French Xavierian Sister Nathalie Becquart, recently appointed by Pope Francis as Under-Secretary to the Vatican Synod of Bishops, will address an ACI Webinar on the theme “Lay People and Synodality” at 7.00pm AEST on Thursday 19 August 2021.
Sr Nathalie is the first woman to hold such a role in the Synod. In another first in February this year, Pope Francis also appointed her as one of the Synod’s two Under-Secretaries.
The next Synod of Bishops, which will take place in October 2023, will take as its subject “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission.”
The theme of “synodality” also features prominently in the agenda for the Australian Plenary Council, which will hold its first session in October this year.
Sr Nathalie originally studied entrepreneurship at the the elite Haute Ecole de Commerce in Paris before joining the Xaverian Sisters. After completing her novitiate, she worked with the national team of the French Scouts movement.
She also studied theology at the Jesuit Centre Sèvres in Paris, sociology at the Ecole de Haute Etudes en Sciences Sociales. Later she furthered her studies in ecclesiology, specialising in synodality, at the Boston College of Theology and Ministry.
She later worked in youth ministry and was appointed as Adjunct Director of Student Pastoral Work by the French Catholic Bishops Conference.
Sr Nathalie will share her experience on this important topic. Bishop Shane MacKinlay, Sandhurst Diocese, and Susan Pascoe, former executive director of the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profit Commission, recently appointed to the Methodological Commission of the Synod of Bishops, will respond.
Please join us for this timely event.
REGISTER HERE
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYod-qsrz4oH9aSiUMCJFG6V6S-bexrv-9C
READ MORE
Nathalie Becquart (Wikipedia)
Q & A with Sr. Nathalie Becquart: Upcoming synod could ‘turn a clerical church into a synodal church’ (Global Sisters)
Sister Natalie Becquart and the primacy of synodality (The Tablet)
Interview of Sister Nathalie Becquart with News Nightly (EWTN)
General Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops
