Pope Francis made the surprise announcement last Sunday at the end of the Angelus, greeting the pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square: the ongoing synodal process in the Church, which was to conclude in October 2023 with the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops meeting in the Vatican, is extended also to a new Assembly in 2024.
As the second phase of this process of listening and discernment begins, the Pontiff considers it necessary to proceed with caution, without haste, so that the numerous fruits that this process is generating "may reach their full maturity." This is, at least, the official motivation, but it also fits perfectly with the correct understanding of this instrument desired almost sixty years ago by St. Paul VI: it is not a parliament, but "a moment of grace, a process guided by the Spirit who makes all things new", as Francis reminded a group of French pilgrims just a few days ago.
Priorities
On that occasion, he reiterated that in this path of spiritual and ecclesial discernment, priority must be given, first of all, to prayer, adoration and the Word of God, avoiding "starting from our will, our ideas or our projects". In short, it is important to give priority above all to listening, because it is in this dynamic that "God shows us the way to follow, making us leave our habits, calling us to take new paths like Abraham".
Seen in these terms, the Synod "calls us to question ourselves on what God wants to say to us in this time, today, and on the direction in which he wants to lead us," Pope Francis further explained to the French-speaking pilgrims.
Universal participation
Commenting on the Pope's decision on the extension of the date to October 2024, the General Secretariat of the Synod spoke of "prolonged discernment not only on the part of the members of the Synodal Assembly, but of the whole Church" as a need that has been maturing in these first months of the beginning of the listening process. 112 of the 114 Episcopal Conferences and Synods of the Eastern Catholic Churches produced a document during the discernment phase in the particular Churches.
We are now entering the Continental Stage, which will culminate with the Continental Synodal Assemblies between January and March 2023, after the different communities have reflected on the Continental Stage Document prepared by the General Secretariat, but based on the socio-cultural specificities of each region.
It will be seen later on how the work of the two General Assemblies of October 2023 and 2024 in the Vatican will be reformulated and how the time in between will be structured. A work that the General Secretariat has only just begun.
