Church Leaders in Australia Welcome Synod Working Document

Cath News ^ | 6/22/23

[marshmallow]

As the Church approaches the first session of the forthcoming Synod of Bishops, Australian Catholics are being encouraged to continue their engagement with the global synodal journey through prayer, ongoing discernment and local conversations. Source: ACBC Media Blog.

On Tuesday, the Secretariat of the Synod published the Instrumentum Laboris, or working document, for the first session of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops – commonly referred to as the Synod on Synodality.

The first session will take place in October; the second and final session is scheduled for October 2024.

Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and a member of the Synod’s preparatory commission, said it had been an extraordinary process to get to this point, with Catholics across the world helping shape the working document.

“Countless people have invested their hopes, their prayer, their time and their energy in helping the entire people of God consider how we can share in the mission entrusted by God to the Church,” he said.

“This is the latest, and an enormously significant milestone in a journey which has spanned several years. It represents both an invitation and an opportunity to remain engaged in prayer, reflection and ongoing discernment with all that has emerged so far in what has been an unprecedented worldwide consultation.”

National Synod of Bishops coordinator Trudy Dantis said additional resources will be produced in the coming weeks to help the faithful support the ongoing journey.

“We will be encouraging people to take part in a prayer pilgrimage in the weeks leading up to the first general assembly in October, at which we will have several Australian bishops, as well as lay people, present.