Sunday, November 14, 2021

a new initiative of Pope Francis, a Synod on Synodality. And you may be tempted, as I was, to ask, what the heck is that? In an earlier column, I discussed the Synod and women deacons and I introduced you to a webpage I'll use to share information about the Synod. I asked you to pray and will ask you to pray again. It is all about how we are and how we do church, based on the groundbreaking teaching of Vatican Council II.

Some of us are old enough to remember the Second Vatican Council. It introduced a lot of changes: the priest started celebrating Mass facing the people, we began praying in our native tongues rather than in Latin, more Sacred Scripture was introduced to the Mass, and many others. While many found these changes substantial, and even radical, they were in fact only the tip of the iceberg of the teaching of Vatican Council II.

The real changes envisioned by the Council were not about the language we pray in, nor removing the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar after Mass, but a much more organic change in the way we do and are as Church.

Pope Francis is now picking up on that change. Often, after the Second Vatican Council, we heard the refrain that “We are Church.” The Pope now believes it is time to make that real. Synodality is a change in the way we do church. Rather than a top-down model, where the Bishops and the Pope give the teaching and everyone else accepts it, in this model the Holy Spirit is at work in the entire church. Now, instead of their mouth, the most important organ of the priests and bishops is their ears. The church listens to the People of God, and from all this witness discerns, through prayer and reflection, the action of the Holy Spirit in the world today.

This is a very radical change. It is a BIGGER change than going from Latin to English. It will affect everything in the Church, BUT, it will make the Church better able to respond to the real needs of the world today.

This will not happen quickly. It will succeed only to the extent that we all take part. I hope that we will organize listening sessions as part of the process of synodality here in our parish. I hope that St. Austin Parish and School, in conjunction with the Paulists, will be leaders in this process in our Diocese, and be an example of how to do synodality.

Meanwhile I encourage you to pray for the success of this preparation period for the Synod on Synodality. I invite you to consider the prayer from the Association of United States Catholic Priests that I encourage you to use daily.

I’m also proud to spotlight our Spirit of Hecker Award honoree, Frank Garcia, a model of spirit-filled service. He and all Paulist foundation and ministry honorees were announced on Saturday’s coast-to-coast Paulist broadcast.

Thank you. God bless,