What a Great Time to Be a Roman Catholic!

Father John O’Malley wrote in What Happened at Vatican II, there were about 2,400 council fathers who participated in the Second Vatican Council. He compared this to the roughly 750 who participated at Vatican I, held 100 years before. Yet, according to O'Malley, the Council of Trent, which has influenced so much of Roman Catholicism over the last four hundred years, was the least well-attended of all the councils, opening with just twenty-nine bishops present, most of them from Italy. 

Now fast-forward to 2023 and realize what a great time it is to be a Catholic. In the spring of 2021, Pope Francis announced the largest event, in terms of possible participation, in church history. The Synod on Synodality gives the opportunity for engagement to 100% of our worldwide bishops, priests, and deacons. More than that, the church has offered the same engagement for input from each of us, the 1.2 billion Catholics around the globe. And not only will we have laymen who will vote at the sessions held in October of 2023 and 2024, but laywomen will also be part of the voting delegations! You read that right – women will be among the voters of the different issues discussed. 

Before I proceed, don’t allow the idea of “voting” bother you. The voting concerning the issues in the sixty-page working document is not some form of a democratic referendum. No! The votes cast will allow worldwide Catholics to know that their voices were heard in their local listening sessions. The votes will be a loud and clear “We see you; we recognize you; we hear you; and we love you.” 

Furthermore, the working document is not a list of changes or doctrines to be voted on. It is not a teaching of Catholic theology. Instead, this Instrumentum Laboris (this is its fancy, Latin, official title), is a series of questions about the topics you and other Catholics around the world voiced to the Church, now to be prayed with and discussed as they relate to the vision of the Synod – that vision being Communion, Participation, and Mission in the Church. This prayerful, discerning, and respectful listening format has been the scheme and pattern of the synod preparation since its inception, and it will continue in the October gatherings of 2023 and 2024.  

This process is a perfect example of synodality which makes a space for everyone to be seen, heard, and loved. In other words, if you are still looking for a definition of a synod, watch this process and you will see synodality practiced in real life. You will see how it does not use a binary understanding where we focus on truth or mercy, one or the other. Instead, we see a direct engagement with the relationship between truth and mercy. This is an activity of encounter and accompaniment, love, and mercy, not exclusion and judgmentalism.  

Pastors and leaders of Catholic parishes, and teachers in Catholic Schools around the world are currently studying the working document and making plans to incorporate it into the life of their parishes and schools over the next two years. Now is a great time to directly ask your pastor and/or school principal how your parish or school will communally and prayerfully study and discuss the contemplative and evocative questions found in the synod document. This is your opportunity to live your faith and teach our students in both our parishes and schools. I have heard all my life that being a Catholic is not a “spectator sport.”  No, this is the moment we are invited to allow the breath of the Holy Spirit to foster and energize what it means to be sacramental – to actively and purposely encounter the real presence of Christ in our parish churches and Catholic schools.  

It is time to download the Instrumentum Laboris of the Synod on Synodality and begin praying with the questions yourself. It is time to engage in the one activity the Universal Church is offering all Catholics – ordained, religious, lay men and women, and our youth. And that includes you. This is the moment when all the People of God are graciously invited to live as the One, True, Holy, and Apostolic Church. Do you want in or not?  

What a great time to be a Roman Catholic!