Section II: Walking together (synodos)

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Calling of the twelve to form a parish Synod Evangelization Team

At a gathering of our priests last June, Bishop Joseph Williams and I challenged them to join us in following Jesus up the mountain of prayer and asking the Lord of the harvest for co-workers in what would be our post-Synod mission fields. We know that priests are “not ordained by Christ to take upon themselves alone the entire salvific mission of the Church toward the world. On the contrary, they understand that it is their noble duty to shepherd the faithful and to recognize their ministries and charisms, so that all according to their proper roles may cooperate in this common undertaking with one mind” (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium 30).

To this end, each of our pastors, having descended the mountain of prayer, has been asked by me to choose “twelve” who could be co-workers with him in building a parish that is in the service of evangelization. These “apostles” – chosen for their capacity to draw others to Christ – will help each parish to be an icon of “a Church which goes forth.” I pray that this choice of members to constitute the parish Synod Evangelization Team, made in consultation with their Parish Pastoral Council and parish staff, will lighten the burden of our pastors and let them more deeply experience the joy of missionary synodality.

While the vocabulary may seem somewhat new, “synodality” in its substance is not a new reality for our pastors. Many have already been “walking together” and experiencing fruitful collaboration with Parish Pastoral Councils and Parish Finance Councils. These structures, rooted in canon law, are concrete expressions of the synodal vision of the Second Vatican Council, which understood that the “journeying together” of clergy and laity would enrich the ministry of the Church. Some of us can remember when the financial responsibility of the parish fell almost solely on the shoulders of the parish priest. I would suspect that today’s pastors are relieved to know that they can count on the professional expertise of the laity to advise them in matters that pertain to the administration of the parish.

As we prepare to make our Synod dreams a reality, it seems to me that we must ask: if the talents and charisms of the laity are crucial in the financial administration of the parish, how much more critical must they be in accomplishing the task that is at the very heart of the Church’s mission -- the proclamation of the Good News? Indeed, I am hopeful that the assembling of the “twelve” at each of our parishes will be the beginning of a kind of “Parish Evangelization Council” that supports missionary discipleship the way the Parish Finance Council supports stewardship of temporal goods. Much as the Finance Council helps the pastor keep finances on the front burner of parish administration, so too would an Evangelization Council consistently help pastors keep evangelization in the forefront of parish life. With this vision, our priests will experience synodality where it matters most: the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

I am confident that our pastors will experience as Jesus did the wise providence of the master of the harvest, who has given them not only co-workers but friends on the apostolic path. At the same time, these laborers – drawn mostly from the laity – will come to experience in a unique and concrete way the dignity of their own baptismal calling as set forth at the Second Vatican Council:

The laity derive the right and duty to the apostolate from their union with Christ the head; incorporated into Christ’s Mystical Body through Baptism and strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit through Confirmation, they are assigned to the apostolate by the Lord Himself. They are consecrated for the royal priesthood and the holy people (cf. 1 Pt 2:4-10) not only that they may offer spiritual sacrifices in everything they do but also that they may witness to Christ throughout the world (Decree on the Laity Apostolicam Actuositatem 3).



(Source: archspmmainsite/Synod_Pastoral+Letter)