From the Cardinal: Reflections on the 16th Synod of Bishops: Embracing Synodality and the Mission of the Church | October 25, 2024
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Vol. 6. No. 4
My dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
For the past several weeks, I have been immersed in prayer, attentive listening and dialogue as part of the second and final session of the 16th General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops that is being held here in the Vatican. I am grateful to Pope Francis for the opportunity to represent the Archdiocese of Newark at this Spirit-filled gathering of participants from across the globe, and I am eager to share with you some of my thoughts and experiences.
Synods are as old as the Church herself, and they are among the most important ways we have to allow the Holy Spirit to guide the deliberations and actions of the Church’s leaders. As Pope Francis told us in his opening address (see below), the Synod’s composition “expresses a way of exercising the episcopal ministry consistent with the living Tradition of the Church and with the teaching of the Second Vatican Council.” The way the Synod is structured ensures that we who are co-responsible leaders in the Church pay careful attention to the People of God—through listening opportunities prior to our gathering in the Vatican and through inviting representatives of God’s people to gather alongside us and participate in our deliberations.
“Never can a Bishop, or any other Christian, think of himself ‘without others,’ Pope Francis insists. “Just as no one is saved alone, the proclamation of salvation needs everyone, and requires that everyone be heard.” The task of hearing everyone, and of being attentive the hopes and dreams, joys and frustrations, of all God’s people would be daunting, indeed, if it were not for the presence of the Holy Spirit who opens our minds and hearts and enables us to listen to the Word of God, and to each other, with humility and trust.
As established by Pope Saint Paul VI nearly 60 years ago (see below), each Synod of Bishops is organized into three parts: 1) the preparatory phase, in which the consultation of the People of God on the themes indicated by the pope takes place; 2) the celebratory phase, characterized by the gathering of Bishops; and 3) the implementation phase, in which the conclusions of the Synod, once approved by the pope, are accepted by the local churches and integrated into their pastoral life.
Our archdiocese participated fully in the first phase of the Synod on Synodality initiated by Pope Francis in 2021. As we complete the Synod’s second phase at the end of this month, I will be eager to return home to northern New Jersey and begin collaborating with my colleagues to design and execute the implementation phase of this historic moment in the life of our Church.
Pope Francis reminds us that “The Holy Spirit always accompanies us.” Both in good times and in hard times, the Spirit of God “wipes away our tears and comforts us because he communicates God’s gift of hope.” The Holy Father assures that no matter how downcast and defeated we may feel, “God never grows weary; his love is tireless.”
The mission to proclaim joyfully the Good News of our salvation in Christ has been given to every baptized person regardless of our situation in life or our status in the Church. We are all co-responsible leaders. We are all stewards of God’s material and spiritual gifts. And we are all missionary disciples called to carry Christ’s message of healing and hope to everyone…everyone without exception.
I am eager to return to our archdiocese. I hope to be refreshed and renewed by my month-long immersion into the culture and experience of synodality, and I look forward to sharing with you my thoughts and impressions based on what I have heard from many others.
May the Mother of our Redeemer, who listened prayerfully to the words of God’s messenger, and who responded from the depths of her heart, saying “Yes” to the invitation from God to assume her absolutely unique role in the history of our salvation, intercede for us and give us hope.
Sincerely yours in Christ the Redeemer,
Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R.
Archbishop of Newark
Click here to watch Cardinal Tobin’s video messages from Rome
The Synod of Bishops
(A selection from the “Profile” that explains the origins and purposes of the present form of the Synod of Bishops.)
The Synod of Bishops was established by St Paul VI on 15th September 1965 with the Motu Proprio Apostolica Sollicitudo. Its formation took place in the context of the Second Vatican Council which, with the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium (21st November 1964), had largely concentrated on the doctrine of the episcopate, urging greater involvement of the Bishops cum et sub Petro in matters that concern the universal Church.
The Council Decree Christus Dominus (28th October, 1965) describes the newly established body as follows: «Bishops chosen from various parts of the world, in ways and manners established or to be established by the Roman pontiff, render more effective assistance to the supreme pastor of the Church in a deliberative body which will be called by the proper name of Synod of Bishops. Since it shall be acting in the name of the entire Catholic episcopate, it will at the same time show that all the bishops in hierarchical communion partake of the solicitude for the universal Church» (n. 5).
Recently Pope Francis, with the Apostolic Constitution Episcopalis communio (September 15th 2018), has profoundly renewed the Synod of Bishops, inserting it within the framework of synodality as a constitutive dimension of the Church, at all levels of her existence.
In particular, the Synod is understood as a process composed of three parts: the preparatory phase, in which the consultation of the People of God on the themes indicated by the Roman Pontiff takes place; the celebratory phase, characterized by the meeting of the assembly of Bishops; and the implementation phase, in which the conclusions of the Synod, once approved by the Roman Pontiff, are accepted by the local churches.
The central phase, in which the work of discernment of the Pastors is carried out, is thus preceded and followed by phases that call into play the totality of the People of God, in the plurality of its components.
A Message from Pope Francis: Words of Challenge and Hope
(Selections from the Holy Father’s Address to the Second Session of the XVI General Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (October 2–27, 2024))
This Assembly, guided by the Holy Spirit, who “bends the stubborn heart and will, melts the frozen, warms the chill, and guides the steps that go astray”, aims to help bring about a synodal Church, a Church in mission, capable of setting out, making herself present in today’s geographical and existential peripheries, and seeking to enter into a relationship with everyone in Jesus Christ, our brother and Lord.
