Safe Harbor AND Fiery Communion

The US Synthesis for the Interim Stage of the Synod on Synodality
 
The undated national synthesis was released around the target date – May 15, 2024 – for submission to the Synod Secretariat.
 
The purpose of this article is to inform missionaries and mission leaders of the value of the national synthesis in light of USCMA’s response to the 2023 Synthesis Report.
 
The overall value of the short synthesis is a window into how the US Church has embraced the Synod on Synodality. The document is written in an accessible manner and starts with a letter from by Bishop Daniel Flores of the Diocese of Brownsville and Chair of the USCCB Committee on Doctrine, followed by a nine-page report and a nine-page appendix. It is important for mission leaders appreciate the mood – by the bishops as well as the faithful – for a Synodal Church in Mission. This support appears to be thin. Only seventy-six percent (76%) of the U.S. dioceses submitted a report to the U.S. Synod Team.
 
There are three noteworthy sections. First, at the end of the report, there are a few pages on the bishop’s listening session. It is a rare glimpse into the heart of these pastors. The bishops must manage various “ecclesiological stances” among their priests. “Sometimes a bishop feels he must as ‘as the episcopal referee’ among the priests.” The bishops go on to cite “polarization within our culture is the greatest threat.” Sometimes this polarization is political and other times it is theological. The bishops found that their fraternity within their province, and increasingly at their USCCB meetings, is fostering mutual understanding.
 
The document uses two images to describe the hopes that emerged through these listening sessions – the safe harbor of certainty and openness and the prophetic mystery at the heart of our fiery communion. It noted the importance of evangelization, the desire for active participation in the Church’s mission, the existential obedience required for “rooting ourselves in the person of Christ,” and the need to embrace our reality.
 
Those realities include challenges of effective communication. The Church is too often reactive rather than communicating from “a proactive position.” There is the celebration of the Latin Mass which has emerged as the focal point on “broader debates about tradition, modernity, and the best ways to nurture faith.” Catholic Social Teaching is also a difficult reality within the Church. Many are considered that the polarization and conflict within our society has led to “a denial of the Church’s social magisterium.” A third concern was the tension between being a welcoming church and the need to articulate Church teaching. How can the Church be adaptable? How do we deal with institutional structures that are so complacent they have become rigid. The sex abuse scandal has “left wounds in our history that continue to inflict pain today.”
 
Finally, there is a clear subtheme about the importance of formation. Indeed, the listening sessions themselves are seen as formative.
 
Mission leaders, and their communities, are encouraged to read and study this report. It has immediate implications on how missionary communities animate mission. How do we promote the global mission of the Church in a polarized culture in a Church that needs to rebuild “trust where it is frayed.” This new cultural landscape – both in our culture and within our church – is best understood collectively. We need to network with each other for mutual support, sharing learning, and common action. Finally, this reality will have a significant impact on how missionaries, and mission leaders, continue their personal formation, the formation of their community, and how they attempt to form the Church, so it embraces the global reality of God’s mission.
 
At this point, it may be good to recall the major events before us. According to Inside the Vatican, the Instrumentum Laboris for the Fall 2024 Assembly should be available around July 10. The Eucharistic Congress will be from July 17-21, 2024. After the Congress, the US Church will continue the Eucharistic Revival. The third year of the revival will focus on the church going out on mission to renew the world, which leads to the theme of our upcoming conference.
 
The Mission of the Eucharist: Gather. Unite. Send. will be held in the Archdiocese of Saint Louis October 29-31, 2024. The Synod of Synodality will end in late October and there will be another Synthesis Report issued by the Assembly. This report will go to the Holy Father who will write, it is presumed, an Encyclical on Synodality. The US elections will take place November 5, 2024. The Jubilee of 2025, “Hope Does Not Disappoint,” will begin December 24, 2024, and conclude on December 14, 2025.
 
Through all of this, mission leaders and missionary communities must embrace the moment and be faithful to our vision of a missionary Church for the salvation of the world.
 
Don McCrabb, D.Min.
USCMA Executive Director