XVI ORDINARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS - Final Document - PART IV

 XVI ORDINARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS 

Final Document 

Part IV - An Abundant Catch

The Conversion of Bonds

 

The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish…. Simon Peter went aboard

and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them; and though

there were so many, the net was not torn. (Jn 21:8,11)

 

109. The nets cast upon the Word of the Risen one yielded a bountiful catch. All the disciples work together, hauling in the net; Peter plays a particular role. In the Gospel, fishing is an action undertaken together: everybody has their own particular task, different but coordinated with the others. This is the synodal Church in action – it is founded on bonds of communion that unite us and with space for all peoples and all cultures. In a time when there is great change occurring in the way we conceive of the places where the Church is rooted and on pilgrimage, we need to cultivate new forms of the exchange of gifts and the network of bonds that unite us. In this, we are sustained by the ministry of the Bishops in communion amongst themselves and with the Bishop of Rome. 

 

Firmly Rooted yet Pilgrims 

 

110. The proclamation of the Gospel awakens faith in the hearts of men and women and leads to the foundation of the Church in a particular place. The Church cannot be understood apart from its roots in a specific territory, in that space and time where a shared experience of encounter with the saving God occurs. This local dimension to our Church preserves the rich diversity of expressions of faith that are grounded in a specific cultural and historical milieu. The communion of local Churches is the expression of the unity of the faithful within the one Church. Thus, synodal conversion calls each person to enlarge the space of their heart, the heart being the first place where all our relationships resonate, grounded in each believer’s personal relationship with Jesus Christ and His Church. This is the starting point and the condition of any  synodal reform of the bonds of our communion and the spaces where we are Church. Pastoral action cannot be limited to tending to relationships between people who already feel attuned to one another but rather encourage the encounter between all men and women. 

 

111. The experience of rootedness means grappling with profound socio-cultural changes that are transforming the understanding of place. ‘Place’ can no longer be conceived in purely geographical and spatial terms but evokes, in our time, one’s belonging to a network of relationships and to a culture whose territorial roots are more dynamic and flexible than ever before. Urbanisation is one of the main factors driving this change. Today, for the first time in human history, most of the global population lives in cities. Large cities are often urban masses without a history and identity in which people live an isolated existence. Traditional territorial bonds are being redefined, blurring the borders of dioceses and parishes. Living in  such contexts, the Church is called to rebuild community life, to put a face to faceless entities and to strengthen relationships in this milieu. To this end, we must not only continue to value still-useful structures; we also need “missionary creativity” to explore new forms of pastoral action and identify concrete processes of care. It remains the case that rural contexts, some of which constitute genuine existential peripheries, must not be neglected and require specific pastoral attention, as do places of marginalisation and exclusion.

 

112. For a variety of reasons, our times are marked by a growth in population mobility. Refugees and migrants often form dynamic communities, including of religious practice, rendering multicultural the places in which they settle. Some maintain strong bonds with their country of origin, especially with the help of digital media, and thus can find it difficult to form connections in their new country; others find themselves living without roots. The inhabitants of destination countries, too, find the welcoming of newcomers challenging. All experience the impact resulting from encountering diverse geographical, cultural and linguistic origins and are called to build intercultural communities. The impact of the phenomenon of migration on the life of the Church should not be overlooked. In this sense, the situation of some Eastern Catholic Churches is emblematic of this reality, with a growing number of faithful living in the diaspora. Maintaining links between those dispersed and their own Church of origin whilst creating new ones that respect diverse spiritual and cultural roots requires that new approaches be taken. 

 

113. The spread of digital culture, particularly evident among young people, is profoundly changing their experience of space and time; it influences their daily activities, communication and interpersonal relationships, including faith. The opportunities that the internet provides are reshaping relationships, bonds and boundaries. Nowadays, we often experience loneliness and marginalisation, even though we are more connected than ever. Moreover, those with their own economic and political interests can exploit social media to spread ideologies and generate aggressive and manipulative forms of polarisation. We are not well prepared for this and ought to dedicate resources to ensure that the digital environment becomes a prophetic space for mission and proclamation. Local Churches should encourage, sustain and accompany those who are engaged in mission in the digital environment. Christian digital communities and groups, particularly young people, are also called to reflect on how they create bonds of belonging, promoting encounter and dialogue. They need to offer formation among their peers, developing a synodal way of being Church. The internet, constituted as a web of connections, offers new opportunities to better live the synodal dimension of the Church.

