Given by Bishop Nicholas Hudson on Wednesday 13th March at Brentwood Cathedral as part of Brentwood Diocese's Lenten talk series on synodality.
1. LOVE
Love. People’s love for the Church! That’s what has most impressed me about this Synodal process – the way it’s brought out people’s love for this complex reality which is the Church. I’d experienced this very strongly already in our diocesan process.
2. ST THERESE
It impressed itself on me again when, half way through the Rome Synod, Pope Francis published C’est la Confiance (It’s Trust)[i] his Letter on St Thérèse of Lisieux. Central to that Letter is Thérèse’s love for the Church. In the Letter, Pope Francis reminds us that to be “love at the heart of the Church” was what Thérèse understood to be her mission. A great love for the Church was what I sensed throughout the Rome Synod: love for the Church but also pain at the Church. The pain many people have experienced as members of the Church was well captured by Fr Timothy Radcliffe when he spoke to us on retreat.
3. CARRETTO
This was the retreat which preceded the gathering in the Synod Hall. Fr Timothy told us of a meeting he’d attended in Australia, where Catholic headteachers were processing their pain at the scandal of sexual abuse in the Church. He was particularly touched by the one who quoted Carlo Carretto: “How much I must criticize you, my Church, and yet how much I love you,” Carretto had written. “You have made me suffer more than anyone, and yet I owe more to you than anyone. How much I must criticize you, my Church, and yet how much I love you!” It seemed to me to amplify many of the voices we’d heard along the two years we’d been walking this Synodal path.
4. PAIN
I’d heard, in Deanery gatherings, expressions of both joy and pain. People expressed pain for victims of sexual and spiritual abuse; pain at the abuse; pain at those who no longer walk with the Church on account of the abuses others have suffered; pain at those who’ve fallen away from the Church not just on account of abuse but for a multitude of reasons; pain at the absence from Church of so many friends and family members; pain at the absence of young people. I hear everyone, from bishops to the youth, acknowledge with increasing urgency that so many people – so many friends and family - are missing from our churches. Synodality is helping us name this truth.
5. NEW EVANGELIZATION
That we need to attend to all the different categories of people who are missing from the Church is something we learnt in trying to implement the New Evangelization a few years back. I mention it as this stage because I believe Synodality is an essential step to realizing the New Evangelization first proclaimed by St John Paul II; then by Pope Benedict; and urged on all the more strongly by Pope Francis. These three are united in their vision of an Evangelization “new in ardour, new in methods, new in expression” which would help us proclaim Christ all the more radically to all different categories of people: to those who’ve never heard of Christ; to those who no longer walk with Christ; to those who worship with us (i.e. those who go to church). These three categories we sometimes label, in a kind of shorthand, as those who adhere; those who no longer adhere; and those who never adhered.
6. RECENT CONVERSATIONS
Each one of these groups was, quite rightly, the focus as well of Synodal conversations we had up and down the land over the last two years; then of the Continental gathering in Prague; and then of the Rome Synod itself.
It does feel as if Synodality is awakening in the Church a deeper perspective on the New Evangelization. This has come home to me in just the last week or so as we’ve brought together in the Diocese the fruits of our most recent Synodal Conversations. We find ourselves more or less exactly between the 2023 and 2024 Synods. The clear guidance we received from the Synod Office for this interim phase was that it wasn’t to be concentrated on particular themes but rather on structures. It wasn’t to be about starting the synodal process from scratch or repeating the process of consultation undertaken during the first stage. The guiding question now is to be, “How can we be a synodal Church in mission?” We understood this in Westminster to be asking simply: what is Synodality telling us about the way should organize ourselves for mission?
7. PRIEST-LED
Given the short time-scale granted us, we asked every Parish Priest of the Diocese to convene two Gatherings in Lent; and for the Dean then to bring the fruits of these meetings to a Council of Deans which took place eight days ago.
We asked every Dean also to bring with him two lay people from the Deanery.
We wanted this to be a collaborative report-back. We were aware that priests the world over had felt excluded from the first stage of the process: our country was no exception. This was brought home to me when I walked into the Synod Hall last October; and saw virtually no priests.
8. SYNOD MEETING FOR PRIESTS
Some months earlier, I’d told the Continental Assembly in Prague that the process hadn’t given clear enough indication to priests of what their role should be in the process. This I raised again with the organizers in Rome; and was gratified to find that the Synthesis registers this point; in a large number of places it highlights the need for priests to be affirmed, encouraged, and included in the Synodal process. In recent weeks, we’ve seen a good example of concrete action being taken in the light of what was said at the Synod; because the Synod Office have now asked every Bishops’ Conference to send one or two priests to an extra Synodal gathering for priests next May or June.
