OCTOBER 11, 2024
mississippicatholic.com
Synod on synodality: Second session sets sights on mission BY CINDY WOODEN
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – With many of the concrete, hot-button issues removed from the agenda and turned over to study groups, some people wonder what members of the Synod of Bishops on synodality will be doing when they meet at the Vatican in October. For Pope Francis and synod organizers, though, taking issues like women deacons or seminary training off the table will allow the 368 synod members to focus on their main task: Finding ways to ensure “the church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channeled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation.” Cardinal Mario Grech, general secretary of the Synod of Bishops, cited that quote from Pope Francis’ 2013 exhortation, “The Joy of the Gospel,” when explaining what the three-year process of the synod on synodality was all about. The working document for the synod’s second session Oct. 2-27 summarized as its task “to identify the paths we can follow and the tools we might adopt in our different contexts and circumstances in order to enhance the unique contribution of each baptized person and of each church in the one mission of proclaiming the Risen Lord and his Gospel to the world today.” In the preface to a book on synodality, published in the Vatican newspaper
Sept. 24, Cardinal Grech wrote that the consultations held with Catholics around the world starting in 2021-2022 “noted, not without disappointment, the problem of a church perceived as an exclusive and excluding community – the church of closed doors, customs and tolls to be paid.” “What needs to change is not the Gospel, but our way of proclaiming it,” he said. The task of synod members – bishops, priests, members of religious orders and lay men and women – will be to better define or at least describe what is meant by synodality and to suggest ways to live out that vision. Specifically, that means: helping people listen to one another and to the Holy Spirit; looking at relationships within the church and making sure they empower every member to take responsibility for the church’s mission; reaching out to people who have felt rejected or excluded by the church; increasing the accountability of people in leadership positions; ensuring parish and diocesan councils are truly representative and listened to; and increasing opportunities for women to place their gifts and talents at the service of the church, including in leadership and decision-making. While those goals make sense from an organizational point of view, the Cath-
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In western North Carolina, parishes and schools respond to Helene devastation with supply drives, donations BY CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD
CHARLOTTE (OSV News) – Late Sept. 27 night, as the first photos and cries for help emerged after Tropical Storm Helene ripped through the North Carolina mountains, Father John Putnam texted his staff at St. Mark Church, in Huntersville: “There’s a great need for supplies for diapers, canned goods and water in the mountains. We have folks that can deliver on Sunday. Can we get a blast out?” By dawn on Saturday, Sept. 28, parishioners and neighbors who had seen the social media blast began dropping off supplies. By af-
ternoon, St. Mark had delivered its first truckload to the Statesville airport for transport to remote mountain regions. Remaining supplies went into a truck for church volunteers to drive 150 miles to Waynesville, home of St. John the Evangelist Parish. In Concord, Dan Ward was on his way to Mass on Sunday morning when he fully understood how devastating Helene had been. As the properties and risk manager for the Diocese of Charlotte, Ward had the principal of Immaculata School on the phone describing the scene around her after record rainfall in Hendersonville. “There is damage everywhere. Trees are down. Houses and roads are washed away. There is no power – and no water,” Principal Margaret Beale told him. “It wasn’t just what she said – it was how she said it,” Ward recalled.
Over the next few hours, Beale’s hint of desperation and the trickle of news from the mountains – of people being swept down rivers, of homes washing away, of trees trapping people in neighborhoods with no way in or out – unleashed what would become an unprecedented outpouring of support from across the diocese “to get people what they need – now.” That’s how Monsignor Patrick Winslow, the diocese’s vicar general and chancellor, described what he and Charlotte Bishop Michael T. Martin wanted to see in response to the storm. From the diocese’s central administration. From priests and parishioners. From Catholic Charities, and schools and ministries. Everybody who could help, should help. “For those of you who are suffering so much from this natural disaster, especially those who have lost loved ones, please know you are not alone! Motivated by the image of Christ Crucified, we stand with you,
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