Faithful encouraged to participate in Synod process

Over the past several months, the world has been struggling to recover from the social isolation caused by the pandemic. At the same time, political divisiveness and hostility is at an all-time high, making it difficult to have meaningful conversations. In recent days, we have been faced with horrendous images from the brutal conflict in Ukraine. Indeed, these are historic times.
 

At such a time as this, Pope Francis is asking people across the globe to rediscover the forgotten art of “listening.” With his “Synod on Synodality,” Pope Francis is asking the whole Church to consciously imitate the listening style of Jesus.
 

Many people ask, “What is a Synod?” A Synod is both an event and a process where clergy, religious and the laity gather to discuss important matters of the faith. It is a collegial way of governing. By gathering and consulting the whole Church, Pope Francis is providing a path to renewal for both the Church and society.
 

To start, Pope Francis invited each local diocese to participate in the Synod and the Diocese of Metuchen is actively responding to his call. We began our Synod process with an opening Mass and Meeting in October 2021, and subsequently formed a planning committee. which has worked behind the scenes to prepare the website (https://www.diometuchen.org/synod2023) and materials for Synod Listening Sessions, including a Host Resource Guide, a Facilitator Guide and a Participant Guide (also available in Spanish). These resources, which have been made available to parishes and ministry groups who wish to hold their own sessions, were developed to help plan a listening session process that is consistent with Pope Francis’ call to “Journey Together.” The Committee also ran two virtual Facilitator Training Sessions to prepare leaders for effective, spiritual conversations.
 

At the end of January, a 40-hour Eucharistic Adoration was hosted in a parish in each of the eight deaneries of the diocese as a way to help people to spiritually prepare for the Synod process by prayerfully reflecting on the questions put before us by our Holy Father. To date, we have held 13 Deanery Listening Sessions and at least seven Listening Sessions have been scheduled throughout the diocese for those who speak Spanish. Listening Sessions have also been held for clergy and religious, Catholic school principals and teachers, Parish Catechetical Leaders and catechists, liturgical ministers, youth ministers and college and high school students.
 

Each listening session begins with prayer followed by brief instructions about the Synod process and ground rules for spiritual conversations. After this, small group discussions take place to reflect on questions such as, “How is journeying together happening at your parish today?” and “How does God speak to you through the voices of those in your parish and others in your life?” Participants are asked to share and to actively listen with an open heart to others and to the Holy Spirit. Comments are recorded for each group on a Synod reporting form that is later sent to the diocesan Synod committee.
 

Plans are underway to reach out to those on the peripheries such as the homebound, those at homeless shelters, nursing homes, food pantries, the veterans’ home, immigrants and others who feel marginalized or do not share our Catholic faith. In late May, we hope to schedule additional listening sessions, both remote and in-person, for those who feel they have not yet been heard. Finally, we also have an online questionnaire available and we have already received many responses.
 

The diocesan phase of the Synod will be completed by the end of May, at which time all of the input from the many listening sessions will be synthesized into a 10-page diocesan report and sent to the United Sates Conference of Catholic Bishops.
 

The ultimate goal of the Synod is to practice a way of listening and hearing, of discernment and action, which remains faithful to the truths received, but pastorally responds to these truths in the context of the present time. Hopefully, the Synod process provides a template for how to sit in the presence of each other, brothers and sisters, as people of God and members of the Body of Christ, to share joys, hopes and sorrows and to reaffirm the good and to reimagine what could be better in a post-pandemic world.
 

Ruggiero is secretary, diocesan Secretariat for Family and Pastoral Life