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Facts, anecdotes, and analysis from the first week of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican.
The Synod on Synodality’s official regulations no longer allow Synod delegates to share their personal interventions with the public.
During the first full day of work Oct. 5, participants met in small groups of about 12 people where they received a homework assignment.
The cardinal was speaking at a conference in Rome on Oct. 3 on the theme “the synodal Babel” to discuss the main points of contention raised by the synod.
Pointing synod delegates to texts by St. Basil on the Holy Spirit, the pope emphasized the importance of listening over speaking.
On its opening day, synod leaders also highlighted the many ways in which the current gathering breaks the mold of past Synods of Bishops.
Pope Francis opened the Synod on Synodality’s three-week assembly on Wednesday with a call to remember that the Church exists to bring Jesus to the world and should face today’s challenges with a gaze fixed on God rather than “political calculations or ideological battles.”
Six cardinals who are participating in this month’s Synod on Synodality — and five who are not — told CNA their ideas of and expectations for the assembly.
Five cardinals have sent a set of questions to Pope Francis to express their concerns and seek clarification on points of doctrine and discipline ahead of this week’s opening of the Synod on Synodality at the Vatican.
Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández predicts that “those who expect big changes” to come out of this month’s Synod of Bishops will be “disappointed.”
The theme of the event in the Paul VI Audience Hall will be “Let us learn from boys and girls.”
Pope Francis told those gathered at an ecumenical prayer vigil days before the opening of the Synod on Synodality that silence is essential for Christians.
Conscious of mounting tensions and open defiance around certain issues, the assembly in Wiesbaden served as a charged prelude to more significant debates.
Delegates to the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops are not to give “room for distractions” during the meeting scheduled to begin on October 4, a Catholic Bishop in Cameroon has told ACI Africa.
The prayer service will take place just days before the launch of the 16th General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Rome over the course of October.
Synodality isn’t “a chapter in an ecclesiology textbook” or a “fad or a slogan to be bandied about in our meetings,” the pope has emphasized.
In his in-flight press conference returning from Mongolia on Monday, Pope Francis outlined his vision for the upcoming synodal assembly in October, which he said should be a prayerful exercise in dialogue free from ideology, not full of “political chatter” like a television talk show.
Pope Francis acknowledged Saturday that the upcoming Synod on Synodality may be “of little interest to the general public,” but underlined that the synod is “truly important” for the Catholic Church.
The Vatican published Friday the full list of participants who will take part in the upcoming Synod on Synodality assembly in October.
Organizers of the Synod on Synodality on Tuesday announced a change of venue for the upcoming synodal assembly of bishops and other delegates being held in October but said that the full list of those participating in the monthlong event is still being prepared.