Friday, Feb. 04, 2022
SALT LAKE CITY — The process for preparing for the worldwide Synod of Bishops, to be held October 2023, has begun in the Diocese of Salt Lake City. In parishes across Utah, at the request of Bishop Oscar A. Solis, listening sessions are being organized. These will be held throughout Lent from March 2 through April 30.
According to the Vatican preparatory document on the synod, “it is intended to inspire people to dream about the Church we are called to be, to make people’s hopes flourish, to stimulate trust, to bind up wounds, to weave new and deeper relationships, to learn from one another, to build bridges, to enlighten minds, warm hearts, and restore strength to our hands for our common mission.”
All Catholics are urged to participate in the listening sessions; parishes also are asked to invite persons who have fallen away from the faith, those of other faith traditions and those of no faith.
Catholics taking part in the process should strive to “become experts in the art of encounter, not so much by organizing events or theorizing about problems, as in taking time to encounter the Lord and one another,” Pope Francis said in his homily at an Oct. 10 Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica. “Time to devote to prayer and adoration — this prayer that we neglect so much: to adore, to make room for adoration —- listening to what the Spirit wants to say to the Church. Time to look others in the eye and listen to what they have to say, to build rapport, to be sensitive to the questions of our sisters and brothers, to let ourselves be enriched by the variety of charisms, vocations and ministries.”
Each parish is asked to hold multiple listening sessions. Participants in each session will be divided into groups of six to 10 people so that each person’s voice may be more clearly heard, said Father John Evans, pastor of St. Thomas More Parish in Cottonwood Heights, who is coordinating these efforts for the Diocese of Salt Lake City.
From these listening sessions, facilitators will gather input on 10 suggested topics which, it is hoped, will provide broad input from both Catholics and non-Catholics on how they see the Church and envision its future. Additional topics may also be addressed at each parish.
“We look forward to journeying together faithfully in Christ as we begin the work of the listening sessions,” Fr. Evans said. “This is an exciting time in our diocese, in our lives as Catholics, and even non-Catholics, to be able to give our input to the bishops. As they ask us to listen to one another, they themselves are listening to our response and very much want to know the hearts and the minds, the hopes and the dreams, the aspirations of the people of God that we all might journey faithfully together with God.”
The English packets for the listening sessions are almost complete; Spanish translations are under development. The diocese will celebrate the culmination of this process around the feast of Corpus Christi, June 16 -19. Details of the celebration have not yet been determined.
Each diocese across the world will submit a report, which will be complied into a final document to be presented to the bishops in the XVI Ordinary General Assembly.
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