My immediate thought, when I heard about the priests’ gathering was that it was a pity that both priests and laypeople weren’t being brought together to share their experiences. But then it occurred to me it will be nevertheless a great opportunity for priests to hear experiences of other priests from across the globe; to critique the model; ask questions; debate the responses.
9. PARISH GATHERINGS
It was good to hear both ordained and lay feed back on what had been discussed in the parishes. The questions we asked priests to lead Parish Gatherings to consider – with an eye to the question, “What is Synodality telling us about the way should organize ourselves for mission?” - were as follows:
Firstly to ask, How do we witness as a Parish and proclaim our faith to:
- those who have never heard of Christ;
- those who have ceased walking with Christ;
- those with whom we worship Christ (those who go to church)?
Secondly, How should we organize ourselves as a Parish to do this more effectively?
Thirdly, What concrete steps/formation opportunities would help us begin to witness and proclaim our faith more effectively?
And fourthly, What structures may need to change? How might we need to develop the way we are organized currently?
10. SYNODALITY FOR THE NEW EVANGELIZATION
During Lent, I visited a number of Deaneries to hear about their progress. I was deeply encouraged when a recently ordained priest volunteered to say, “I’m beginning to see, this Synodality is all about the New Evangelization isn’t it? It’s about organizing ourselves for Mission.” The responses we heard at the Council of Deans were similarly encouraging. They were marked with a deep sense of Mission, of how we organize ourselves for Mission.
11. MISSION FOR PARTICIPATION
But there was something else going on which encouraged me all the more.
It was that they were reporting discussion of Mission not just for its own sake; but rather Mission towards Participation. And Participation was expressed in the fullest sense – as fostering the Participation in the life of the Church of all those who stand on the outside looking in; and also the deeper Participation in Mission of those who already belong. What the lay people brought to the Council of Deans was particularly striking in this regard. I felt they expressed a revitalized sense of the New Evangelization. This was captured by one woman who said we need to move from seeing ourselves as volunteers to knowing we are called: to move from Volunteering to Vocation, as she put it; and another who spoke of lay people’s thirst for a formation which frees lay people for mission.
12. THREE PILLARS
Before I tell you what the Synod itself was like let me just conclude this part by sharing with you what I suggested to the Council of Deans by way of a conclusion. I wanted to encourage them that, speaking of Synodality in the way they were, they were strikingly in line with both St John Paul II’s vision for the New Evangelization and the Synod’s understanding of itself as expressed in the Synthesis. For what they shared was shot through with a vision of Communion, Mission, Participation, Coresponsibiity and Formation.
Communion, Mission and Participation were, of course, the three pillars of the Synodal process; and Coresponsibility and Formation the tools suggested – very fulsomely by Synod participants – as essential means.
More than that, they were expressing a vision markedly anticipated by St John Paul II in Christifideles Laici, his Post-Apostolic Exhortation on the mission of Christ’s Lay Faithful, which he published after the Laity Synod of 1988. There, in chapter 32, he sets out a vision of the lay faithful’s vocation based on Jesus’s discourse in John 15 about the vine and the branches. Grafted, says St John Paul, every one of them to the vine who is Christ – and so in Communion with one another and with Him – he sends them out like labourers to a vineyard with a Mission to proclaim the Communion they enjoy and thus draw others into Participation in the life He offers. Communion enables Mission which fosters Participation.
The tools, St John Paul is clear, with which the vine is nurtured, are twofold: Coresponsibility (the chapter is headed ‘The Coresponsibility of the Lay Faithful in the Church as Mission’) and Formation (Formation necessary to help every one of us realize the unique charism with which we have been endowed for Mission). There we have it: Communion, Mission, Participation, Coresponsibility, Formation – the five keys to the Synod and to the New Evangelization.
13. SYNOD EXPERIENCE
I shall return to say a little more about these two latter terms – Coresponsibiity and Formation – shortly. But first let me tell you about last October! Like many people, you’re probably wanting to ask me, “What was it like, then? Was it remarkable?” Yes, it was remarkable – and a deep privilege to be part of! It really was quite something to spend a full four weeks with the same large group of 400 people. And there were many wonderful individuals among them. The truth is you never had time to have all the conversations you would have wished for. The key to the whole process was that, within the 400, you belonged to a sub-group of 11 people for five whole days at a time. They were the 11 people on your table; and, in the course of the month, you belonged to four different tables.
