“Dominicanes in synodi coetu de synodalitate”
In 2004, at the Hotel Ergife in Rome, a Congress or Convention for Religious Life was organised by the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) and the Union of Superiors General (USG). Participants included Superiors General; young men and women religious; men and women religious; formators; others involved in magazines specialising in religious life; etc. There were moments of prayer, conferences, lectures, etc. The main work was done in groups around circular tables, all located in the same large hall as the plenary meetings. At these tables there were women and men; superiors; theologians; etc. Apart from the six-monthly USG meetings, I remember very vividly this, my first and only “Synodal” experience in such a broad context of religious life, life and mission… There were about 800 of us in all!
When I entered the Paul VI Hall last October, which was set up as a Plenary Hall and at the same time had round tables for the groups, I recalled this past experience. During the first session of Synod 2023 – 2024, all the synod members participated successively throughout the four weeks in five different “round tables”, according to languages the themes of the Instrumentum laboris. There were women and men, lay women and men, religious men and women, bishops and cardinals. With the help of facilitators, we were able to listen and speak words of grace and truth, weaving convergences and noting divergences, enriching one another! Although the tables were based on the use of the same language (in my case, Spanish), the diversity of origin of each participant (with their ecclesial life experiences and accents, even in the same language!) made it necessary not only to understand the words but also their meaning, manifesting very different realities. Nevertheless, at the end of the days allotted for the various themes and questions at each of the five tables, both the report of each group to the plenary, and the final text enriched by what was heard in the plenary, required the approval of all. Pruning was not experienced as a break, but as an invitation to “new shoots”. Green wood is pruned. Only that which has no life is made into firewood.
What is not assumed, is not healed (saved, redeemed). What seems to be a phrase that could be limited to the treatment of illnesses, psychological or therapeutic processes, etc., actually has a profound theological meaning! This meaning is not only essential in order to understand that the Word of God has assumed the whole of human nature (soul and body) as expressed by St. Gregory Nazianzen, Pope St. Damasus and finally the First Council of Constantinople (381) which coined this expression in the face of the positions of Apollinaris of Laodicea and the Apollinarians.
If the Church is synodal (in its essence, its very nature) then it is essential to assume this synodality in order to grow in its understanding. To speak of SYNOD or SYNODALITY does not mean simply reducing it to an adjective, or limiting it to a mere method. It is about the very “being” of the Church and the “way of being” at the same time! I cannot, therefore, limit this “walking together” to the elaboration of a “strategy” either.
Rather, I would like to go deeper into this aspect from an understanding of the BEING of the Church (and not a trend, nor a theme – one of many – to be followed by “another or others”).
Preparations for the First Session of the Synod took place from 2021 to October 2023 through various local meetings of communities and parishes (many of which cover very large amounts of territory) and two “zonal” meetings as well as in the diocesan assembly. The diocese is very large: there are four major geographical and pastoral zones.
We have discerned with the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council that preparations for the Second Session should include local meetings and at least one zonal meeting during the first half of the current year. On 20 April, the diocese celebrates its 90th anniversary (together with nine other dioceses in the country). Given the economic situation, this time we have decided to hold the local meetings first. In the second half of the year, we hope, if possible, to organise zonal meetings. Each zone is very large, however, and it is not easy to ensure that everyone can travel given the costs. As the Jubilee Year of our diocese will run until April 2025 (overlapping the Holy Year), we hope to have a great Archdiocesan meeting that month next year.
But what is most important is to sow seeds within each community through the organisation of local pastoral councils, economic councils, etc. The First Session of the Synod insisted on making use of institutions which already exist and which faithfully express this synodality.
Our diocese already has some experience of Archdiocesan pastoral meetings. However, the mode of participation and the desire to participate has increased. The Holy Spirit is blowing and “pruning” resistance and misunderstandings of what “synodal Church” means.
Don’t be afraid of pruning
when the wood is green;
God does not look for what he takes out,
is interested in what remains.
These words in verse and rhyme belong to the well-known Benedictine monk and friend Abbot Mamertus Menapace and express in their profound simplicity the path to be followed.
I conclude by returning to what I said at the beginning. There will be no better terminological and conceptual deepening of the expressions we are learning to “pronounce” and “practice” (better to say “walk” or “experience”) than to understand the richness of the “analogy”. When contemplating creation, we are amazed by its beauty precisely in the variety of beings (not only the visible, corporeal, but also the spiritual). Job’s experience, even painful, after the various interventions of God himself (chapters 38 to 41) gives rise to a very beautiful and profound expression: “I knew you only by hearsay, but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I retract…” (42, 5-6).
The analogy of creation allows us to understand the analogy of being, or metaphysics, the analogy of language, the very analogy of the Word, a symphony of many voices! The Instrumentum laboris in preparation for the Synod of Bishops The Word in the Life and mission of the Church (October 2008) and the Synod itself in its Message to the People of God already expressed this. Finally, Pope Benedict XVI in the post-synodal Exhortation Verbum Domini refers to the”analogy of the Word”.
Our “encyclopaedic” mind does not always manage to take the pulse of the profound “wisdom” rooted in the very Wisdom of God, and in the wisdom of men founded on the fear of God – Gift of the Holy Spirit!
We would prefer simple, clear definitions, instead of marvelling at the richness of the polyhedral, the symphonic and polychromatic! The First Session of the Synod allowed us to experience this. Without dismissing the initial fear, we have contemplated the wisdom of God expressing Himself through so many voices and expressions of women and men – His daughters and sons – speaking from His heart and understanding, enriching the life and mission of the Church and allowing Himself to be enriched by it.
To conclude, among so many joys, one was to be able to meet with other brothers and sisters of the Order: Brother Timothy Radcliffe, OP, preacher of the initial retreat and of other reflections during the sessions that really set the tone, the height, breadth, length and depth of what we were able to discern and discuss, really helping to further our “Conversation in the Spirit”, Christoph Schönborn, Cardinal Archbishop of Vienna, Anthony Colin Fisher, Archbishop of Sydney, Brother Hervé Legrand, OP, and Brother Olivier Poquillon, OP, from the Province of France, Brother Hyacinthe Destivelle, OP, from the Province of Toulouse, Brother Anthony Akinwale, OP, from the Province of Nigeria, and Sister Rosmery Castañeda Montoya, a Dominican of the Colombian Presentation, stationed in Panama.
Bahía Blanca, 1 May 2024
Memorial of St. Joseph, worker
Bro Carlos Alfonso Azpiroz Costa, OP
Archbishop of Bahía Blanca
