By Matters India Reporter
Kanpur, Jan 30, 2022: A laity group in India has urged the Vatican to extend the primary synthesis stage of the Rome Synod for another three more months.
“The third wave of corona pandemic is sweeping across the world. As such it is impossible for people to travel or organize physical gatherings, so critical to discerning God’s will for the future of the Church,” says a letter from the Indian Catholic Forum addressed to Sister Nathalie Becquart, the Under Secretary of the Synod in Rome.
Forum convener chhotebhai says virtual meetings or webinars “are poor substitute for the magic of listening, praying and sharing together.”
His January 28 letter explains how the forum was forced postpone a national consultation it had planned in the first week of February at Bengaluru in southern India in view of the panic.
The guidelines for the Synod have asked dioceses and organizations to submit their 10-page synthesis to their national contact person by April 30. “This is almost impossible in the given circumstances,” he explains and urges the secretariat to extend the deadline to July 31 “so that the purpose of the Synod is achieved.”
The Synodal process extends right up to October 2023, chhotebhai points out.
Thanks for publishing this. Subsequently on 31st January Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the CBCI President, wrote to me stating that the date for the preliminary/ diocesan phase of the Synod has been extended to 15th August 2022. Stakeholders may plan accordingly.
At the same time I am surprised that the officially appointed Contact Persons for the Synod did not think it appropriate to pass on this important development.