The Holy Spirit is “truly at work” in the Catholic Church in North America a senior bishop has said as discussions about the forthcoming Synod on Synodality lead to the final document.
The U.S. and Canadian bishops’ conference jointly issued the final document for the North American Continental stage of the Synod on Synodality. The 36-page text was the result of a series of regional listening sessions, most often virtual sessions, with delegates selected by diocesan bishops, culminating in a weeklong, in-person meeting with a smaller group tasked with synthesising the responses and drafting the document.
Bishop Raymond Poisson of Saint-Jérôme-Mont-Laurier, president of the Canadian bishops’ conference said, “The Holy Spirit is truly at work in the Church in North America and we hope this final document will serve to strengthen our communion as sisters and brothers in Christ.”
The document mentions a variety of tensions within the Church. In one paragraph, it notes that those who are divorced and remarried often suffer because they have been excluded from full participation in the life of their parishes, and that those fond of the pre-Vatican liturgy also registered a similar experience of woundedness.
The text also noted that “the synodal process of discernment in North America has revealed that the Church, like the larger society, is experiencing polarisation and a strong pull towards fragmentation”. It called for further “formation in synodality”.
Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas led the U.S. contingent and he urged people to consider the document as a resource for local engagement, not merely as a report being sent to Rome. “While we await the next steps of the formal process to be carried out in Rome, we have an opportunity to make synodality truly present among us here in North America,” Flores said. “We invite you to discern prayerfully the joys, laments, and tensions raised in this final document and discern together how you can make present the first fruits of synodality in your local community.”
Meanwhile, work has begun in Rome on the Instrumentum Laboris or working document of the assembly in October of the Synod on Synodality.
A group of experts from five continents who took part in the synodal process are meeting in private at the Vatican to discuss the results of the latest continental stage and analyse the seven final documents of the continental assemblies.
They will spend time discerning the Continental Stage and the seven final documents of the Continental Synodal Assemblies in order to highlight the tensions and priorities of the worldwide Church.
Each day will be marked by the daily celebration of the Eucharist and moments of personal and communal prayer.
Those taking part include Cardinal Mario Grech and the UK’s Professor Anna Rowlands, on secondment to the synod from the University of Durham.
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