 

114. These social and cultural developments challenge the Church to reconsider the meaning of ‘local’ in its life and to review its organisational structures so that they can better serve its mission. It is essential to understand ‘place’ as the real and actual setting in which we come to experience our humanity, without denying that there is a geographical and cultural dimension to this as well. Here, where the web of relationships is established, the Church is called to express its sacramentality (cf. LG 1) and to carry out its mission.

 

115. The relation between place and space leads us also to reflect on the Church as “home”. When it is not thought of as a closed space, inaccessible, to be defended at all costs, the image of home evokes the possibility of welcome, hospitality, and inclusion. Creation itself is our common home, where members of the one human family live with all other creatures. Our commitment, supported by the Spirit, is to ensure that the Church is perceived as a welcoming home, a sacrament of encounter and salvation, a school of communion for all the sons and daughters of God. The Church is also the People of God walking with Christ, in it everyone is called to be a pilgrim of hope. The traditional practice of pilgrimage is a sign of this. Popular piety is one of the places of a missionary synodal Church.

 

116. The local Church, understood as a diocese or eparchy, is the fundamental sphere in which the communion in Christ of the Baptised is most fully manifested. As local Church, the community  is gathered in the celebration of the Eucharist presided over by its Bishop. Each local Church has its own internal organisation, whilst also maintaining relationships with other local Churches.

 

117. The parish is one of the main organising units in the local Church present throughout our history. The parish community that gathers in the celebration of the Eucharist is a privileged place of relationships, welcome, discernment and mission. Changes in how we experience and live our relationship with locality require us to reconsider how parishes are configured. What characterises the parish is that it is a community that is not self-selecting. People gather there from different generations, professions, geographical origins and social classes and status. Responding to the new needs of mission requires opening up to new forms of pastoral action that take into account the mobility of people and the space in which their life unfolds. By placing a special emphasis on Christian initiation and offering accompaniment and formation, the parish community will be able to support people in the different stages of life in fulfilling their mission in the world. In this way, it will become more evident that the parish is not centred on itself but oriented towards mission. The parish is then called to sustain the commitment of so many people who in so many ways live and bear witness to their faith in through their profession, in social, cultural and political activities. In many regions of the world, small Christian communities or basic ecclesial communities are the terrain where meaningful relationships of closeness and reciprocity can flourish, offering the opportunity to experience synodality concretely.

 

118. We recognise that institutes of consecrated life, societies of apostolic life, as well as associations, movements and new communities, have the ability to take root locally and, at the same time, connect different places and milieus, often at a national or international level. Their action, together with that of many individuals and informal groups, often brings the Gospel to highly diverse contexts:  to  hospitals, prisons, homes for the elderly, reception centres for migrants, minors, those marginalised and victims of violence; to centres of education and training, schools and universities where young people and families meet; to the arenas of culture and politics and of integral human development, where new forms of living together are imagined and constructed. We look with gratitude also to monasteries, which are places of gathering and discernment and speak of a “beyond” that concerns the whole Church and directs its path. It is the particular responsibility of the bishop or eparch to animate these diverse bodies and to nurture the bonds of unity. Institutes and associations are called to act in synergy with the local Church, participating in the dynamism of synodality.

 

119. Placing greater value on the ‘intermediate’ spaces between the local Church and the universal Church – such as ecclesiastical provinces and national and continental groupings of Churches  –  can foster a more meaningful presence of the Church in the world of today. Increased mobility and interconnectedness make the boundaries between Churches fluid, requiring ministry across a “vast socio-cultural territory.” Such ministry needs to ensure that the Christian life “be adapted to the character and disposition of each culture” while avoiding all “false particularism” (AG 22).