14. TABLES
Each round table was arranged according to your preferred language group. At one point I shared a table with a Nigerian, a Sri Lankan, a Burmese, a Belgian, an Australian, an American, a Lebanese, and four other nationalities. The majority at every table were Bishops; but there were also Religious Sisters and Brothers, and non-Religious lay women and men. There would often be as well what was nicely described as a ‘fraternal delegate’, a member of another ecclesial communion. The delightful presence of these ecumenical guests served to remind us that Pope Francis’s vision of the Synod has, of course, been ecumenical from the outset.
15. FACILITATION
Each table had a trained Facilitator – always a woman, in my case. This too seemed right, given that greater leadership roles for women had been a dominant plea in our national process, as it would be in the Synod also. Being at these tables meant you got to know well a large portion of the full Assembly. 340 had voting rights: of this 340, 270 were bishops. Even on retreat, you were part of another such group of 12.
16. RETREAT
It was on the retreat that we began Conversations in the Spirit – with the same group every day. Every morning and afternoon of the retreat, we had conferences from Fr Timothy Radcliffe. He hit the right note when, in his first address to us, he had the courage to say, “We’re gathered here because we’re not united in heart and mind … some of us are afraid of this journey and of what lies ahead. Some hope that the Church will be dramatically changed, that we shall take radical decisions … Others are afraid of exactly these same changes and fear that they will only lead to division, even schism. Some of you would prefer not to be here at all.”[ii]
17. JOY
But he dared also to suggest, even at that early point in the proceedings, that, once it was all over, we would most likely find ourselves looking back over the whole experience with quite considerable joy – a joy, he said, analogous to that experienced by Cleopas and the other disciple as they thought back over all they had experienced. And that’s been my experience – of remembering with joy this unique time we shared together; the joy as well that we experienced at the completion of voting on the Synthesis; at the fact that every one of the 81 paragraphs was passed – each with at least 80% approval.
Even if the 70 non-bishops hadn’t voted, every paragraph would still have passed with a 75% approval rate.
18. SYNTHESIS RANGE
The Synthesis produced by the Synod runs to some 40 pages. You can find it on the Vatican website. It’s in 20 sections. Within each section, there are Convergences, Points for Discussion, and Proposals. Topics ranged from Catechesis and Formation – the formation of laypeople, seminarians and clergy alike; to people who feel marginalized from the Church because of their status, identity or sexuality; to the cry of the poor echoing the cry of the earth; to how to engage the laity in decision-making; to coresponsibility at all levels in the Church; to the possibility of women’s access to a diaconal ministry; to clericalism; to spiritual and sexual abuse; to whether Bishop’s Councils and Diocesan Pastoral Councils should be required in Law; to the accountability and auditing of bishops and priests; to consulting more laity in the appointment of Bishops; to the possibility of re-inserting priests who have left the ministry in pastoral services; and much more besides.[iii]
There were some 80 proposals in total. Some of these were suggestions, some recommendations, some requests. They were mostly suggestions, recommendations and requests for further study, for clarification. In all there were some 20 calls for deeper theological, canonical and pastoral exploration of particular issues. Just three weeks ago, the Holy Father confirmed this in a document named a Chirograph (we’re learning a whole new vocabulary!). He announced that study groups would be set up to study in depth “some of the themes that emerged in the First Session” last autumn. He doesn’t say which: we shall wait with interest for that announcement.
19. TABLE TOPICS
Anyway, the topics for each table we’d each chosen from what was called the Instrumentum Laboris, the Working Document for the Synod. This Working Document we all received several months before the Synod began. I’d chosen to discuss, at my first table, what Synodality is teaching us about the Church’s Mission; at the second, Truth and Love and how they inform particular moral situations; at the third, Synodality as an expression of episcopal collegiality.
You had four minutes each to share; then there’d be silence after four of you had spoken. When everyone had shared, you went around the table again, each to speak for a further three minutes. This was followed by a long discussion across the table about what you wished the Relator to feed into the whole Assembly. The structure of his or her report would be under the three headings of Convergences, Divergences and Questions.
