THE Vatican has published a working plan, an Instrumentum Laboris, for the next stage of its Synod on Synodality, to take place in October. The plan outlines how the Roman Catholic Church can counter both “cultural individualism” and “exaggerated communitarianism”, while using its new “synodal style” to offer “insights for the future of humanity”.
The 30-page document says: “Through his Church, guided by his Spirit, the Lord wants to rekindle hope in the hearts of humanity, restore joy and save all, especially those whose faces are stained with tears and who cry out to Him in anguish.
“This vision of the Church — a pilgrim people in every part of the world seeking synodal conversion for the sake of mission — guides us as we move forward on this path with joy and hope. It is a vision that contrasts starkly with the reality of a world in crisis, whose wounds and scandalous inequalities resonate deeply in the hearts of all Christ’s disciples.”
Church communities worldwide embarked on a “listening process” at the opening of the Synod in October 2021. The Synod has moved through diocesan, national, and continental stages (News, 13 October 2023), and would continue reflecting, through the 364 delegates, on how best to “express the dynamism between unity and diversity proper to a synodal Church”.
The Instrumentum Laboris comprises 112 articles that draw on material produced by five separate working groups that considered “testimonies of experience and good practice” from episcopal conferences, religious orders, university faculties, and associations around the world.
“Our journey has been characterised by silence, prayer, listening to the Word of God, dialogue and joyful encounters — it has not been without difficulties,” the document says.
“Yet through this, as the People of God, we have matured into a deeper awareness of our relationship with each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. . . Among the gains so far, we can include having experienced and learned a method for addressing questions together in dialogue and discernment.”
The October Synod will review more than 80 reform proposals tabled last October, which cover church governance, mission, theology, canonical discipline, and pastoral outreach, alongside measures to enhance transparency, accountability, consultation, and access to information in the Church.
In March, the Synod’s secretary-general, Cardinal Mario Grech, said that the Pope had appointed ten new study groups to look at other issues, including the part women could play in decision-making, new guidelines for training priests and deacons, and possible changes to the way in which bishops were chosen.
Work towards a final document with concrete recommendations for Pope Francis may take until June 2025; a progress report will be submitted to the October assembly.
The Instrumentum Laboris, says that the Church seeks to provide humanity with “bonds, relationships and communion” at a time dominated by a “crisis in participation” and a diminished “sense of common destiny”.
The idea of synodality, derived from an “ancient and constant ecclesial practice”, has, it says, been better “understood and lived” thanks to recent experiences. Calls have come from around the world for a Church that is “less focused on bureaucracy”, and for opportunities to develop the spiritual gifts, vocations, and “baptismal ministries” of lay people.
The plan says that the synodal process has also highlighted the “intensity of the ecumenical impulse”. It encourages further study of the Pope’s ministry in guaranteeing church unity, while also ensuring that “the Church grows in synodal style and form”.
“In an age marked by increasing inequalities, growing disillusionment with traditional models of governance, democratic disenchantment, and the dominance of the market model in human interactions, the temptation to resolve conflicts by force rather than dialogue, synodality could offer inspiration for the future of our societies,” the document says.
“Synodal practice challenges the growing isolation of people and cultural individualism, which even the Church has often absorbed, and calls us to mutual care, interdependence, and co-responsibility for the common good. Equally, it is also a challenge to an exaggerated social communitarianism that suffocates people and does not allow them to be free subjects of their own development. The willingness to listen to all, especially those made poor, a willingness that the synodal way of life promotes, stands in stark contrast to a world in which the concentration of power shuts out the voices of the poorest, the marginalised and minorities.”