SYNOD ON SYNODALITY – FINAL DOCUMENT

FOR A SYNODAL CHURCH:
COMMUNION, PARTICIPATION AND MISSION

The final document following the second Synod Assembly in Rome, October 2024 has now ben published in English. The work is the culmination of four years of consultation, starting in local parishes throughout over three thousand dioceses around the world in 2021.
“The Final Document of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops gathers the fruits of a journey marked by listening to the People of God and by the discernment of Pastors. The whole Church, allowing itself to be enlightened by the Holy Spirit, was called to review its own experience and identify the steps to be taken to live communion, realise participation and promote the mission that Jesus Christ entrusted to the Church…”
To read more, download the Final Document here.

UNIVERSAL PHASE

TOWARDS OCTOBER 2024

INSTRUMENTUM LABORIS:
HOW TO BE A MISSIONARY SYNODAL CHURCH

The Instrumentum Laboris, or working document for the Second Session of the 16th Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops was published on Tuesday 9th July 2024. This document is the fruit of the work that dioceses around the world did earlier this year, on How to be a Synodal Church in Mission.

“All these reports show a living Church and a movement. What stands out most when reading the reports that have reached the General Secretariat, is that the synod, the synodal process, has been and still is a time of grace that is already bearing numerous fruits in the life of the Church.” (Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich SJ)

AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND SYNOD CONSULTATION

The final diocesan phase of the Synod on Synodality has now been completed, and the national consultation document has been sent to Rome. Titled Towards October 2024, it includes Catholic voices from around Aotearoa New Zealand. Read more …

Wellington Archdiocesan Synthesis

On Saturday 28^th May 2022, over one hundred representatives of the Archdiocese gathered at Our Lady of Kapiti Church in Paraparaumu for our pre-synodal gathering – an important part of the Diocesan phase of the global Synod and a key moment of discernment for the Archdiocese. Together we took time to pray, listen, reflect, and discern the themes that have emerged from the many submissions received.  The outcomes of the day were then integrated into the final Diocesan Synthesis which has now been submitted to the New Zealand Catholic Bishops’ Conference. This in turn will become part of the National Synod Synthesis.

Many thanks to everyone who participated in this process – we received a high number of responses from groups and individuals and are thankful to everyone who took the time to participate and contribute.   We received submissions from parishes, community groups, social groups, workplaces, schools and more.

Download the Diocesan Synthesis here.

National Synthesis

Parishes and dioceses around the country took part in the local phase of Pope Francis’s synodal path to the Church’s future, which will culminate in an Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Rome in October next year. The NZ bishops have just published the National Synod synthesis document that emerged from the diocesan phase of the process and the national hui held in Wellington in June. The national document has been sent to Rome as one of the many such documents from around the Catholic world as part of the Synod process.

The document, a summary of its contents, and an outline of the Synod process are online here: https://www.catholic.org.nz/news/media-releases/nz-synod-synthesis/

Working Document for the Continental Stage

Addresses of the Press Conference (27. 10.2022)

At 12:15 p.m. today, the Press Conference for the presentation of the Document for the Continental Stage of the Synod: “For a synodal Church: communion, participation and mission”, took place – live streaming from the Holy See Press Office.

The Document for the Continental Stage is the fruit of the Syntheses resulting from the consultation of the People of God in the first phase of the synodal process and will be the focus of the time of listening, dialogue, and discernment of the Continental Synodal Assemblies (January-March 2023).

Speakers included:

His Eminence Card. Mario Grech, Secretary General of the General Secretariat of the Synod – IT

His Eminence Card. Jean-Claude Hollerich, S.I., Archbishop of Luxembourg; General Rapporteur of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (remotely connected) – EN

Prof. Anna Rowlands, Associate Professor of Catholic Social Thought and Practice, University of Durham – EN

Father Giacomo Costa, S.I., Consultor of the General Secretariat of the Synod – IT

Rev. Mgr. Piero Coda, Secretary General of the International Theological Commission – IT

Press Kit (in Italian)

Download the Document for the Continental Stage in ENG – ESP – FRA – ITA – POR

NZ Catholic response to Synod’s Continental Stage document published

The New Zealand Catholic Church response to the “Document for the Continental Stage” of Pope Francis’s Synod on Synodality has been published.

The Catholic world is now in the Continental Stage of the Synod process, in which each “continent” will produce a response to the continental document that was approved by the Vatican’s synod office last October. The continental document, titled Enlarge the Space of Your Tent, was produced in response to the national syntheses created last July from the initial diocesan and national discernment parts of the Synod process.

In Aotearoa NZ, diocesan and national groups were invited last October to take part in a discernment process on Enlarge the Space of Your Tent, which took place between late October and early December. Those responses were synthesised into the New Zealand response, published today by the NZ Catholic Bishops Conference.

A statement about this document and an update of the Synod process is online here: https://www.catholic.org.nz/news/media-releases/synodresponse/

Synod update: Instrumentum laboris document published

The General Secretariat of the Synod has published the Instrumentum laboris – the document that will guide the work of the two-part General Assembly that will meet in Rome in October 2023 and October 2024. The document will be the basis for the work of the participants in the General Assembly of the Synod on Synodality, which begins in the Vatican in October 2023 and concludes with a second Assembly one year later.

Download a copy of Instrumentum laboris here in PDF format: https://www.catholic.org.nz/assets/ENG_INSTRUMENTUM-LABORIS.pdf

Read more about Instrumentum laboris and the Synod process here: https://www.catholic.org.nz/news/media-releases/synod-update/

Read a Vatican News article about Instrumentum laboris here: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2023-06/instrumentum-laboris-calls-welcoming-yet-diverse-church.html

Synthesis Report of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops

In the late afternoon of Saturday 28 October 2023, the members of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops adopted the following Synthesis Report. Available HERE.