Synodal process

Synodal process

The global synodal process is in full swing. Rector Jan Stuyt attended a few meetings and, to his own surprise, became enthusiastic. Especially because baptism and confirmation of all believers are taken seriously.

With a healthy dose of skepticism, I started the synodal process more than a year ago, the broad consultation in which everyone in the church can participate. I thought it was too big and Rome would never hear what we came up with in the polder. Until I discovered that it is not about WHAT you come up with, but about HOW you talk to each other as believers.

The synodal process started in the fall of 2021 and will culminate in a synod of bishops in Rome in two sessions, fall 2023 and fall 2024. Under the motto: ‘For a synodal Church: community, participation and mission’.

Pope Francis asks that ordinary believers come together to discuss how we as a church can become more synodal: traveling together. This happens by listening to each other and thus discovering which path the Holy Spirit wants to take with the Church. The Pope hopes “for a Church in which everyone has a role.” The consultation within our own circle and per diocese was completed in May 2022.

Then we will also think along

Last winter I experienced inspiring conversations in three places: in a parish, in the Jesuit community in Amsterdam and with theology students. What was immediately noticeable was how much people appreciated that their opinion was asked. “If we can think along, then we will also think along.” What I loved about it: we all live from encounters, from our beautiful faith and from people who see us and accept us as we are. There we meet Christ, and we celebrate that in the sacraments.

There were also three meetings in the Krijtberg, on Sundays in April and May 2022. You can read an impression of our board member Peter van Meijel in this document: Synod Krijtberg

The person of Jesus continues to fascinate us

I saw a lot of involvement everywhere. Yes, we are saddened by the church closures and the fact that we are not reaching young people, but the person of Jesus continues to fascinate us. He is the reason we continue to hope and commit. We see that existing church structures no longer work. Parishes still function in some places, but are more likely to be remnants of something that has done well for centuries than stopping places on the way to the future. In the coming years we will have to come up with new forms of being a church, in which existing boundaries between the churches become irrelevant, but involvement with each other is important. There is no other way.

Cultural change in the Vatican

What is also striking: the Roman secretariat of the synod is open to suggestions. An example is the extension of the period in which answers could be sent. And last month the unexpected announcement that there will be not one, but two final sessions of the Synod. A fellow brother who works in Rome at the Synod secretariat told me: “We are doing it for the first time. We learn every day. It really is a culture change for the old hands in the Vatican. We don’t know yet what the outcome will be, we will also be surprised.”

This is different from thirty years ago, when the bishops had to have all their speeches at the synods approved in advance. “Of course we never learn anything that way,” Pope Francis said, “I like to be surprised by what the Holy Spirit says through my fellow believers.”

The more than a hundred bishops’ conferences worldwide sent their summaries of what was happening at the grassroots to Rome in the spring of 2022. About twenty people from all over the world made a synthesis of this in September. Austin Ivereigh described how that happened in this fascinating article in the magazine America https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2022/10/27/frascati-document-synod-synodality-244031. In February 2023, we will study how we proceed per continent. A meeting is then planned for Europe in Prague.

I hope for a change in the way we interact with people in our Church. In recent months, people have been asked for their opinions, and they have given them. This should lead to less management from above and more listening to what the Spirit says through the people at the grassroots. Almost all of them have had the sacrament of Confirmation, which means that the Holy Spirit speaks to them and through them. If you take that seriously, you can no longer go back to just top-down management.

Father Jan Stuyt SJ

Who wants to read further:

  • At https://www.synod.va/en.html you will find the data from Rome in English, including the “working document” that is the basis for the deliberations per continent in the spring of 2024. This document is a synthesis of the 112 reports from conferences of bishops worldwide.
  • The website of the Diocese of Haarlem Amsterdam keeps track of what is available about the synodal process in Dutch, including the input of the Dutch bishops after the consultations at the grassroots. This is called here “the national synod report: https://www.bisdomhaarlem-amsterdam.nl/?p=news&id=5214 .
  • Expert commentary. Anyone who is on Facebook can follow the page of Father Jos Moons SJ. He has a study and teaching assignment at the theological faculty of the Catholic University of Leuven specifically focused on synodality.