With the document Towards October 2024 sent last December to all the bishops of the world, the General Secretariat of the Synod asked the local churches and groups of Churches to deepen some aspects of the Synthesis Report that are fundamental to the theme of the Synod, starting from a guiding question of the entire synodal process: ‘HOW to be a synodal Church in mission?’ During these months, the individual local Churches have carried out their work by sending their contribution through the Bishops’ Conferences, the Eastern Catholic Churches and the International Reunions of Bishops’ Conferences.
“I am particularly impressed to see the involvement of the entire church community in this long process of discernment”, says Cardinal Mario Grech, Secretary General of the General Secretariat of the Synod. “In addition to the reflections arising from the Synthesis Report of the First Session, the material received often adds real testimonies on how the particular churches not only understand synodality, but also how they are already putting this style into practice. The synodal Church is not a dream to be realised, but already a living reality that generates creativity and new relational models within the same local community or between different churches or church groupings’.
From Tuesday, 4 June 2024, the group of theologians, experts in various disciplines (dogmatic theology, ecclesiology, pastoral theology, canon law, etc.), will analyse all this material. ‘We are not leaving anything to chance. Each document is to be carefully read with the aim that at the end of this meeting, the group will present a text that reflects the work, questions and insights received from the grassroots” says Cardinal Grech.