Cardinal Tobin: A pastoral vision for our missionary future | January 24, 2025
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Vol. 6. No.10
My dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
Three weeks ago, on January 6, 2025, I announced a multi-year pastoral planning initiative here in the Archdiocese of Newark. This new initiative, We Are His Witnesses, provides our archdiocese with a chance to prepare for the opportunities and challenges that confront us as a missionary Church that is synodal and co-responsible in its pastoral leadership. By following the guidance of the Holy Spirit and by listening carefully to the Word of God and the voices of all our sisters and brothers, we hope to be faithful witnesses to our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
In my last newsletter, January 10, I reflected on the concepts of pastoral conversion and missionary discipleship. The primary sources for these reflections are the 2013 Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel) and the prayerful discussions held during the three-year Synod on Synodality 2021-24.
The Final Document, “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission” (see selection below) references both The Joy of the Gospel and the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium (The Light of Nations), in its summary of the Synod’s proceedings. I was privileged to participate in the meetings held in Rome, as well as in the Listening Sessions and other events here in the Archdiocese of Newark and many other discussions on the national and continental levels throughout the Universal Church. As Pope Francis noted in his concluding remarks for the final session held in Rome last October (see selection below), the Synod’s Final Document, which the Holy Father approved and asked to be published, “contains very substantial indications which can guide the mission of the Churches, on different continents, and in particular contexts.”
I have asked Bishop Michael Saporito and the Commission that has been formed to oversee this planning initiative to ensure that all of the activities we undertake are based on principles of synodality, subsidiarity, and solidarity as described in my pastoral letter, We Are His Witnesses, and to provide clear communication, accountability, and transparency throughout this process.
We Are His Witnesses will address the following questions:
• Where are we today? What are the opportunities and challenges we face in the changing landscape of northern New Jersey? How can we more effectively embrace the concept of synodality as a way of being Church? How can we develop and sustain a bold missionary outreach here in northern New Jersey?
• Where is God calling us to go? What new opportunities is the Holy Spirit opening for us as we proclaim the joy of the Gospel in the diverse neighborhoods of Bergen, Essex, Hudson, and Union counties? How can we respond to the growing desire for life-long faith formation and spiritual renewal? How do we develop and sustain a deeper sense of co-responsibility and collaboration among leadership here in our archdiocese?
• How will we get there together? What changes do we need to make in our pastoral ministries, systems, and structures to meet the demands of pastoral conversion and missionary discipleship, both now and in the years ahead? How can we better use regional structures to encourage collaboration among parishes and promote the concepts of subsidiarity and solidarity? How do we engage in pastoral planning that truly is grounded in our mission?
Each of these areas will be explored through prayerful discernment, attentive listening, and respectful dialogue. We approach this process without preconceived judgments or ready-made solutions. We are eager to hear the voices of all the people in our archdiocese concerning the opportunities and challenges we face as a missionary Church, both now and in the future.
Our purpose is to respond wholeheartedly to the Great Commission given to us by the Lord Himself: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Mt 28: 9–20).
In my pastoral letter, I offered the following quote from The Joy of the Gospel:
If something should rightly disturb us and trouble our consciences, it is the fact that so many of our brothers and sisters are living without the strength, light and consolation born of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith to support them, without meaning and a goal in life. More than by fear of going astray, my hope is that we will be moved by the fear of remaining shut up within structures which give us a false sense of security, within rules which make us harsh judges, within habits which make us feel safe, while at our door people are starving and Jesus does not tire of saying to us: “Give them something to eat” (EG. #49).
I also observed that because we are His witnesses—the mind and heart, the hands and feet of Jesus at work in our world—we must be ready to go wherever we are needed and do whatever is necessary to serve our sisters and brothers in Christ.
Towards the end of my pastoral letter, I ask: “What will this future look like? Will it be very different from our past or present?” Then, I offer my sincere hope that, during this Jubilee Year and beyond, we will build on the successes and accomplishments of the past and present while also remaining open to the new directions that the Holy Spirit is asking us to pursue. My hoped-for outcomes of this pastoral planning initiative are a true pastoral conversion and a profound expression of missionary discipleship that responds to the deepest needs of our people for the things that only Christ can provide.
