Becoming a Church that listens and discerns together
The second phase of the global synod is underway and by October 18, 2022 we’ll have guidelines from the Vatican about the next leg of this journey – the continental phase! We can think of no better guide to help us glean learnings from the initial phase and to prepare ourselves for yet another year of listening, dialogue and discernment than P, Richard Lennan , de la Escuela de Teología y Ministerio del Boston College.
Richard es un eclesiólogo (un teólogo que estudia la Iglesia) que participó en el proceso sinodal en su Australia natal. Su proceso comenzó en realidad hace cuatro años con el lanzamiento del 5º Consejo Plenario del país (¡el anterior había sido en 1935!) en torno a un tema ahora familiar en toda la Iglesia mundial: ¿cómo escuchamos lo que el Espíritu Santo está diciendo a la Iglesia?
Dado que los católicos australianos están un poco más avanzados en el camino sinodal que nosotros en los Estados Unidos, tienen mucho que enseñarnos sobre cómo llegar a ser una iglesia que escucha y discierne junta. Richard ofrece un breve resumen del camino sinodal de Australia en the video featured above.
In July of 2022, Australia’s Plenary Council Assembly, which incorporates lay and religious men and women as “consultative” voters along with Bishops as both consultative and “deliberative voters” yielded some exciting developments around two movements of the Spirit close to our own discerning hearts: the ordination of women to the diaconate (which received majority support in the consultative vote) and the transformational power of communal discernment when the final deliberative vote by Bishops did not reflect the discernment of consultative majority). This breve informe de prensa ofrece una visión general; Richard puede informarnos sobre los detalles.
The webinar that took place on on Tuesday, October 11, 2022 featured a conversation between Richard and me about how synodality is really a process of conversion and how we might approach the next phase of the synod as a practice of communal discernment, particularly in our polarized American U.S. Church.
We talked about how to walk together with people who think differently, especially about laments that could potentially further divide us and common hopes that could potentially serve to build bridges between us. You may view a recording of the event aqui.
Maureen O’Connell
Director of Synod and Higher Education Engagement
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