杏MAP导航

By Andrea Tornielli - Brussels

What is the priority of the Synod that is about to begin? What is the main and most important purpose of the Church's synodal reform?

From Brussels, at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Koekelberg, where he met with bishops, clergy, religious, and pastoral workers, 杏MAP导航 Francis outlined an answer by posing a question.

鈥淭he synodal process,鈥� he said, after listening to a testimony, 鈥渕ust involve returning to the Gospel. It is not about prioritizing 'fashionable' reforms, but asking: 'How can we bring the Gospel to a society that is no longer listening or has distanced itself from the faith?' Let us all ask ourselves this question.鈥�

No "fashionable" reforms, then. Neither is there place for agendas that鈥攐n the one hand鈥攁dvocate for functional changes but end up clericalizing the laity, nor those that鈥攐n the other hand鈥攁im to restore a past era influenced by neo-clericalism.

Both are perspectives that ultimately downplay the urgent and fundamental question that 杏MAP导航 Francis has reiterated: the proclamation of the Gospel in secularized societies.

Both of these perspectives end up forgetting the sole true purpose of any reform in the Church: the salvation of souls, the care of God's holy faithful people.

By putting the 杏MAP导航's question back at the center, which was the reason for the Second Vatican Council, and by placing the well-being and care of God's people at the center, it becomes clear that synodality is the way to live communion in the Church.

It is not an additional bureaucratic task for clergy and laity who adopt it reluctantly and only in words, remaining in practice still tied to models from a century ago. It is not the passepartout through which to justify every worldly initiative.

Instead, synodality is the full expression of a lived communion. We can only bear witness to our brothers and sisters when we are aware that we are all loved by God and when we joyfully live the Gospel, conscious of the fact that鈥攚hatever our role in the Church鈥攚e are called by the Other, and it is He who guides His Church.