Vatican: Synod Secretariat Establishes Steps for 2024 Meeting

Dioceses and parishes are called to reflect on the Synthesis Report published in October 2023, to promote further consultation and to prepare contributions for next year's assembly.

The document specifies that the synodal process will continue according to guidelines developed on three levels: “the local Church, the groupings of Churches (national, regional and continental), and the universal Church.”

Francis’s List of Themes

The Synod secretariat draws up a list – non-exhaustive – of the major matters to be addressed: updating the Code of Canon Law for the Latin Rite (CIC) (1983) and the Code of Canon Law for the Eastern Churches (CCEO), the Ratio fundamentalis on the formation of ordained ministers (2016), as well as the document Mutuae relationes on mutual relations between bishops and religious in the Church (1978).

The secretariat further lists “the deepening of theological and pastoral research on the diaconate and specifically, on women’s admission to the diaconate,” based on the results of the commissions established by Francis in 2016 and 2020.

Groups of experts will be asked to work “in a synodal way” on the topics indicated by Francis, with the involvement of the Dicasteries of the Curia, under the coordination of the General Secretariat of the Synod. A report on the progress of this work will be presented during the October 2024 session.

The fundamental question posed in the document is the following: “How to be a synodal Church in mission?” The objective is to identify the paths to follow and the tools to adopt to “enhance the unique contribution of each baptized person and of each Church in the one mission of proclaiming the Risen Lord and His Gospel to the world today.”

Give Everyone a Voice

“The document explains, this work will not start from scratch, and, therefore, will not involve repeating the process of listening and consultation undertaken during the first 2021-2023 stage.” Rather it will involve “people and groups that express a variety of experiences, skills, charisms, ministries within the People of God and whose point of view is of particular help in focusing on the ‘how.’”

Support the Thinking Process

“After collecting the contributions of the Dioceses or Eparchies, the Episcopal Conferences and the Oriental Church’ bodies will be tasked with drawing up a summary of a maximum length of 8 pages, to be sent to the General Secretariat of the Synod by 15 May 2024.” The new Instrumentum laboris will be written on the basis of the material thus collected.

“Local Churches are also invited to go through the entire Synthesis Report, and collect specific requests that reflect their specific situation.” On this basis, they will be able to “promote the most appropriate initiatives to involve the entire People of God.”

“Each local Church that wishes to do so may send a brief testimony of the work carried out, and the experiences lived (maximum two pages) to the respective Episcopal Conference, sharing any good practice that it considers significant for growth of a missionary synodal dynamism.”