Universal synod to open in Camden Diocese in October

From the Chancery Office:

Earlier this year, Pope Francis announced that the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which will take place in October 2023, will have the theme, “For a synodal Church: communion, participation and mission.”

The synod process will have three major phases: diocesan, continental and universal. The initial documents (preparatory document, questionnaire and vademecum) for study, discussion and reflection will be made available sometime in September.

This two-year synodal process will have a Solemn Opening by Pope Francis with a Mass at Saint Peter’s Basilica on Sunday, Oct. 10, 2021. The Holy Father has then asked every diocesan bishop throughout the world to have a Solemn Opening Mass the following Sunday, Oct. 17, 2021.  Bishop Sullivan will celebrate this Mass at 3 p.m. in Saint Agnes Church at Our Lady of Hope Parish, Blackwood, with all priests of the Diocese invited to concelebrate.

As part of the synod process, every pastor in the Diocese is asked to send four lay representatives to the Mass and to an orientation that will take place prior to the Mass. The four lay representatives from each parish will have the responsibility of gathering groups of parishioners (from Oct. 18 to Nov. 21) to discuss the synod documents and complete an online response to the official questionnaire for the parish by Nov. 30. They will also represent the parish at deanery-level meetings in February 2022. After receiving the input of the deaneries, the Diocese will forward its response to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in March.

The general secretariat of the synod will then draft a first instrumentum laboris, which will be published and sent to every diocese throughout the world. This will conclude the diocesan phase of the synod process.

In September 2022, the continental phase of the synod process will begin. How this will be conducted is yet to be determined by the USCCB. By March 2023, the Church in the United States will provide to the Holy See its response to the instrumentum laboris.  The general secretariat of the synod will then draft a second instrumentum laboris. It is expected that this document will be published in June 2023 and will conclude the continental phase of synod process.

In October 2023, the universal phase of the synod process will take place with the celebration of the Assembly of Bishops in Rome according to the renewed procedures established in 2018 by Pope Francis in the Apostolic Constitution, “Episcopalis communio.”  This monthlong meeting of the General Synod in the presence of the Holy Father will be completed when the Pope issues an apostolic exhortation in the months following the General Synod.

For more information on the process, go to www.synod.va/content/synod/en.html.