VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis has opened the second session of the Synod on Synodality with a Mass, urging participants to prioritize listening, dialogue, and being humble like children.
Joining with several hundred cardinals, bishops, priests, and lay members of the Synod on Synodality, Pope Francis presided over Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica this morning – a Mass which served as the opening of the second plenary session of the 16th Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, otherwise known as the Synod on Synodality.
“As we have repeatedly stressed, ours is not a parliamentary assembly, but rather a place of listening in communion, where, as Saint Gregory the Great says, what someone has in himself or herself partially is possessed completely by another, and although some have particular gifts, everything belongs to everyone in the ‘charity of the Spirit,’” said Francis in his homily.
“For this to happen, however, there is a condition: we must free ourselves from everything that prevents the ‘charity of the Spirit’ from creating harmony in diversity in us and among us. Those who arrogantly claim to have the exclusive right to hear the voice of the Lord cannot hear it (cf. Mk 9:38-39).”
The Pope also invited people to join him in keeping October 7, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, as a day of prayer and penance – thus taking up a call issued by Jerusalem’s Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa.
Francis’ themes for the synod were continued in the bidding prayers of the Novus Ordo Mass, with petitions requesting divine aid so that “the Church on its synodal journey may experience a culture of encounter, able to transform distances into closeness and differences into welcome.”
From its outset in 2021, the synod has focussed on listening and dialogue, with organizers stating that there is no specific focus or topic of specific discussion except “synodality” itself.
In the opening Mass in 2021, Francis described the synod as a “great opportunity for a pastoral conversion in terms of mission and ecumenism.”
The synod has, from the start, been an ecumenical affair. It urged dioceses to promote “maximum inclusion and participation” and stressed that this must include “Catholics who rarely or never practice their faith … people who have left the practice of the faith, people of other faith traditions, people of no religious belief.”
Since October 2021, the synod has transitioned through diocesan, national, and international phases, all of which are being brought to a culmination this October with the series of month-long meetings at the Vatican.
READ: Here’s what will take place at the Synod on Synodality this October
The first month-long session of meetings at the Vatican took place last October, following which prominent calls for female deacons, lay leadership, and new “ministries” emerged from certain synod members.
These calls found their way into the working document which summarized the October 2023 discussions.
However, Francis has assigned a number of these topics – including female deacons – to a number of discussion groups which will not report until June 2025.
READ: Bishop Strickland calls on ‘all of the shepherds of the Church’ to defend the faith as Synod looms
Consequently, the more controversial topics are not officially on the table for discussion this October. However, already in the opening two-day retreat, Father Timothy Radcliffe, O.P., made pointed references to these issues during his speeches, suggesting that synod members in favor of the female diaconate and lay ministry will continue to push the issues in the coming weeks.
The first general congregation of the synod takes places in the afternoon of October 2, during which Francis and the synod leadership will deliver their opening speeches.
Full coverage of the synod can be found on LifeSiteNews.com and on the X account of LifeSite’s Vatican correspondent.