20. ASSEMBLY
Next you heard – and this is where it began to be interesting - the other 37 Relators, each allowed to speak for three minutes. Then the Assembly floor was opened to anyone who wished to speak for three minutes. Finally, you’d discuss at your table all that you’d heard in the Assembly; and spend several hours drawing up and agreeing a two-page summary of your discussion. It was these, plus individual submissions, which formed the basis of the Synthesis.
21. CONVERSATIONS
These Conversations in the Spirit proved to be a most effective way of sharing perspectives. The method owes much to Ignatian spirituality; but had clearly been adapted for the Synod. Many participants described the method as a major fruit itself of the Synod; and said they would be taking it back into their local Churches. It’s an approach to group discernment that we could well harness to parish life and other situations in our own Diocese. I believe it to be a vital tool for that choosing of pastoral priorities which is at the heart of the New Evangelization.
22. SPACES
Particularly striking is the suggestion in the Synthesis that such Conversation offers what it calls vital shared spaces for discernment. What it actually says is that “the word ‘conversation’ expresses more than mere dialogue; it interweaves thought and feeling, creating a shared vital space.” (2d) The document outlining the next steps suggests part of what we need to be about in the local Church is to create “spaces in which to address controversial issues.” (TO2024 2#2) I do believe the Synod is naming here something vital to New Evangelization, namely, the need to restructure ourselves so as to hear more deeply from one another what needs to change in order that we better realize our mission.
23. REVISIONS
We received a draft of the Synthesis some 36 hours before the Synod would end. The Synthesis was created to be as comprehensive as possible. Those who’d been part of the month-long journey in Rome were impressed to find how full it was. There were 1450 modifications suggested for the first draft; and I lost count of the number of people I heard saying how gratified they were to see their own modification included. For example, I felt the draft Synthesis was unaffirming of priestly celibacy. So I suggested it affirm the richly prophetic and profound witness to Christ of priestly celibacy: so it did.[iv]
I also said, when I saw the first draft of the Synthesis, that I felt it needed to say more about the kerygma. And so it did.
24. DYNAMISM
So the Synthesis was published. I would urge you read it if you haven’t yet had the opportunity to do so. We waited then for further instructions. I’ve described for you the fruit of our own most recent Conversations in Westminster. What was shared there will go to make up our Diocesan contribution to the national response.
We also plan to have a Diocesan gathering during Eastertide, to go deeper into issues raised. This Eastertide gathering isn’t asked for by the Synod organizers; but we felt it was important to keep the momentum going; because the vision of the Synod organizers is clear: this whole period between the two Rome Synods is to be seen as a continuum; we need to use this period between the Synods to “preserv(e) and reviv(e),” as they put it, “the synodal dynamic that has involved the entire People of God over the past two years.” “The aim,” they say, “is to keep alive the dynamism of listening and dialogue with everyone, especially with those who remain more on the margins of the life of the Church.”
I believe we are being asked not merely to come together in parish groups once or twice in Lent to prepare a contribution to the Diocese’s response.
I believe we’re being invited to use this whole time between the Synods to get more serious about Evangelization. Hence the guiding question, as the Synod organizers put it: “How can we be a synodal Church in mission?”
25. MISSION
In the document for this period they make it clear that we are being called back to reflect more deeply on the Pope’s idea of a missionary option.
This we first met in Evangelii Gaudium. That missionary option the Pope Francis described as a reconsideration of how “the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channelled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation.” (#27) “What ways of relating, structures, processes of discernment, and decision-making,” we’re now asked to consider, “make it possible to recognize, shape and promote responsibility?” How are we to organize ourselves better for mission, in other words; what new structures do we need in order to deepen a shared discernment of how we can each play our part in realizing the vision of the New Evangelization in our parishes?
26. MISSION STATEMENT
The stress we find here on Mission needs to be seen against the backdrop of the Synthesis as a whole. Because the shape of the Synthesis is itself a statement, a mission-statement. It’s comprised of those three sections: Communion-Mission-Participation, which we described as the 3 Pillars of both the Synod and its Synthesis. Echoing St John Paul II, these headings capture the essence of the vision which found expression in the Synod: that it’s by our baptism we’re bound to one another in a shared Communion; and that this bears with it a shared responsibility - what the Synod terms a Coresponsibiity – to draw others into communion. Drawing others into Communion is our Mission. And the goal? Participation: drawing others to be a part, have a part in the life being held out to us by Christ and His Church. Communion-Mission-Participation.
