After three years, the Synod on Synodality, an invitation made by Pope Francis for the entire people of God to discern and journey together, nears its final stages with the publication of the second Instrumentum Laboris or “working tool” on July 9 and with the Second Session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod approaching this October.
The six sections of the roughly 30-page, second Instrumentum Laboris document will be the subject of prayer, conversation, and discernment by participants in the second session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. The text offers concrete proposals for instituting a listening and accompaniment ministry, greater lay involvement in parish economics and finances, need for transparency to restore the Church’s credibility in the face of sexual abuse of adults and minors, the promotion of women to positions of authority, and periodic performance evaluations on those exercising a ministry or holding a position in the Church.
The Oct. 2–27 gathering of the Synod of Bishops will mark the end of the discernment phase of the Church’s synodal process, which Pope Francis opened in 2021. Participants in the meeting, including Sister Leticia Salazar ODN, Chancellor of the Diocese of San Bernardino, will also prepare and vote on the Synod on Synodality’s advisory final document, which will then be given to the Pope, who decides the Church’s next steps and if he wishes to adopt the text as a papal document or to write his own.
Following her participation in the first session of the assembly in October 2023, Sr. Leticia continued to contribute to the synod process by being one of seven individuals on the U.S. Synod Writing Team to help construct the National Synthesis of the People of God in the United States of America for the Interim Stage of the 2021-2024 Synod, which was released on May 28, 2024. The synthesis marked the completion of the Interim Stage of the 2021-2024 synod and formed the basis of the work to be engaged by the Catholic Church until the Second Session of assembly in October 2024.
After the second session of the Ordinary General Assembly, the Synodal process will move into phase 3, “the implementation,” which will “initiate the reception of the Synod’s conclusions in all the local Churches,” according to the Synod website.
Catholic News Agency contributed to this article