Synod Theme 2: Listening

In presenting the second theme to explore in the Synod Consultation Process taking place in dioceses around the world now through April 2022, Pope Francis writes in the Synod Preparatory Document (PD): “Listening is the first step, but it requires having an open mind and heart, without prejudices.” (PD #30).

The Holy Father then follows with these questions:

• To whom does our particular Church “need to listen to”?
• How are the Laity, especially young people and women, listened to?
• How do we integrate the contribution of Consecrated Men and Women?
• What space is there for the voice of minorities, the discarded, and the excluded?
• Do we identify prejudices and stereotypes that hinder our listening?
• How do we listen to the social and cultural context in which we live?

These are very specific questions, ones that challenge our church leaders, ministers and members today.  Undoubtedly, some will think and say: “Of course, we listen.”  However, they will say that without ever asking the people named by the Pope if they feel that they have been heard. It is so easy to think that we know what other people need without ever asking them. Or we think, we already know what they are going to say.  When I hear or sometimes even think that myself, I ask “Are you sure?” And “If people keep presenting the same needs over and over again, why aren’t those needs being met? What more do we need to know in order to move forward?”  The truth is that we need to keep listening to everyone, especially to those who are seldom heard, if we want to discern the direction that God is calling the Church in the Third Millennium.

Exploring our Church from the aspect of listening to one another especially in the “social and cultural context in which we live” is a very serious undertaking. What we learn may reveal some unpleasant truths.  That should not prevent us from exploring this aspect of life, because we all know we can listen better if we try and we will all be better for it.

Earlier in the document, Pope Francis writes:

Every synodal process, in which the Bishops are called to discern what the Spirit is saying to the Church, not by themselves but by listening to the People of God, who “shares also in Christ’s prophetic office” (LG, no. 12), is an evident form of that “journeying together” which makes the Church grow. St. Benedict emphasizes how “the Lord often reveals the most prudent course to be followed”[18] to those who do not occupy important positions in the community (in that case, the youngest); thus, the Bishops should take care to reach out to everyone, so that, in the orderly unfolding of the synodal journey, what the apostle Paul recommends to the communities may be realized: “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophetic utterances. Test everything; retain what is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:19-21).

PD 14

How ready to listen, are we?