Vatican News
The General Secretariat of the Synod has published a new resource to help Dioceses and Eparchies—the dioceses of the Eastern Catholic Churches—prepare their evaluation Assemblies, which will conclude the local stage of the Synod’s implementation process.
Entitled “Recollecting: Accompanying the preparation of the local Church’s evaluation Assembly,” the document was released on Jul 27 and is available in several languages.
“Evaluation is not a technical exercise, but an experience of gratitude and truth,” said Cardinal Mario Grech, Secretary General of the Synod. “Recollecting means recognizing what the Lord has brought to maturity in the journey of our communities and allowing ourselves to be guided towards the next steps.”
Recollecting the action of God
The document explains that, in Scripture, recollecting does not simply mean looking back. It means recognizing God’s action in history in order to discern the present and open oneself to the future.
Local Churches are therefore invited to revisit the Synod’s implementation phase with gratitude and sincerity, identifying both the fruits that have matured and the further steps to which they are being called.
The resource is addressed primarily to Bishops and Eparchs, who are responsible for the process, and to the synodal teams that animate it. It does not impose a single model, but offers questions, criteria and practical suggestions that can be adapted to each local context.
According to the document, the approach reflects Pope Leo XIV’s description of synodality as “a spiritual style” that “is born of encounter, grows through listening, and matures in discernment.”
From memory to discernment
The resource is divided into two closely connected parts. The first guides each local Church in drafting a narrative report by gathering memories and testimonies, recognizing and listening to “signs,” and discerning processes of transformation through the three conversions identified in the Synod’s Final Document: relationships, ecclesial processes and bonds.
The second part concerns the preparation and celebration of the evaluation Assembly, convened by the Bishop as a profoundly spiritual experience marked by prayer, silence, shared reflection and conversation in the Spirit.
The Assembly will produce a definitive narrative report and a Letter to the Other Churches. Inspired by the litterae communionis, or “letters of communion,” of the early Church, the letter will share what the local Church has learned, the steps it intends to take and a message of hope for other communities.
Towards the 2028 Ecclesial Assembly in the Vatican
Once approved by the Bishop, both texts are to be sent to the national or regional synodal team and shared with the General Secretariat of the Synod by Jun 30, 2027.
Assemblies of Bishops’ Conferences and Eastern Catholic hierarchical structures will follow in the second half of 2027, with continental Assemblies in early 2028. The process will conclude with an Ecclesial Assembly in the Vatican in October 2028. – Vatican News
