Pope Francis said the synod should be an effective process of spiritual discernment to better cooperate with the work of God throughout history. The Pope reminded us that the key words of this Synod meeting are fellowship, partnership and mission. He was speaking at a think-tank at the Vatican on Saturday (09/10/21) morning, marking the start of the three – phase journey of the Synod of Bishops.
He added that the Synod would provide a great opportunity for apostolic conversion, but there were some dangers lurking in it. Pope Francis pointed out the dangers of formalism, intellectualism, and immobility.
The pope explained that the danger of formality is to degrade the synod as an extraordinary event that is limited to enjoying the exterior without going into the interior of the church. In fact, the Pope made it clear that the Synod should be an effective process of God who discriminates against the good and bad rather than painting a beautiful picture of ourselves. Similarly, he said that the Synod was in danger of becoming a kind of collective study and that was what was meant here by prudence.
The pope explained that there is a situation where the problems of the Church and the evils of the world are presented in an intellectual but impractical way. The Pope meant by the third catastrophic immobility a tendency to be rigid, with an emphasis on tradition without being ready for change. The pope warned that he who moves in this way will unknowingly fall into a mistake that we do not take seriously into the times in which we live, and thus there is a danger of adopting old solutions to new problems here.
The pope expressed his belief that the Holy See would lead all who attend the Synod to move, to listen to each other, to begin to discern the contemporary issues, and thus to be united with the sufferings and aspirations of hell. The pope pointed out the duty of the bishops, who lead all in the special church, to fulfill the Lord’s desire for all to be one, and to preserve that unity with determination.