I ask you to pray for the success of We Are His Witnesses and to commit yourself to active participation in this process in whatever ways are appropriate for you. Together, we will respond in faith to the changing circumstances of our time and continue to be the people that God calls us to be here in the Archdiocese of Newark. With confidence in the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and with the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints, let us go forth in hope to proclaim the joy of the Gospel to all.
Sincerely yours in Christ the Redeemer,
Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R.
Archbishop of Newark

A selection from the Final Document For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission
Part I – The Heart of Synodality: Called by the Holy Spirit to Conversion
The Church as the People of God, Sacrament of Unity
15. The identity of the People of God flows from Baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This identity is lived out as a call to holiness and a sending out in mission, inviting all peoples to accept the gift of salvation (cf. Mt 28:18-19). The missionary synodal Church springs from Baptism, in which Christ clothes us with Himself (cf. Gal 3:27) and enables us to be reborn of the Spirit (cf. Jn 3:5-6) as children of God. The whole of Christian existence has its source and horizon in the mystery of the Trinity, which brings forth in us the dynamism of faith, hope and love.
16. “It has pleased God, however, to sanctify and save men and women not individually and without regard for what binds them together, but to set them up as a people who would acknowledge Him in truth and serve Him in holiness” (LG 9). The Eucharist, the source of communion and unity, continually nourishes the People of God on their journey towards the Kingdom: “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” (1 Cor 10: 17). The Church, nourished by the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord, is constituted as His Body (cf. LG 7): “you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” (1 Cor 12: 27). Enlivened by grace, the Church is a temple of the Holy Spirit (cf. LG 17); the Spirit animates and builds it, making us all living stones of a spiritual edifice (cf. 1 Pet 2: 5; LG 6).
17. Gathered from every tribe, language, people and nation and living in different contexts and cultures, the synodal process gave us “the spiritual taste” (EG 268) of what it means to be the People of God. The People of God is never the simple sum of the Baptized but the communitarian and historical subject of synodality and mission still on pilgrimage through time and already in communion with the Church in heaven. Within the plurality of contexts where the local Churches are rooted, the People of God proclaim and bear witness to the Good News of salvation. Being in the world and for the world, they walk together with all the peoples of the earth, in dialogue with their religions and their cultures, recognizing in them the seeds of the Word, journeying towards the Kingdom. Incorporated into the People of God by faith and Baptism, we are sustained and accompanied by the Virgin Mary, “a sign of sure hope and comfort” (LG 68), by the Apostles, by those who bore witness to their faith to the point of giving their lives, and by the saints of every time and place.
18. In the holy People of God, which is the Church, the communion of the faithful (communio Fidelium) is at the same time the communion of the Churches (communio Ecclesiarum), which is manifested in the communion of Bishops (communio Episcoporum) by reason of the very ancient principle that “the Church is in the Bishop and the Bishop is in the Church” (St. Cyprian, Epistle 66, 8). The Lord placed the Apostle Peter (cf. Mt 16: 18) and his successors at the service of this manifold communion. By virtue of the Petrine ministry, the Bishop of Rome is “the perpetual and visible principle and foundation” (LG 23) of the Church’s unity.
19. “God’s heart has a special place for the poor” (EG 197), the marginalized and the excluded. Therefore, they are at the heart of the Church. The whole Christian community is called to recognize in those made poor the face and flesh of Christ, who, though He was rich, became poor for us so that we might become rich through His poverty (cf. 2 Cor 8: 9). The preferential option for the poor is implicit in Christological faith. The direct knowledge of the suffering Christ (cf. EG 198) possessed by those who are poor makes them heralds of salvation received as a gift and witnesses to the joy of the Gospel. The Church is called to be poor with those who are poor, who often constitute the majority of the faithful, to listen to them, learning together how to recognize the charisms they receive from the Spirit. The Church also needs to learn to recognize them as agents of evangelization.
20. “Christ is the Light of nations” (LG 1), and this light shines on the face of the Church, even when marked by the fragility of the human condition obscured by sin. The Church receives from Christ the gift and responsibility of being the effective leaven in bonds, relationships and the kinship of the human family (cf. AG 2-4), witnessing to the meaning and goal of its journey in the world (GS 3 and 42). The Church assumes this responsibility today at a time dominated by a crisis of participation, that is, of people feeling that they are not participants or actors with a common destiny, as well as by an individualistic understanding of happiness and salvation. The Church’s vocation and prophetic service (LG 12) consist in witnessing to God’s plan to unite all humanity to Himself in freedom and communion. The Church is “the Kingdom of Christ already present in mystery” (LG 3) and “the seed and the beginning of the Kingdom on earth” (LG 5). It, therefore, walks together with all humanity, strongly committed to justice and peace, human dignity and the common good. All this, while it “aspires after the completion of the kingdom” (LG 5) when God will be “all in all” (1 Cor 15: 28).