 

The Exchange of Gifts

 

120. Our walking together as disciples of Jesus in these different places, with our diverse charisms and ministries, while at the same time engaging in the exchange of gifts among the Churches, is an effective sign of the love and mercy of God in Christ breathed out in the Spirit who accompanies, sustains and directs humanity’s journey towards the Reign of God. This exchange of gifts involves every aspect of Church life. The Church fulfils its mission by taking up and encouraging “the riches, resources and customs of peoples insofar as they are good; and in taking them up it purifies, strengthens and raises them up” (LG 13). It does so because it is both established in Christ as the People of God from all the peoples of the earth and is structured dynamically in a communion of local Churches, of their groupings, and of the Churches sui iuris within the one Catholic Church. The exhortation of the apostle Peter: “Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received” (1Pet 4:10) can undoubtedly be applied to each local Church. The relationship between the Latin and the Eastern Catholic Churches is a paradigmatic and inspiring example of such an exchange of gifts. This relationship needs to be revivified and reconsidered with particular care due to changed and pressing historical circumstances. The exchange of gifts and search for the common good within large transnational and intercultural geographical areas such as the Amazon, the Congo River basin, and the Mediterranean Sea is emerging as an example of newness and hope. This exchange includes a commitment to social issues of great global relevance.

 

121. The Church, both at the local level and by virtue of its Catholic unity, aspires to be a network of relationships which prophetically propagates and promotes a culture of encounter, social justice, inclusion of the marginalised, communion among peoples and care for the earth, our  common home. The concrete realisation of this requires each Church to share its own resources in a spirit of solidarity, without paternalism or subordination, with respect for diversity and promoting healthy reciprocity. This includes, where necessary, a commitment to healing the wounds of memory and to walking the path of reconciliation. The exchange of gifts and the sharing of resources among local Churches belonging to different regions fosters the unity of the Church, creating bonds between the Christian communities involved. There is a need to focus on the conditions necessary to ensured that priests who come to the aid of churches needing clergy are not providing merely a functional solution but represent a resource for the growth both of the Church that sends them and the Church that receives them. Similarly, it is necessary to ensure that economic aid does not degenerate into the mere provision of welfare, but also promotes authentic evangelical solidarity and is managed transparently and reliably.

 

122. The exchange of gifts is of crucial significance in the journey towards full and visible unity among all Churches and Christian communions. Moreover, it represents an effective sign of the unity in the faith and love of Christ that promotes both the credibility and the impact of the Christian mission (cf.  Jn 17:21). Saint John Paul II applied the following expression to ecumenical dialogue: “Dialogue is not simply an exchange of ideas. In some way it is always an ‘exchange of gifts’”. (UUS 28). Previous and ongoing efforts to incarnate the one Gospel by various Christian traditions within a diversity of cultural contexts, historical circumstances and social challenges  –  attending to the Word of God and the voice of the Holy Spirit  –  have generated abundant fruit in holiness, charity, spirituality, theology, social and cultural solidarity. The time has come to treasure these precious riches: with generosity, sincerity, without prejudice, with gratitude to the Lord, and with mutual openness, gifting them to one another without assuming they are our exclusive property. The example of the saints and witnesses to the faith from other Christian Churches and Communions is also a gift that we can receive, including by inserting their memorial - especially that of the martyrs - into our liturgical calendar. 

 

123. Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed Al-Tayyeb, declared a commitment to adopt “a culture of dialogue as the path; mutual cooperation as the code of conduct; reciprocal understanding as the method and standard” in the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together, signed in Abu Dhabi on 4 February 2019. This is not an idle aspiration or something optional along the journey of the People of God in today’s world. A synodal Church commits itself to walk this path alongside the believers of other religions and people of other beliefs wherever it lives. It freely shares the joy of the Gospel and gratefully receives their respective gifts. Through this collaboration, we aim to build together, as sisters and brothers all, in a spirit of “mutual activity and aid” (cf. GS 40), justice, solidarity, peace and interreligious dialogue. In some regions, people meet in small neighbourhood communities irrespective of their religious belonging. These communities offer a favourable environment for a threefold dialogue: of life, of action and of prayer.

 

The Bonds of Unity: Episcopal Conferences and Ecclesial Assemblies

 

124. The guiding principle of the relationship among Churches  is the perspective of communion through the sharing of gifts. This combines attention to the bonds that form the unity of the whole Church with the recognition and appreciation of the particularity of the context of each local Church, along with its history and tradition. A synodal style allows local Churches to move at different paces. Differences in pace can be valued as an expression of legitimate diversity and as an opportunity for sharing gifts and mutual enrichment. This common horizon requires discerning, identifying and promoting concrete practices which allow us to be a synodal Church on mission. 

