Church in Tripura discusses Synod on Synodality

By Irudhaya Jothi

Agartala: The clergy along with their Bishop Lumen Monteiro of Agartala discussed the Diocesan Synod on Synodality.

The Holy Cross prelate explained to the priests gathered at the Bishop’s House in Agartala on September 8 the topic of Synodality and urged everyone to start planning for the inauguration of the diocesan synod on Synodality with the Mass on October 17.

Bishop Monteiro said that the Vatican announced May 21 that the Synod on Synodality will officially open with a “diocesan phase” in October and conclude with the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October 2023.

The Vatican has asked every Catholic diocese to take part in the Synod on Synodality.

Pope Francis will officially inaugurate “the synodal path” Oct. 9-10 with an opening session and a Mass.

The theme of the next Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops is, For a Synodal Church: communion, participation and mission.

Bishop Monteiro said, “During the diocesan phase, each bishop is asked to undertake a consultation process with the local Church from October 17, this year until April 2022” and he added, “The Vatican will send Dioceses a preparatory document, accompanied by a questionnaire and a vademecum with proposals for consultation.”

The prelate shared that 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 entire process will culminate in a meeting of Bishops from around the world at the Vatican in October 2023, held according to the established norms outlined in the 2018 Apostolic Constitution Episcopalis communio.

As per the direction of Archbishop Felix Machado Secretary General of CBCI through his letter to the Bishops says, “After the parish/diocesan phase, the Synod must move to the national phase. What is India today? Who is Church in India today?” said Bishop Monteiro

Quoting the Holy Father’s address to the Italian Bishop’s Conference in May 2021, the Archbishop said, we need a change in our pastoral mentality.

As per Archbishop Machado, “ it is also necessary to discern the internal dynamics of the Church itself, particularly, the undeniable question of “clericalism” which has infested the hierarchy from top to bottom. The Synod (2021-2023) is an open sea, and “we all are in the same boat”.

The letter further reads that It will be necessary to talk about the proclamation of the Gospel and its difficulties in a world changed by the pandemic, by mobile fluid, rapidly changing plural lifestyle, by the “alternative truths” of special networks and above all, by changes in our country in religious, political, economic equations, social convictions, critical openness to implicit questions that are being asked to the Church by people of other religions, and so many other changes.

If we do not take this changing situation into account, says Bishop Machado, we will continue to speak words which may sound “beautiful, cultured, refined, but they will not be words of faith. They will be words that resound of emptiness…

The challenging words of Pope Francis from Apostolic exhortation on the Joy of the Gospel, Evangelii Gaudium no 49, the Bishop said, “I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.

I do not want a Church concerned with being at the center and which then ends by being caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures”.

With this synod Pope Francis exhorts us to allow people to speak freely and giving space to “the wisdom of the people of God”. That is why the synod is also called “synod from below”, and it is already set in motion, reflection, discussions and involvement of communities and dioceses.

The 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.

Indeed, synodality refers to the very essence of the Church, her constitutive reality, and is thus oriented towards evangelization.

It is an ecclesial way of being and a prophetic example for today’s world.

The Synod of Bishops is the dynamic point of convergence that calls for mutual listening to the Holy Spirit at every level of the Church’s life.

It is not just an event, but also a process that involves in synergy the People of God, the College of Bishops and the Bishop of Rome, each according to their proper function.

The Synod of Bishops was established by Pope Paul VI in 1965 and episcopal synods have since become a regular feature of the Church.

It was intended that a synod would consist of bishops, chosen from various parts of the world, in ways and manners established or to be established by the Roman pontiff, [to] render more effective assistance to the supreme pastor of the Church in a deliberative body …

With the papacy of Pope Francis, the words ‘synod’ and ‘synodality’ have gained a new prominence in our ecclesial vocabulary and thinking.

The Synods have reflected on a wide range of themes that are important for the life of the post-conciliar Church, the most recent being on Marriage and Family Life (2014/5), Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment (2018), and the Pan-Amazon Region (2019). The next synod (2023) will be on synodality itself.

The Tripura diocesan synod will have its own challenges of languages as there are many languages spoken by the faithful in the diocese but the aim of active participatory church in Tripura will be a reward.