(Working Translation from the Original Italian, October 26, 2024)

A Message from Pope Francis: Words of Challenge and Hope
(A selection from the final greeting of Pope Francis to participants in the Second Session of the Synod on Synodality, October 26, 2024).
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
With the Final Document, we have gathered up the fruit of years – at least three – during which we set out to listen to the People of God, in order to have a better understanding, by listening to the Holy Spirit, of how to be a “synodal Church” in these times. The biblical references at the beginning of each chapter set out the message by linking it to the actions and words of our Risen Lord, who calls us to be witnesses of His Gospel, with our lives more than with our words.
The Document on which we have voted is a gift three times over:
1. First of all, it is a gift for me, the Bishop of Rome. When I convoked the Church of God in Synod, I was aware that I needed you, the Bishops and the witnesses of the synodal path. Thank you!
I often remind myself, and to you, that the Bishop of Rome, too, needs to practice listening; in fact, he wants to do it, in order to respond to the Word, which tells him every day: “Strengthen your brothers and sisters…. Feed my lambs”.
You are well aware that my task is to protect and promote the harmony which – as Saint Basil teaches us – the Spirit continues to disseminate in God’s Church, in the relations between the Churches, despite all the efforts, tensions and divisions that mark its journey towards the full manifestation of the Kingdom of God, which the Prophet Isaiah asks us to imagine as a banquet God will prepare for all peoples. All of them and everyone, in the hope that none will be missing. Everyone, everyone, everyone! Nobody left outside: everyone. And here is the key word: harmony. The first strong manifestation of what the Spirit does, on the morning of Pentecost, is to bring harmony among all our differences and all our languages… Harmony. It is what Vatican II teaches by saying that the Church is “like a sacrament”: it is sign and instrument of God’s anticipation; He has already set the table, and He waits expectantly.
Through His Spirit, His Grace whispers words of love in everyone’s heart. It is up to us to amplify the sound of this whispering, never getting in its way; to open the doors, never building walls. How much damage the women and men of the Church do when they build walls, how much damage! Everyone is welcome, everyone, everyone! We must not behave like “dispensers of Grace”, who steal the treasure and tie the hands of our merciful God. Remember that we began this synodal Assembly by asking forgiveness, feeling shame and recognizing that we are all beneficiaries of mercy.
In this time of wars, we must be witnesses of peace and also learn to shape in concrete ways the conviviality of differences.
For this reason, I do not intend to publish an “Apostolic Exhortation”: what we have approved is enough. The Document already contains very substantial indications which can guide the mission of the Churches, on different continents, and in particular contexts: hence I am making it available to everyone straight away; hence I have asked for it to be published. In this way, I want to acknowledge the value of the synodal journey which has been made, and which, by means of this Document, I entrust to the holy faithful People of God.
Time is needed in order to arrive at decisions and choices that involve the whole Church on some aspects of the life of the Church to which the Document draws attention, and on the themes entrusted to the ten “Study Groups”, which need to work freely in order to offer me proposals. I shall, therefore, continue to listen to the Bishops and the Churches entrusted to them.
This is not the classic way of putting decisions off for ever. It is what corresponds to the synodal style with which the Petrine ministry, too, is to be exercised: listen, convene, discern, decide and evaluate. Pauses, silence and prayer are necessary at every one of these steps. It is a style we are learning together, a little at a time. The Holy Spirit calls us and supports us in this way of learning, which we need to see as a process of conversion.

My Prayer for You
Please join me in praying with these words of Pope Francis:
At times, whether we are ordained, consecrated religious, or lay faithful, our hard work fails to achieve the desired results, the seeds we sow seem not to bear sufficient fruit, the ardor of our prayer cools, and we are not always immune to spiritual aridity. In our lives as missionary disciples of Christ, it can happen that hope slowly fades as a result of unmet expectations. We have to be patient with ourselves and await in hope God’s own times and places, for he remains ever faithful to his promises. Amen.