The National Steering Committee of the Irish synodal pathway will present a report to the Irish bishops by June outlining how the synodal process for the Irish Church might be shaped in the coming years.
In March 2021, the bishops announced that the Irish Church would embark on a new synodal pathway leading to the holding of a national synodal assembly or assemblies within five years.
This process is focused on the question: “What does God want from the Church in Ireland at this time?”
In its latest update, organisers of the Irish synodal pathway said research is underway to determine the training, skills and other needs of local leaders – priests, religious and laity – to go deeper into the synodal pathway in Ireland.
Diocesan delegates and representatives from the organisations, movements and associations that held listening sessions during the diocesan stage of the universal synod and submitted a synthesis are being invited to complete an online questionnaire to carry out this needs analysis.
There is a growing realisation that the synodal pathway will be a long-term process, although clarity is also needed in relation to a time-frame for rolling out the process.
Separately, Dr Nicola Brady, chair of the Irish synodal pathway has paid tribute to Pope Francis’ vision of synodality as “both a significant challenge and a great gift to the Church”.
In a statement marking the tenth anniversary of the Pope’s pastoral leadership, Dr Brady said that through the synodal process, “we are already seeing new spaces for encounter developing at all levels of Church”.
In Dublin, Archbishop Dermot Farrell has said Pope Francis is asking the Church “to move beyond a pyramidal way of looking and being Church, and to embrace, and make our own, the way of being Church as discerned by the Second Vatican Council.”
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