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Four issues affecting the Church in Africa stand out at the ongoing Synod on Synodality conversations. These are the issues that those representing the African continent at the Bishops’ meeting in Rome are focusing on.
The ongoing Synod on Synodality conversations are providing “good moments of sharing” and mutual understanding, an African Catholic Archbishop participating in the October 4-29 Synod has said.
Spokesman Paolo Ruffini told the media that while some have asked for further discernment on the Church’s teaching, others said there’s no need for it.
Like the synod assembly participants, the lunch guests were asked “what they expect from the Church,” Paolo Ruffini told journalists Oct. 11.
The key message of the Synod on Synodality is listening, a virtue that most leaders in Kenya lack, the Catholic Archbishop of the country’s Nyeri Archdiocese has said.
After the first session of the 16th General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, "For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission", started last week in the Vatican, faithful around the world may ask themselves: What can we do now for the ongoing Synod? How can we contribute to its outcomes? Here are a series of suggestions.
Synod on Synodality delegates elected this week the members of a commission who will supervise the drafting of a “synthesis report.”
“All are invited to be part of the Church,” Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich said at the start of the Oct. 9 general congregation.
The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors has called on the synod to discuss sexual abuse this month.
Concerns linger about the potential for pressure groups to sway the synod’s course.
After consulting doctors, Cardinal Mario Grech said there was no reason to be alarmed about the spread of COVID at the synod.
Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu described synodality as “a new way of being a Church.”
Facts, anecdotes, and analysis from the first week of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican.
The Synod on Synodality’s official regulations no longer allow Synod delegates to share their personal interventions with the public.
During the first full day of work Oct. 5, participants met in small groups of about 12 people where they received a homework assignment.
The cardinal was speaking at a conference in Rome on Oct. 3 on the theme “the synodal Babel” to discuss the main points of contention raised by the synod.
Pointing synod delegates to texts by St. Basil on the Holy Spirit, the pope emphasized the importance of listening over speaking.
On its opening day, synod leaders also highlighted the many ways in which the current gathering breaks the mold of past Synods of Bishops.
Just days before the Synod on Synodality kicked off its first round of meetings at the Vatican, a letter from Cardinal Joseph Zen was leaked to media.
Pope Francis opened the Synod on Synodality’s three-week assembly on Wednesday with a call to remember that the Church exists to bring Jesus to the world and should face today’s challenges with a gaze fixed on God rather than “political calculations or ideological battles.”