The Holy Spirit always accompanies us. The Spirit consoles us in moments of sorrow and grief, especially when —precisely because of our love of humanity —things are not going well, injustices seem to prevail, we realize how difficult it is to respond with good in the face of evil, we see how hard it is to forgive and what little courage we show in seeking peace. It seems in these moments that there is nothing more to do and we yield to despair. Just as hope is the humblest and strongest virtue, despair is its counterpart.
The Holy Spirit wipes away our tears and comforts us because He communicates God’s gift of hope. God never grows weary; his love is tireless…
Yesterday, during the Penance Service we asked for forgiveness; we acknowledged that we are sinners. We put aside our pride, and we set aside our presumption in imagining that we are better than others. Have we in fact become more humble?
Humility too is a gift of the Holy Spirit that we must ask from Him. Humility, as the etymology of the word tells us, brings us back to earth, to the ground, the humus, and thus reminds us of the beginning, when, if not for the breath of the Creator, we would have remained lifeless mud. Humility allows us to look at the world around us and to realize that we are no better than others. As Saint Paul says: “Do not think too highly of yourselves” (Rom 12:16). We cannot be humble apart from love…This is the humility, sympathetic and compassionate, of those who see themselves as brothers and sisters to all. They suffer their pain, and in their own woundedness and hurt they see the wounds and the sufferings of our Lord.
I encourage you to meditate in prayer on this fine spiritual text and to realize that the Church – semper reformanda – cannot pursue her journey and let herself be renewed without the Holy Spirit and his surprises. Without letting herself be shaped by the hands of God the Creator, his Son Jesus Christ and his Holy Spirit, as Saint Irenaeus of Lyon tells us (Adv. Haer., IV, 20, 1).
From the very beginning, when God brought forth man and woman from the earth; from the time when God called Abraham to be a blessing to all the peoples of the earth and called Moses to lead through the desert a people delivered from slavery; from when the Virgin Mary said “yes” to the message that made her the Mother of the Son of God according to the flesh and the Mother of every disciple and every disciple of her Son; and from when the Lord Jesus, crucified and risen, poured out his Holy Spirit at Pentecost – ever since, we have been journeying, as “those who have been shown mercy”, towards the definitive fulfillment of the Father’s love. Let us not forget that we have been shown mercy.
We know both the beauty of that journey and the fatigue that it entails. We are making it together, as a people that, also in our own day, are a sign and instrument of communion with God and of the unity of the entire human race (Lumen Gentium, 1). We are making it together with, and for the sake of, every man and woman of good will, in each of whom grace is invisibly at work (Gaudium et Spes, 22). We are making it, convinced of the “relational” nature of the Church and seeking to ensure that the relationships given to us and entrusted to our responsible creativity will always be a sign of the gratuitousness of mercy. A so-called Christian who does not enter into the gratuitousness and mercy of God is simply an atheist dressed as a Christian. The mercy of God enables us to be trustworthy and responsible.
Sisters, brothers, we persevere on this journey fully aware that we are called, like a pale moon that reflects the light of Christ our sun, to take up, faithfully and joyfully, our mission to be for the world a sacrament of that light, which is not our own.
The 16th Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, now in its Second Session, represents this “journeying together” of the people of God in a distinctive way…. The composition of this 16th Assembly is thus more than a contingent fact. It expresses a way of exercising the episcopal ministry consistent with the living Tradition of the Church and with the teaching of the Second Vatican Council. Never can a Bishop, or any other Christian, think of himself “without others.” Just as no one is saved alone, the proclamation of salvation needs everyone, and requires that everyone to be heard.
The presence in the Assembly of the Synod of Bishops of members who are not Bishops does not diminish the “episcopal” dimension of the Assembly. I do not say this because of some whirlwind of gossip that has gone from one side to another. Still less does it place any limitation on, or derogate from, the authority proper to individual Bishops and the College of Bishops. Rather, it points to the form that the exercise of episcopal authority is called to take in a Church that is conscious of being essentially relational and therefore synodal. Relationship with Christ and with all in Christ – those already there and those not yet there but are awaited by the Father – realizes the substance and shapes the form of the Church at all times.
Differing forms of a “collegial” and “synodal” exercise of the episcopal ministry (within the particular Churches, in groupings of Churches and in the Church as a whole) need to be identified in due course. They must always respect the deposit of faith and the living Tradition, and always respond to what the Spirit asks of the Churches at this particular time and in the different contexts in which they live. Let us not forget that the Spirit is harmony. Let us think of the morning of Pentecost. There was tremendous disorder, but He brought harmony to that disorder. Let us not forget that He is truly harmony. It is not a sophisticated or intellectual harmony. It is everything, an existential harmony.
The Holy Spirit makes the Church perennially faithful to the mandate of the Lord Jesus Christ and attentive to his word. The Spirit leads the disciples into all truth (Jn 16:13). He is also leading us, gathered in the Holy Spirit in this Assembly, to give an answer, after three years of walking, to the question of “How to be a synodal Church in mission.” I would add merciful.
With a heart filled with hope and gratitude, and conscious of the demanding task entrusted to you – to us – I express my prayerful hope that all will open themselves willingly to the action of the Holy Spirit, our sure guide and comforter.
Thank you!
My Prayer for You
Please join me in this prayer to the Holy Spirit for the success of the Synod.
Come, Holy Spirit, enlighten our minds and hearts with wisdom and understanding. Help us to discern how to be a synodal missionary Church that is committed to attentive listening and respectful dialogue with all our sisters and brothers. May our synodal journey lead all of God’s pilgrim people to our heavenly home. Amen.