The meeting, promoted by the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, was held at the Vatican on the theme “The Challenge of Synodality for Mission”, bringing together more than 200 people from 117 international associations of the faithful, both private and public, who were received in audience by Pope Francis.
The day began with the celebration of Holy Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, presided over by Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, followed by an audience with the Holy Father in the New Hall of the Synod.
Synodal attitudes: God’s thought, openness and humility
Pope Francis referred to synodality in the audience as “a long road” as far as the Latin Church is concerned, indicating that in order to grow in this dimension “an interior change” is necessary.
“My wish, in fact, is that, after this Synod, synodality will remain a permanent way of acting in the Church, at all levels, entering into the hearts of all, pastors and faithful, until it becomes a shared “ecclesial style”,” the Holy Father stressed.
To think according to God, to overcome all closed-mindedness and to cultivate humility were the three synodal attitudes that Francis indicated, insisting on the role of the ecclesial movements, affirming that “they are there to serve”. “The ecclesial movements are to serve the Church, they are not in themselves a message, an ecclesial centrality,” he affirmed.
The pontiff also stressed the need to make the most of the charisms of each person “in an ecclesial perspective”, in order to give their own “generous and precious contribution to the evangelization to which we are all called”.
“A charism grows and unfolds within a spirit of synodality”
After the audience with the Pope, the day’s program included two main presentations given by Prof. Rafael Luciani, professor at the Andrés Bello Catholic University (Venezuela) on “Mission as an objective of synodality”, and by Dr. Elisa Lisiero, Dicastery official on “Synodality in the experience of the movements”.
For our founder, Moysés Azevedo, this last conference was very “positive”. “An opportunity to recognize the gifts and graces that were given to us by God for the good of the Church of humanity. Synodality is well present from the beginning in the movements and new communities,” he emphasized.
Likewise, regarding the words of the Holy Father, whom our Founder had the opportunity to greet personally, Moysés emphasized the invitation to walk in agreement with God, “that our plans be aligned with God’s thought and project”.
“In the end, synodality is a going out of oneself, it is listening: listening to God, to others, to those who are far away in humanity. The attitude of listening totally breaks with our possible schemes, our possible centralizations in ourselves and places us in an attitude of going out for the edification of the Church and the needs of the world”, he affirmed.
About cultivating humility, Moysés said: “The fact of being a community does not make us better than anyone else, on the contrary, it makes us servants, therefore, knowing that everything is from God, the grace received is transformed into responsibility. To give this grace to others, it is necessary to do it with great humility. And in order to win the hearts of humanity, we need to have our hearts similar to the meek and humble heart of Jesus”.
Photos: Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life