Working paper for Catholic World Synod to be published end of May

Synod Under-Secretary Becquart: Final documents of the continental assemblies in the worldwide Synodal process bear witness to richness and diversity of different approaches and cultures

The Working Paper for the worldwide synod on new ways of participation in the Catholic Church will be published at the end of May. This was announced by the number two in the Vatican Synod Secretariat, Sister Nathalie Becquart, at a press conference in the Vatican on Thursday. Whether the names of the voting and advisory participants will be known by then is uncertain, she explained. The nominations are not solely a matter for the respective bishops' conference, but also for the Pope, she said.

Becquart said the Synod's continental assemblies, which ended in March, had been the "most innovative element" of the new World Synod. The final documents, which are now available on the internet, testify to the richness and also the diversity of the different approaches and cultures. Now a team of about 20 experts from all parts of the world has begun to draw up the working document (Instrumentum Laboris) for the Synod Assembly taking place in Rome by way of "spiritual discernment".

At the beginning of the week, the Council of European Episcopal Conferences (CCEE) had also published the final document of the Continental Synod of Europe, which will take place in Prague from 5 to 9 February 2023. The document is available in English and Italian on the website www.synod.va. The final papers from the other continental assemblies around the world can also be found there.

At the Vatican press conference on Thursday, Australian Archbishop Timothy Costelloe stressed that the Catholic Church should be grateful for its internal diversity. It is learning that unity is not synonymous with uniformity. Some of the final documents produced by the Continental Assemblies were "wonderful texts" and deserved to be read and implemented in parishes and dioceses.

Costelloe explained that the Synod Assemblies in Rome in October 2023 and 2024 will not be about specific substantive issues. Rather, he said, at these assemblies the Church will try to find a new, synodal method to deal with such issues in the future and come to decisions.

"We are learning to become one Church through the Synodal process and discussions," Sister Becquart added at the press conference. We are on a journey that still needs to evolve, she said, and it would be too early "to really expect answers or decisions right now".

Father Hyacinthe Destivelle of the Vatican Dicastery for Christian Unity told the media representatives about initiatives in which, in the context of the World Synod, there was also an exchange with Christians of other churches about synodality. To this end, several conferences were organised in Rome in 2022 and 2023 in cooperation with the Vienna-based Pro Oriente Foundation and the Institute for Ecumenical Studies (IES) of the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum). According to Destivelle, a total of more than 100 experts from various Christian traditions reported on the synodal experiences of their churches.

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