What is the purpose of the synod?
“We recall that the purpose of the synod, and therefore of this consultation, is not to produce documents, but “to plant dreams, draw forth prophecies and visions, allow hope to flourish, inspire trust, bind up wounds, weave together relationships, awaken a dawn of hope, learn from one another and create a bright resourcefulness that will enlighten minds, warm hearts, give strength to our hands.” Pope Francis Vatican Preparatory Document #32
Welcome to the Synod Committee Update Section of the North Star Catholic.
For the next four months we will post continual news and updates on the synod process within the Archdiocese of Anchorage-Juneau. The archbishop established a committee and tasked it with creating a comprehensive plan to be used by all parishes, schools, institutions and special groups that gather. This will ensure consistence and integrity throughout the synod process in our vast archdiocese.
This synod is unique because it begins with the work of the Holy Spirit through listening and dialogue with the people of God worldwide, beginning at the diocesan level. Each diocese will host listening sessions in their local communities and then compile their work and submit a report to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, USCCB. With the continued guidance of the Holy Spirt, the work of all 196 dioceses in the United States will be synthesized and combined into the first edition of the Instrumentum Laboris, published by the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops in Rome. This document will then become the “working document” for the next step in the process, the Continental Consultation in March of 2023. Bishop representatives from North and Central America will gather together, and guided by the Holy Spirit, synthesize the responses from all the countries in our continent into one document. The seven documents from the seven continents will then generate the second Instrumentum Laboris which will be used at the Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October 2023. The aim of the Synod of Bishops is not to overshadow the diocesan and continental phases, but to discern at a universal level, the voice of the Holy Spirit who has been speaking throughout the entire Church.
At the local level, the synodal process allows for:
•Discernment through listening, to create space for the guidance of the Holy Spirit;
•Accessibility, to ensure as many people as possible can participate, regardless of location, language, education, socio-economic status, ability/disability or material resources;
•Cultural awareness, to celebrate and embrace the diversity within local communities;
•Inclusion, making every effort to involve those who feel excluded or marginalized.
Our plan is that this section of the paper will have thought-provoking questions to encourage reflection in preparation for participation in a dialogue session. Dialogue sessions will be held both in person and by Zoom coordinated by both parishes and the archdiocese. All parishes and archdiocesan dialogue sessions will be posted on the archdiocesan website, aoaj.org You can also email the synod committee at synod@aoaj.org. As Archbishop Andrew Bellisario, C.M., stated in his letter to the people of the archdiocese, “the success of synodality ultimately rests with all of us.”
'The synodal process moves forward in our community' have 2 comments
February 2022 @ 12:36 am Carol Allums
I guess I will be the brave one and jump in with some comments. I am offer them with authentic courage and honesty. First of all, this process is very confusing to me and to every person I have talked to. The more I read, the more confused and anxious I become. That may be because we really don’t hear much about it. It’s in the bulletins but beyond that we have only the vague articles that have been published. I have read the materials on the USCCB website and I still do not understand the point. There is mention of how the Church should proceed in its journey during the third millennium and it seems that we are trying to make this more complicated than we need. We have every direction we need for our journey between the covers of the Bible and the Catechism. In the guide for the Synod there is one part that talks about the Synod being a time to meditate on ecology and peace, life issues and migration. In my humble opinion, I think that we would do well to concentrate on catechesis because, if we are really learning about the Gospel and obeying God out of love, much of those lofty issues take care of themselves. The Guide also talks about laying aside our prejudices, ideologies, avoiding the pitfalls of focusing on our immediate problems and turning this process into a parliamentary or political exercise. However, the guide itself seems to cast those shadows without any help from us. Jesus made this process simple and it just seems like we are making it more complicated than it needs to be.
January 2022 @ 9:22 am Anonymous
The Church somehow simultaneously wants to ‘appeal’ to all and also say that other religions are valid ways to God/Heaven. If the Catholic Church is not the ONE TRUE APOSTOLIC CHURCH and the path to Jesus who is the ONLY way, Truth, and Life, and only way to Heaven, then what value do we have? If we are just one of many paths, what is the real value of our Faith, why should others join? The age of ecumenism has taken it’s toll on the Church, because the Church has demeaned itself from the top, it has moved away from being THE WAY. So of course our preaching the Gospel falls on deaf ears.
You don’t gain more followers by following the crowd, you lead the crowd. The Catholic Church has stopped leading for a long time in the name of not offending. Jesus said many would be offended by him, do not be afraid of that. Let’s get back to our traditional roots, let’s make the mass a true Sacrifice again and not a ‘celebration’, let’s get back to penance and holding one another accountable.
As one coming to the Faith later in life, and going through the RCIA process. I am amazed at how much of Church history has been censored in the name of Vatican II, and the beauty of the Church prior to it. I was very surprised how much the Church seemed similar to my Protestant background, and now I know why. Let’s reverse course, and get the Church and the Body of Christ back to it’s former glory.