A Church That Accompanies: Reflection on the Challenges of the Synod of the Church from Fr. Tomas Halik
The Synod on Synodality is a three-year process of listening and dialogue, beginning with a solemn opening in Rome on October 9 and 10, 2021, and each individual diocese and church celebrating the following week on October 17. The synodal process will conclude in 2024.
Pope Francis invites the entire Church to reflect on a decisive theme for its life and mission: “It is precisely this path of synodality which God expects of the Church of the third millennium.” This journey, which follows in the wake of the Church’s “renewal” proposed by the Second Vatican Council, is both a gift and a task: by journeying together and reflecting together on the journey that has been made, the Church will be able to learn through Her experience which processes can help Her to live communion, to achieve participation, to open Herself to mission.”
The Second Session of the XVI General Assembly of the Synod (2-27 October 2024) is just around the corner. Fr. Tomáš Halik (Prague) then gave a wide-ranging talk on the meaning of synodality in the Church. Here is an excerpt and downloadable copy.
- Synodality, catholicity, and ecumenicity
1.1. Between the first and second sessions of the synod, new tasks and challenges emerge. Greater attention must be paid to the wider context of the synodal renewal and the preconditions and consequences of this process. Suppose the synodal reform of the Church is to bear good fruit. In that case, it must be understood and implemented in a broader context as part of a much more profound transformation than simply transforming a rigid clerical system within the Catholic Church into a net of flexible communication.
1.2. Synodality, the common way (syn hodos), is designed to renew, revive, and deepen communication within the Church and its ability to communicate with other systems in society, with other cultures and religions, and with the whole human family.
1.3. The synodality is to inspire a response to the question of how to overcome the crisis of globalization, how to transform a technologically and economically interconnected civilization, and, at the same time, dangerously divided into a culture of coexistence in peace and justice.
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