The Synod General Secretariat in Rome has published a new document offering guidance for the next stage of the synodal journey.
Pathways for the Implementation Phase of the Synod aims to foster dialogue between local Churches and the General Secretariat, and to promote the exchange of synodal experiences among the Churches, Vatican News reports.
In an interview Synod Undersecretary, Sr Nathalie Becquart, XMCJ, Undersecretary of the General Secretariat, outlined the Implementation Phase of the Synod on Synodality, discussed the meaning of synodality and the reception of the Synod, and explained the goals of the new document.
What has been organised with the General Secretariat of the Synod and the approval of Pope Francis, and then Pope Leo, she explained, is to have a three-year framework, plan, to help to support the implementation phase.
“So, we are now in this phase, designed with some steps, until October 2028, when there will be an Ecclesial Assembly in Rome to share the fruits of the implementation phase and to have a kind of evaluation. And this will start also at the local level, having assemblies in dioceses, and at the level of continent, national and continent. So, we are now in this time.
“We can say also that we know that to already implement synodality everywhere, at all levels of the Church, will take time. But the most important—it’s the process, we can say step-by-step, and the most important is to move forward.
“And those pathways are to help those who need more guidance or practical suggestions to take up this process. But many have already started it since the Final Document of the Synod was released.
Asked about the definition, Sr Nathalie added that “we can also understand synodality in two different ways that can help.”
She continued:
The first, and I often quote an Australian theologian who was at our Synod, Ormond Rush, who states “Synodality is the Second Vatican Council in a nutshell.” And all our documents, and still in these pathways, in the Final Document, highlight that what we are doing is really referred to the vision of the Second Vatican Council.
We can say synodality is the way to understand the ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council in this stage of the reception of the Council.
So, it’s nothing else but just continuing the reception of the Second Vatican Council. Because the council is not yet implemented everywhere, in a way. So that’s the way to understand it.
The other way—which is also an easy way—referring to our logo, is highlighting the three key words: communion, participation, mission. And we can say synodality is a way to help the Church to become more missionary and more participatory. So synodality is the way God is calling the Church to be today to better exercise our mission.
So it’s a way to be Church. That was a way, from the early Church, that we retrieve from the Second Vatican Council as a fruit highlighting that, first of all, we are all baptized; and as baptized together as people of God, we are called to carry on the mission together. So, it’s calling every baptised person to be a protagonist of the mission, to help us understand that we are called to work together, exercising co-responsibility for the mission—of course, a differentiated co-responsibility because we don’t all have the same vocations. There is a diversity of vocation, of charisms, of ministries. But we are people of God, journeying with the other people.
So, we have to understand synodality as both ways: A way to be Church, as brothers and sisters in Christ; and a way to be Church, working with all the others. So, it goes hand-in-hand with ecumenism, that was one of the strongest fruits of the Synod; but also with interreligious dialogue, dialogue with society, with all the people; and highlighting the importance of listening to everybody, especially the poor or the marginalized, and to be a welcoming Church, willing to work with everybody to preach the Gospel.
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Sr Becquart: New Synod document to foster exchange of gifts among local Churches (Vatican News)
Pathways for the Implementation Phase of the Synod (Synod Secretariat)