 

125. Episcopal Conferences express and implement the collegiality of the Bishops in order to foster communion between Churches and respond more effectively to the needs of pastoral life. They are a fundamental tool for creating bonds, sharing experiences and  best practices among the Churches, and for adapting Christian life and the expression of faith to different cultures. With the involvement of the  whole  People of God,  they also play an important role in the development of synodality. Based on the outcomes of the synodal process, we propose the following:

 

a)   to gather the fruits of deliberations on the theological and juridical statute of Episcopal Conferences.

 

b)   to specify precisely the domain of the doctrinal and disciplinary competence of Episcopal Conferences. Without compromising the authority of the Bishop within the Church entrusted to him or putting at risk either the unity or the catholicity of the Church,  the collegial exercise of such competence can further the authentic teaching of the one faith in an appropriate and enculturated way within different contexts by  identifying fitting liturgical, catechetical, disciplinary, pastoral theology and spiritual expression (cf. AG 22).

 

 c)   a process of  evaluation  of the experience of the concrete functioning of Episcopal Conferences, of the relations among the Bishops and with the Holy See so as to identify the particular reforms needed. The visits ad limina Apostolorum can provide appropriate occasions for this;

 

d)   ensuring that all dioceses are part of an ecclesiastical province and  of  an Episcopal Conference;

 

e)   specifying that decisions made by an Episcopal Conference impose an ecclesial obligation on each Bishop who participated in the decision in relation to his own diocese;

 

126. In the synodal process, the seven continental ecclesial assemblies that took place at the beginning of 2023 are both a relevant innovation and a legacy that we must treasure. They are  an effective way of implementing conciliar teaching on the value of “each great socio-cultural region” in pursuit of “a more profound adaptation in the entire area of Christian life” (AG 22). In order to enable them to more fully contribute to the development of a synodal Church, it will be necessary to clarify the theological and canonical status of ecclesial assemblies, as well as that of the continental groupings of Episcopal Conferences. In particular, it is the responsibility of the Presidents of these groupings to encourage and sustain the continued development of this process.

 

127. In Ecclesial Assemblies (regional, national, continental) members who express and represent the diversity of the People of God (including Bishops) take part in the discernment that will enable Bishops, collegially, to reach decisions which it is proper for them to make by reason of their ministry. This experience demonstrates how synodality enables concretely the involvement of all (the holy People of God) and the ministry of some (the College of Bishops) in the decision-making process concerning the mission of the Church. We propose that discernment may include, in a manner appropriate to the diversity of contexts, spaces for listening and dialogue with other Christians and  representatives of other religions, public institutions, civil society organisations and society at large. 

 

128. In specific social and political circumstances, certain Episcopal Conferences face difficulties in participating in continental assemblies or  supranational ecclesial bodies. The Holy See has the responsibility to assist them by promoting dialogue and mutual trust with states, so that they may have the opportunity to engage with other Episcopal Conferences so that there may be the sharing of gifts.

 

129. To realise a “sound  ‘decentralisation’” (EG 16) and an effective inculturation of faith, it is necessary not only to recognise the role of Episcopal Conferences, but also to rediscovery  the institution of particular councils, both provincial and plenary. The periodic celebration of these councils was an obligation for much of the Church’s history and is currently provided for in the canon law of the Latin Church (cf. CIC can. 439-446). They should be convened periodically. The procedure for the recognition of the conclusions of particular councils by the Holy See (recognitio) should be reformed to encourage their timely publication by specifying precise deadlines or, in cases of purely pastoral or disciplinary matters (not directly concerning issues of faith, morals, or sacramental discipline), by introducing a legal presumption equivalent to tacit consent.

 

The Service of the Bishop of Rome 

 

130. The synodal process has also revisited the question of the ways in which the Bishop of Rome exercises his ministry. Synodality combines the communitarian (all), collegial (some) and personal (one) aspects of local Churches and of the whole Church. In light of this, the Petrine ministry plays a fundamental part in the synodal dynamic, as does the communitarian aspect that includes the whole People of God and the collegial dimension of the episcopal ministry (cf. ITC 64).

 

131. We can, therefore, understand  the extent of the Council’s affirmation that “within the ecclesiastical communion, there are lawfully particular churches which enjoy their own proper traditions, while the primacy of the see of Peter remains intact, which presides over the universal communion of charity and safeguards legitimate differences while taking care that what is particular not only does not harm to unity but rather is conducive to it” (LG 13). The Bishop of Rome, who is the foundation of the Church’s unity (cf. LG 23), is the guarantor of synodality: he is the one who convokes the Church in Synod and presides over it, confirming its results. As the Successor of Peter, he has a unique role in safeguarding the deposit of faith and of morals, ensuring that synodal processes are geared towards unity and witness. Together with the Bishop of Rome, the College of Bishops has an irreplaceable role in shepherding the whole Church (cf. LG 22-23) and in promoting synodality in all the local Churches.