27. CO-RESPONSIBILITY
The term Co-responsibility is a term one finds right across the Synthesis. It’s interesting to reflect upon it a little because it expresses so much of what the Synod sought to develop. In essence, it means honouring the shared dignity of all the baptized; and the fact that each shares responsibility for the Mission. That every baptized person has a unique gift or charism to contribute to the life and work of the Church is one of the most frequent observations of the Synthesis. That “each Christian is a mission on this earth” (8b), is how it likes to put it. I do believe that phrase really captures the meaning of Co-responsibility – that “each Christian is a mission on this earth”. It affirms that every member of the Body of Christ is endowed with a unique charism and mission to proclaim Christ. That’s why we can say that all the People of God – lay and consecrated women and men, deacons, priests and bishops – share in a responsibility, are coresponsible - for the Church’s mission.
28. UNIQUE CHARISMS
The Synthesis develops this to say, “Each is called to differentiated co-responsibility for the common mission of evangelization.” (1a) And “pastoral structures need to be reorganized,” it continues, so as to call forth from individuals the unique charism with which they’ve been endowed; and harness it to the Church’s mission. So it is that we need to foster in our parishes an ethos which is non-competitive and effects a co-responsibility which finds expression at every level of the Church.
29. FORMATION
But how to do this? Well, here enters that other dominant strand of the Synod; namely, Formation. When Pope Francis writes about Evangelization, he’s clear that we all need formation at every stage of life. The Synod was equally clear that it’s the responsibility of every Catholic to make sure they receive adequate formation. “Every baptized person,” the Synthesis says, “is called to take care of their own formation … making use of the talents they have received in order that they bear fruit and put them at the service of all … it is decisive for mission.” (14a)
30. SYNODAL SKILLS
And it lists a great number of possibilities. It lists many specific skills: training in the exercise of co-responsibility itself, in listening, in the art of discernment; in ecumenism; in interreligious dialogue; in how we better serve the poor; in how we care for our common home; in digital evangelization; in facilitation; in leading Conversation in the Spirit; in consensus-building and in conflict resolution.
31. SKILLS FOR EVANGELIZATION
These categories I find particularly interesting given that they’re dominant aspects not only of the Synod but also of the New Evangelization. For instance, the Holy Father was clear, from the outset, that engagement with other Christians and those of other faiths should be an essential aspect of local Synodal dialogue. Yet, few of us found the time – the bandwidth – to organize Conversation in the Spirit with those who worship outside our Church.
By the same token, the call of the New Evangelization to share our faith with those who have never known Christ or those who don’t worship with us is undeniable. Yet many parishes have struggled to realize it – either before or once we embarked on the Synodal process. The prophetic voice of the Pope in this interreligious regard finds a deep echo in the Synthesis saying it is “because Synodality is ordered to mission (that) we are to enter into solidarity with other religions, convictions and cultures, so as to avoid self-referentiality.” (2e) It is “because Synodality is ordered to mission (that) we are to enter into solidarity with other religions, convictions and cultures, so as to avoid self-referentiality.”
32. CONVERSION
I find striking the very comprehensive vision of formation expressed by the Synod. By this I mean that it’s clear that formation itself is to be understood as not being just about skills but about conversion too, about turning back to Christ in order to proclaim his merciful love. This is captured in the statement to be found in the Synthesis which links formation to the kerygma. What is the kerygma? ‘Kerygma’ means proclamation. It’s the word they used in the early Church to express the essence of the Christian faith, which is, as Pope Francis likes to put it, that “Jesus Christ loves you; he gave his life to save you; and now he is living at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you.”
The Synthesis says, “At the heart of Christian formation is a deepening of the kerygma, that is, the encounter with Jesus Christ that offers us the gift of a new life. Catechumenal logic reminds us that we are all sinners called to holiness. This is why we engage in a journey towards personal conversion that the Sacrament of Reconciliation brings to fulfilment. This is also why we nourish the desire for holiness, supported by a large number of witnesses.” (14d) It’s a rich statement, worthy of reflection. What it’s saying at heart is that formation needs to be an encounter with Christ, an encounter with the saving message of the kerygma. It amplifies the message of the universal call to holiness so central to Vatican II; and of the deeply formative role of the Sacrament of Reconciliation in preparing our hearts for mission.
33. FORMATION IN CONVERSATION
A key means to formation in co-responsibility the Synod recommends to be that Conversation in the Spirit which I described us using to such effect in the Synod Hall. Many of you will have harnessed it to your own Synodal processes in the diocese. The Synthesis affirms its value enthusiastically: “Conversation in the Spirit is a tool that, even with its limitations, enables authentic listening in order to discern what the Spirit is saying to the Churches,” it says. It speaks of the joy, awe and gratitude it has evoked; the way it effects conversion.
