15 silhouettes depicting the people of God on the move: Pope Francis challenges everyone to be “prepared for the adventure of this journey”
By Agnes Chai
Nov 9 2021
KOTA KINABALU – It has been three weeks already since the Church’s synodal process was launched by the Archdiocese to involve everyone in a process of consultation.
This consultation is an expansion of the established institution called the Synod of Bishops. It is desired by Pope Francis, and was called by him, to involve everyone – from parishioners to clergy and bishops, from children to the elderly, from the faithful to those who are not attending Mass, and even from non-Christians.
History tells us that the ordinary synod of bishops is for bishops to “come together” or to “walk together” to talk about the Church and its direction.
However, this ‘extraordinary’ synodal process involving everyone is a chance to make Church governance more open and inclusive of all its members.
The synodal path will take two years, beginning with a listening phase involving parishes until Apr 22, 2022, followed by a continental phase (Sep 2022-Mar 2023) involving dioceses in all the five continents, and culminating in the final “universal Church phase”, that is the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican in 2023, dedicated to the theme “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission”.
However, the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops has now extended the April deadline of the first phase to 15 August 2022 in order to “provide a greater opportunity for the people of God to have an authentic experience of listening and dialogue”.
To help facilitate the consultation process at parish level, the National Synodal Team has provided additional materials for parish leaders, which was delivered over two online sessions (in BM and English) on Nov 5 and Nov 7 by the KK Archdiocesan Synodal Team.
These sessions were a follow-up to the first briefing that was given at the launching of the synodal process Oct 17. They offered more suggestions – to conduct briefings in smaller settings, to expand the consultation process, to consider different approaches to engage as many people in the process, as well as a concise explanation of the objective of the synodal consultation, and guidelines for the preparation of summary for submission to the National Synodal Team.
The participants were advised to be aware of three impediments during the process that will risk making the consultation a futile exercise: elitism, intellectualism and complacency.
Elitism: A synodal church needs a structure that can facilitate dialogue and interaction between priests and laity. Elitism that exists in the clergy makes them detached from the laity, making it difficult for the church to move forward.
Intellectualism: The danger that the synod could turn into a kind of study group is real, which consists of “the usual people saying the usual things, without great depth or spiritual insight, and ending up along familiar unfruitful ideological debates that do not reflect the reality of the people of God and the concrete life of communities.
Complacency: People who adopt an attitude that “we have always done it this way” often make the mistake of not taking seriously the times in which we are living.
While striving to highlight the risks, it was pointed out to the 600-strong parish leaders and clergy listening in both virtual sessions that the synodal process also presents opportunities for the Church to change.
In forging a style of participation and communion, directed to mission, the Church moves towards being a synodal Church, a Church that listens to the Holy Spirit and to one another, and a Church that is close to her people.