 

132. As guarantor of unity in diversity, the Bishop of Rome ensures that the identity of the Eastern Catholic Churches is safeguarded and that their centuries-old theological, canonical, liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions are respected. These Churches are equipped with their own deliberative synodal structures: Synod of Bishops of the Patriarchal Church, Synod of the Major Archepiscopal Church (CCEO c. 102. ss., 152), Provincial Council (CCEO can. 137), Council of Hierarchs (CCEO cc. 155, § 1, 164 ss.), and, lastly, Assemblies of Hierarchs of the various Churches sui iuris (CCEO can. 322) As Churches sui iuris that are in full communion with the Bishop of Rome, they hold fast to their Eastern identity and their autonomy. In the framework of synodality, it is appropriate to revisit history together in order to heal the wounds of the past and to deepen how we live communion. This means giving consideration to adjusting relationships among Eastern Catholic Churches and the Roman Curia. Relationships among the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic Churches must be characterised by the exchange of gifts, collaboration and mutual enrichment. 

 

133. In order to further these relations, the Synodal Assembly proposes to establish a Council of Patriarchs, Major Archbishops and Metropolitans of the Eastern Catholic Churches presided over by the Pope, which would be an expression of synodality and an instrument for promoting communion. The Council would also serve as a means of sharing liturgical, theological, canonical and spiritual patrimony. The migration of many of the Eastern faithful into regions of the Latin Rite risks compromising their identity. Instruments and norms need to be evolved to strengthen as much as possible collaboration between the Latin Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches to address this situation. The Synodal Assembly recommends sincere dialogue and fraternal collaboration between Latin and Eastern Bishops, to ensure better pastoral care for the Eastern Faithful who lack priests of their own rite and to guarantee, with the appropriate autonomy, the involvement of Eastern Bishops in Episcopal Conferences. Finally, the Assembly proposes that the Holy Father convene a Special Synod to promote the consolidation and re-flourishing of the Eastern Catholic Churches.

 

134. A synodal reflection on the exercise of the Petrine ministry must be undertaken from the perspective of the “sound ‘decentralisation’” (EG 16) wanted by Pope Francis and many Episcopal Conferences. According to the Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium, this decentralisation means “to leave to the competence of Bishops the authority to resolve, in the exercise of ‘their proper task as teachers’ and pastors, those issues with which they are familiar and that do not affect the Church’s unity of doctrine, discipline and communion, always acting with that spirit of co-responsibility which is the fruit and expression of the specific mysterium communionis  that is the Church” (PE II, 2). To keep progressing in this direction, one could initiate a theological and canonical study whose task would be to identify those matters that should be addressed to the Pope (reservatio papalis) and those that could be addressed to the Bishops in their Churches or groupings of Churches. This should be done in line with the recent Motu Proprio Competentias quasdam decernere  (February 15, 2022). The document assigns “certain areas of competence with regard to the provisions of the Codes intended to safeguard unity of discipline in the universal Church, and executive power in the local Churches and ecclesial institutions” on the basis of “the dynamic of ecclesiastical communion” (Preamble). Even canonical norms should be developed in a synodal style by those who have the relevant responsibility and authority and should be allowed to ripen as the fruit of ecclesial discernment. 

 

135. The Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium has configured the service of the Roman Curia in a synodal and missionary sense. It insists that it “is not set between the Pope and the Bishops, but is at the service of both, according to the modalities proper to the nature of each” (PE I,  8). Its implementation ought to promote greater collaboration among the dicasteries and encourage their listening to local Churches. Before publishing important normative documents, the dicasteries are exhorted  to initiate a consultation with Episcopal Conferences and with the corresponding structures of the Eastern  Catholic  Churches.  In accordance with the rationale of transparency and accountability outlined above, forms of evaluating the work of the Curia might possibly be envisaged. Such an evaluation, in a synodal and missionary perspective, could also be extended to the Pontifical Representatives. The visits ad limina Apostolorum are the apex of the relation between the Bishops of local Churches and the Bishop of Rome and his closest collaborators in the Roman Curia. Many Bishops desire that the way these visits are conducted will be reviewed to make them more and more an opportunity for open exchange and mutual listening. Considering their diverse cultures and backgrounds, it is important, for the good of the Church, that members of the College of Cardinals become better acquainted with one another and that the bonds of communion among them be fostered. Synodality should inspire their collaboration with the  Petrine Ministry and their collegial discernment in ordinary and extraordinary consistories.

