The delegates to the synod on synodality are assembled today and tomorrow for a retreat. Tomorrow, at the close of the retreat, the Holy Father will lead a penitential service and the next day the synod itself will open with Holy Mass.
This second session of the synod will conclude what is likely the largest consultation in the history of the world, conducted in parishes and dioceses, at the national and continental levels, and now concluding with a second global gathering in Rome.
Why does everyone think it will be a yawn? Because the “hot-button” issues, the stuff that makes for headlines, are now being studied by 10 working groups the pope established, and they are working independently of the synodal process.
For those who are as interested in ecclesiology as in ethics, the synod will not be a yawn. It will be a further step in the process of receiving the teachings of the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council.
As I noted when the instrumentum laboris, or working document, first came out, the goal of this gathering “is to get the entire church focused on its mission of proclaiming the Gospel in the world today,” to place our ethical teachings and charitable work in a specifically ecclesial context, to remind ourselves that it is the Lord who initiates the work of the church, not us. We are mere workers in the vineyard.
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With thanks to the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) and Michael Sean Winters, where this article originally appeared.
