Synodality, “a pastoral imperative” for Catholic Church in Congo Brazzaville: Bishops

They underscore the “urgent need to strengthen unity and to give priority to the synodal process for the relaunch of the evangelizing mission on Congolese soil.”

“Our local Church must become more of an example of synodality for other churches, through our witness of Christian life, our commitment and our capacity to live communion and fraternity following the example of the first Christian community,” CEC members say.

Making reference to the address of  Pope Francis during the 50th anniversary of the Synod of Bishops in October 2015, Catholic Bishops in Congo Brazzaville say, “A synodal Church is a Church of listening, with the awareness that listening is more than hearing.”

“It is a reciprocal listening in which everyone has something to learn,” CEC members say in their October 17 statement following the October 10- 16 51st Plenary Assembly.

They add, “The path of synodality is one that fights divisions and barriers and builds bridges. We are all called to collaborate, to cooperate and to work together.”

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“The notion of synodality implies sincerity, honesty and uprightness, because walking together must be done in trust. We need to fight against the anti-values that corrupt our Church and our society,” CEC members say in their statement titled, “The Church family of God in Congo: synodality, communion, participation and mission”.

The synodal process, they say, “challenges us and invites us to review our way of being and working together: not against each other, each in his own Diocese as he sees fit, or the Bishops on one side and the Priests on the other, or the leaders against the simple members, but all together, with each other, listening to each other with patience and humility, sharing our strengths.”

“The Church today needs pastors trained in synodality, who exercise a new style of ‘leadership’, a leadership of service and not of power, a new way of exercising authority,” members of CEC say.

They go on to highlight some paths that “can help us to make synodality a ‘know-how’ with God and a ‘knowing how to be’ in the Church and in Society: leaving a Church of privileges and castes for a Church of communion, without marginalization and without exclusion.”

The Catholic Church leaders call for “continuous conversion, which requires a change in behavior, because the synodal process implies personal and community conversion, the renunciation of egos in favor of the ‘We’, of communion against working alone.”

CEC members also call for the “practice of the sacraments, which implies rediscovering the importance of baptism and Christian commitment in the active construction of the Church and society.”

They also underline the need “to grow in spirituality, to get rid of any worldly spirit (rivalries, competitions, complexes etc.), in order to truly live as children of God. In the synodal journey, spirituality must be at the forefront of our conversion efforts.”

“The family has a great role to play in this march towards synodality, for it is the domestic Church, the basic cell of society and of the Church,” Catholic Bishops in Congo Brazzaville say.

They note that “synodality requires the adoption of a new lifestyle based on love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

CEC members also call for the “formation of Clerics and the lay faithful, in view of a better collaboration for the construction of more just and fraternal communities and Parishes, free from clericalism and the disempowerment of the lay faithful, which is its corollary.”

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“There is no true synodality without development and financial autonomy,” the Catholic Bishops say, and “encourage all initiatives in the direction of self-financing and self-help.”

Jude Atemanke is a Cameroonian journalist with a passion for Catholic Church communication. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Buea in Cameroon. Currently, Jude serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.