 

136. The Synod of Bishops emerges as one of the most evident places where synodality and collegiality are to be practised.  The Apostolic Constitution  Episcopalis communio  has transformed this from an event to an ecclesial process. The Synod was established by Saint Paul VI as an assembly of Bishops convoked to support the Roman Pontiff in his concern for the whole Church. Today, transformed into a phased process, it fosters  the essential relationship between the People of God, the College of Bishops and the Pope. The whole holy People of God, the Bishops to whom portions of the People of God are entrusted, and the Bishop of Rome participate fully in the synodal process, each according to their proper function. This participation is made manifest in the varied composition of the Synodal Assembly gathered around the Pope, which reflects the catholicity of the Church. In particular, as Pope Francis explained, the composition of this XVI Ordinary General Assembly is “more than a contingent fact. It expresses a way of exercising the episcopal ministry that is consistent with the living Tradition of the Churches and with the teaching of Vatican II” (Intervention at the First General Congregation of the Second Session of the XVI General Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, October 2, 2024). The Synod of Bishops, preserving its episcopal nature, has seen and will be able to see in the future in the participation of other members of the People of God “the shape that episcopal authority is called to take in a Church that is aware of being constitutively relational and, because of this, synodal” (ibid.) for mission. In deepening the identity of the Synod of Bishops, what is essential is that the combination of the involvement of all (the holy People of God), the ministry of some (the College of Bishops) and the presidency of one (the successor of Peter) appears and is concretely realised throughout the synodal process and in the Assemblies. 

 

137. One of the most significant fruits of the Synod 2021-2024 has been the intensity of ecumenical zeal. The need to find “a form of exercise of the Primacy that [...] opens itself up to a new situation” (UUS 95) is a fundamental challenge both for a missionary synodal Church and for Christian unity. The Synod welcomes the recent publication of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity  The  Bishop of Rome: Primacy and Synodality in Ecumenical Dialogues and in the Responses to the Encyclical Ut Unum Sint, which opens avenues for further study. The document shows that the promotion of Christian unity is an essential aspect of the ministry of the Bishop of Rome and that the ecumenical journey has fostered a deeper understanding of it. The concrete proposals it contains regarding a rereading or an official commentary on the dogmatic definitions of the First Vatican Council on primacy, a clearer distinction between the different responsibilities of the Pope, the promotion of synodality within the Church and in its relationship with the world and the search for a model of unity based on an ecclesiology of communion offer promising prospects for the ecumenical journey. The Synodal Assembly hopes that this document will serve as a basis for further reflection with other Christians, “together, of course”, on the exercise of the Ministry of Unity of the Bishop of Rome as a “service of love recognised by all concerned” (UUS 95).

 

138. The richness of the participation of Fraternal Delegates from other Churches and Christian Communions at the synodal Assembly invites us to pay more attention to the synodal practices of our ecumenical partners, both in the East and in the West. Ecumenical dialogue is fundamental to developing an understanding of synodality and the unity of the Church. It urges us to develop ecumenical synodal practices, including forms of consultation and discernment on questions of shared and  urgent interest, as the celebration of an ecumenical Synod on evangelisation could be. It also invites us to mutual accountability for who we are, what we do, and what we teach. What makes this possible is our unity under the one Baptism that offers us the dynamism of communion, participation and mission and which gives life to our identity as the People of God. 

 

139. In 2025, the Year of Jubilee, we will also celebrate the anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, the First Ecumenical Council at which the symbol of the faith that unites all Christians was formulated. The preparation and joint commemoration of the 1700th anniversary of thisevent should be an opportunity to deepen and confess together our faith in Christ and to put into practice forms of synodality among Christians of all traditions. It will also be an opportunity to launch bold initiatives for a common date for Easter so that we can celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord on the same day, as will happen, providentially,  in 2025. This will give greater missionary strength to the proclamation of Him, who is the life and salvation of the whole world.

 

(to be continued)