Pope Francis has appointed Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB as a consultor of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops. Source: ACBC Media Blog.
The appointment, announced on January 10, is in conjunction with Archbishop Costelloe’s concurrent appointments as a Member of the Preparatory Commission and as one of the nine President Delegates to the Synod.
The next phase of the Synod – an assembly of clergy and lay people from around the world – is set to be hosted by the Vatican in October.
The General Secretariat’s main role is implementing the work of the preceding assembly and preparing for the next.
In the lead-up to October, it will choose the themes to be discussed, initiate the consultative process and draft preparatory documents, incorporating the results of the consultation.
In the phase following the assembly, it will see to the implementation of the synodal recommendations approved by Pope Francis.
Archbishop Costelloe, the president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, was among those who took part in the first assembly of the Synod that was convened in Rome in October 2023.
The 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for a Synodal Church is a three-year process of listening and dialogue which began with a solemn opening in Rome in October 2021.
Also on January 10, Pope Francis announced the appointments of Rev Msgr Piero Coda, Secretary General of the International Theological Commission; Gaby Alfred Hachem, Professor of Theology at the Université Saint-Esprit de Kaslik; Professor Giuseppe Bonfrate, Full Professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University; and Rev Fr Paul Béré SJ, Professor of Sacred Scripture at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, as consultors to the General Secretariat for the Synod.
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New Synod of Bishops role for Archbishop Costelloe (ACBC Media Blog)
