Our question for the Synod: based on your personal experience, what fills your heart and what breaks your heart about the Catholic Church? 

We invite all parishes, schools, and Catholic organizations in the diocese to coordinate Synod listening sessions for 1) those currently in our pews, 2) those who at some point in the past were in our pews but no longer are, and 3) those who have never encountered, or have not had a substantial encounter with, our faith communities.

The process for the Synod rollout in our diocese is outlined in detail in the diocesan Synod Guidebook above. This Guidebook includes ideas, suggestions, and resources for your reflection as you discern how to best live out the Synod in your context.

This Synod provides an opportunity for faith communities to engage their members, and the world around us, in an intentional way. We are listening in order to understand people’s experience of the Catholic Church—good, bad, and everything in-between. This is fundamental to the mission of the Church: evangelization.

The Synod is not a one-time event. Its relevance to our faith lives does not conclude with the completion of a listening session or the submission of our 10-page diocesan report to the USCCB. Rather, synodality is an ancient notion which is central to the Church’s identity. For St. John Chrysostom, the terms “Church” and “synod” were synonymous. It should be integral to how we are and do Church. Synodality is fundamentally about individual and communal discernment. Through the Synod, we seek to discern where the Holy Spirit is calling us today.

There is more information in the diocesan Guidebook on what is meant by synodality, especially on pages 4-8. In many respects, the Synod is not a neat and tidy process. Pope Francis himself has said that it will be “messy.” The Synod is not a check list of tasks to complete. Rather, it is a dynamic, unfolding process of ongoing discernment. We will learn how to better be synodal by practicing it, by the very act of doing the synod.