The Diocese of San Bernardino’s Chancellor, Sister Leticia Salazar, ODN, has been named one of just 11 individuals from the United States to serve on the U.S. Team for the Continental Phase of the Synod.
This group, together with a similar group of Canadians, will be writing the Continental Synthesis to represent the results of the Synod in the U.S. and Canada. (While Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean are geographically part of North America, they will be participating in the Continental Phase of the Synod through the Latin American Episcopal Council.)
The Continental Synthesis will be drafted in February 2023, following a series of ten Virtual Assemblies taking place December 2022-January 2023. The Virtual Assemblies (five in English, three in Spanish and two in French) will draw 3-5 delegates from each Diocese of the U.S. and Canada for prayer, reflection, listening and sharing. In all, an estimated 800-1,200 will participate in the Virtual Assemblies.
The North American Synod Team will use what was shared and discussed in the Virtual Assemblies to help draft the Continental Synthesis during a writing retreat in February 2023. The finalized Continental Synthesis will be submitted to the Secretariat for the Synod on March 31, 2023.
Aside from Sr. Leticia, the other members of the U.S. Synod Team are: Bishop Juan Miguel Betancourt, Auxiliary Bishop of Hartford, Region I; Alexandra Carroll, Communications Manager for Social Mission, Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development; Richard Coll, Executive Director, Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development; Bishop Daniel E. Flores, Chairman, Committee on Doctrine and Bishop of Brownsville; Father Michael Fuller, General Secretary, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; Julia McStravog, Consultant; Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv, Bishop of Lexington, Region V; Bishop Joseph Tyson, Bishop of Yakima, Region XII; Bishop David Walkowiak, Bishop of Grand Rapids, Region VI; and Bishop Thomas Zinkula, Bishop of Davenport, Region IX.
The Canadian individuals who will join with the U.S. Synod Team to draft the Continental Synthesis are: Bishop Raymond Poisson, Bishop of the Diocese of Saint-Jérôme-Mont-Laurier and President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops; Bishop Richard Gagnon, Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Winnipeg; Fr. Jean Vézina, General Secretary, Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops; Sister Chantal Desmarais, s.c.s.m.; Barbara Dowding, Special Assistant to the Archbishop of Vancouver; and Dr. Patrick Fletcher, Senior Advisor for Theology and Social Doctrine, Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.
We congratulate Sr. Leticia on the honor of being named to the U.S. Synod Team and we ask you to keep her and the other American and Canadian members of the North American Synod Team in your prayers in their discernment process of writing the Continental Synthesis.