” (Ephesians 5:8–9). Sharing our life in the Spirit, we will find our hearts renewed at Easter and the Church experiencing a more vibrant life as we journey together as God’s pilgrim people.