The general secretariat of the Synod of Bishops has named the members of a steering committee and two commissions helping to prepare the 2023 synod, including Australians Fr Ormond Rush and Adjunct Professor Susan Pascoe. Source: CNA.
The general secretariat listed the names on Tuesday, just three months before the start of a two-year preparatory phase involving Catholic dioceses worldwide.
A synod is a meeting of bishops gathered to discuss a topic of theological or pastoral significance, to prepare a document of advice or counsel to the Pope. The theme for the upcoming assembly is “For a synodal Church: communion, participation, and mission.”
The general secretariat listed the members of a steering committee, a commission for theology, and a commission for methodology.
Fr Rush has been appointed to the commission for theology, while Adjunct Professor Pascoe has been appointed to the commission for methodology.
The synod on synodality will open with a “diocesan phase” in October and conclude with the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican in October 2023.
Pope Francis will “inaugurate the synodal path” over the weekend of October 9-10 with an opening session and a Mass. All dioceses are invited to offer an opening Mass on Sunday, October 17.
The Vatican will then release an instrumentum laboris (working document) in September 2022 for a period of “pre-synodal discernment in continental assemblies,” which will influence a second draft of the working document to be published before June 2023.
The process will culminate in a meeting of bishops at the Vatican in October 2023.
FULL STORY
Members of commissions preparing synod on synodality unveiled (CNA)