34. POINTERS
I find it interesting to see the link being made between not only between Coresponsibility, Formation and Conversation in the Spirit but also with conversion. Communion-Mission-Participation, Co-responsibility-Formation-Conversation in the Spirit-Conversion – these are emerging from the experience of Synodality as pointers towards a deeper realization of the New Evangelization. And each of them is implicit, I believe, in our consideration of the guiding question for the next phase: “How can we be a synodal Church in mission?” The challenge is how we might begin to talk about all of this in parishes.
35. QUESTIONS
It’s certainly not too late to start. I believe this in-between time – between the two October Synods - offers a golden opportunity to have Conversations in our parishes which ask: what is the Synodal process teaching us about the need to evangelize? Those four questions I suggested at the outset remain available to be harnessed to this task by anyone who wishes. I like to think that working on them will keep alive the dynamism of Synodality which the Holy Father is so keen we maintain.
36. WHAT IS SYNODALITY?
Embrace such questions now in our parishes through Conversations in the Spirit; and we shall begin not just to feel more Synodal but to be more Synodal, see the plethora of issues raised by the Synthesis in sharper relief. And so, when people ask, “What is Synodality, then?” we shall be able to say, with confidence and from out of our own experience, “Well, it’s about asking questions like these.”
It’s about asking what we’re doing to proclaim Christ to those who’ve never met Him, to those who’ve stopped walking with Him, and to one another.
It’s about listening first and foremost to one another; listening to our context.
It’s about naming the issues we need to discuss.
It’s about creating an ethos of shared discernment by clergy and lay people together of urgent pastoral priorities.
It’s about coming alongside people who stand in a multiplicity of relationships to Christ and the Church.
It’s about broadening the parish’s perspective.
It’s about reorganizing ourselves so as to be structured to listen, to prioritize, to effect change in the way we proclaim Christ.
It’s about forming ourselves so as to foster an ethos in parishes of Coresponsibility for the Mission of the Church.
It’s about helping one another own our unique charism for realizing the Church’s Mission which is nothing less than to enable countless others to Participate in the Mystery of Christ’s love.
37. SYNOD ON SYNODALITY
I’d like to add to this list what the Synod says itself about what Synodality; because, “in its broadest sense,” it says, “Synodality can be understood as Christians walking in communion with Christ toward the Kingdom along with the whole of humanity. Its orientation is towards mission and its practice involves gathering in assembly at each level of ecclesial life. It involves reciprocal listening, dialogue, community discernment, and creation of consensus as an expression that renders Christ present in the Holy Spirit, each taking decisions in accordance with their responsibilities.” (1h)
It’s about “Christians walking in communion with Christ toward the Kingdom along with the whole of humanity.” In short, it’s about participating now much more deeply in the process begun some two years ago by embracing the New Evangelization synodally.
38. SEEDS
Fr Timothy Radcliffe chose to say, at the end of the Synod, that what we had been about that long month we shared in Rome had been essentially about planting seeds. Now was the time for germination, he said – what will be, he dared to suggest, probably the most fertile time of the Synod - this in-between time in which we find ourselves. His words found a striking echo, I felt, in the words with which Pope Francis chose to conclude his homily at Mass the day after it all ended, when he said, wistfully: “Today we do not see the full fruit of this process,” he said, “but, with farsightedness, we look to the horizon opening up before us.” “Today we do not see the full fruit of this process but, with farsightedness, we look to the horizon opening up before us.”
39. HORIZON
Looking to the horizon on that last day with a senior Australian bishop, I was struck when he chose to say this: “You know, the more we talk about making decisions in a Synodal manner, I think countries like yours and mine are already quite synodal in the way we go about things, don’t you?” “I agree,” I said. “They are: we have a good deal of synodality built into our governance, the leadership of institutions, the way we discern priorities as parishes, call one another to own our unique charism – but we could go a lot further, don’t you think? A lot further!”
Bishop Nicholas Hudson
13.03.2024
[i] Apostolic Exhortation C’est la Confiance on Confidence in the Merciful Love of God for the 150th Anniversary of the Birth of St Thérèse, Vatican 2023
[ii] ibid. 10
[iii] Synthesis, Sec 11 #l
[iv] Synthesis, Sec 11 #f