Welcome to the Synodal Process

The process for the Synod on Synodality continues with the Continental Stage, which opened in October of 2022.  During this stage, the Catholic Church around the world will be meeting as seven “continents” which are Africa, Latin America, North America (i.e., the United States and Canada), Asia, Europe, Oceania, and the Eastern Churches (churches in the Middle East).  The Eparchy of Parma falls within the North American continent, and so on January 25, 2023, members of our Eparchy represented you, the faithful of the Eparchy of Parma, and met with representatives of other eparchies and dioceses from around the United States and Canada to share your input from your participation in the synodal meetings and the survey last year.      

The goal of the Continental Stage is not to gather new information but to listen to all the churches in a specific area before the meeting of the Universal Church in Rome in 2023.  The eparchies/dioceses were asked to select clergy, religious, and laity to represent all their members and to share what was gathered in their synodal meetings last year.  The purpose of this step is to then discern what was shared and identify the main themes that accurately express the thoughts of people but on a continental level.  These will then be gathered into a document called the Instrumentum Laboris which will be given to all the bishops to review for the Bishops Synod in Rome in October of 2023. 

On February 6, 2022, we kicked off the synodal process in the Eparchy of Parma.  Beginning on this date, you met with your parish facilitators, priests, and fellow parishioners to pray and share with each other after meditating on the Beatitudes, the theme that Bishop Milan chose for the synodal process in our Eparchy.  Later on in March, you took the anonymous survey for your parish.  Right now, the notes from the meetings and the results of the surveys are being collected and analyzed to assist Bishop Milan, your priests, and those people from your parish assisting your priest, in identifying goals for the parishes and the Eparchy as a whole.  This information will also be shared with Metropolitan Archbishop William Skurla of Pittsburgh, who will be representing us at the Synod of Bishops in October of 2023 in Rome.  Thank you for your participation in the meetings and the surveys; your help is allowing our Church to grow and flourish here in the Eparchy of Parma.  Stay tuned for more information from your priests as we identify Eparchial and parish goals. 

Glory to Jesus Christ!

As the delegate of Bishop Milan Lach for the Synodal Process within our Eparchy of Parma, I would like to introduce you to this journey that Bishop Milan Lach has invited us on in response to Pope Francis’ call upon the Universal Church to participate in the Synod on Synodality.

Pope Francis has called a Synod on Syndodality to be held in 2023.  A synod is a meeting of people, usually bishops, gathered to discuss topics that are relevant to the Church in the present day.  A synod, however, can include the laity and priests of the Church, and so in an effort to include all members of the Church in the discernment of God’s will in the present day, Pope Francis asks all members of the Universal Church, which includes you and me, to participate in this Synod on Synodality.  This synodal process in each individual parish throughout the Eparchy will culminate in the Synod of Bishops, which will meet with Pope Francis next year in Rome.   

Synodality is the journey, made by the faithful, of discerning God’s will for the Church, by working together through prayer, listening, and sharing.  This current synod is a meeting of the faithful to actively experience what it means to work in this manner of synodality, this journeying together to discern what is needed for the growth and strengthening of the Church. This synod is the catalyst for the Church to act in a more synodal manner in future and to not consider this as a one-and-done event.

The guidebook for the Synod, the Vademecum, tells us:

The objective of the current Synod is to listen, as the entire People of God, to what the Holy Spirit is saying to the Church. It is intended to enable the Church to better witness to the Gospel, especially with those who live on the spiritual, social, economic, political, geographical, and existential peripheries of our world. We do so by listening together to the Word of God in Scripture and the living Tradition of the Church, and then by listening to one another, and especially to those at the margins, discerning the signs of the times.

This listening, while beginning with personal prayer by the individual, will also include gathering in small groups of 10 within your parish to read the Scriptures and pray with them according to the method of lectio divina.  These in-person meetings, led by a lay facilitator at your parish, will also be where all of us will be free and encouraged to share our hopes, hurts, and faith life.  This praying with Scripture will be guided by a handout, which will be given a week in advance in the Sunday bulletin.  These handouts are based on meditations of the Beatitudes, and all of us are encouraged to pray with these in our personal prayer before attending the in-person meetings.  Each parishioner is asked to participate in at least one in-person meeting as we value each person’s reflections and insights.  If someone is unable to participate in an in-person meeting, then your parish facilitator of the synodal process will work with you to make sure you can fully participate in the synodal process at your parish.

In addition to the in-person meetings, we will also conduct a survey. This survey will provide an anonymous and secure method of capturing the status of our Eparchy.  More details on the survey will be forthcoming.

Bishop Milan Lach has asked that beginning the week of February 6, 2022, we begin our meetings at the parish level during the months of February and March.   Once we have completed our meetings, your parish facilitator will submit your anonymous sharing to the Eparchy of Parma.  The Eparchy of Parma will take the information submitted from all the parishes and give it to the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh.  Archbishop William Skurla will then take the information of all four of our eparchies to a meeting of Eastern Bishops here in the United States.  After this meeting, our feedback will be brought to Rome for the final phase, which is the Synod of Bishops in Rome in 2023.  Here the bishops, together with the pope, will review the material given to them from us, the faithful, to see what you have to say on what our strengths and weaknesses are and how we can work on them to build up the Church of God.
 
In your parish bulletin you will find two inserts.  The first is the meditation on the Beatitudes and we encourage you to pray with this at home in your personal prayer.  The second insert is called, Listening to the Word of God, and provides the outline that we will follow in all the small group meetings.   Your parish facilitator will begin scheduling groups of 10 persons to meet beginning next Sunday, February 6, 2022. 

Thank you in advance for your participation in this synodal process in your parish. We look forward to the prayer and sharing with you that will lead us to build up our church and ultimately lead us all to the Heavenly Kingdom.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Therese Fetsko
Delegate for the Synodal Process in the Eparchy of Parma