Cardinal Tobin reflects on the first week of the Synod of Bishops (Video)
In his first week at the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., Archbishop of Newark, gathered for a vigil with Pope Francis at St. Peter’s Square organized by the Taizé Community and attended a three-day retreat filled with silence and reflection before the opening of the assembly of the Synod.
The 364 delegates and the 85 experts, facilitators, and ecumenical delegates accompanying them began their work on Thursday, Oct. 5, when the delegates were broken into 35 small groups of 12, Cardinal Tobin said. The 35 working groups include 14 groups working in English, eight in Italian, seven in Spanish, five in French, and one in Portuguese. Every week the groups will change.
Last week, Cardinal Tobin was part of a Spanish-speaking group that included members from Columbia, Honduras, Brazil, Argentina, Costa Rica, Mexico, and the U.S. One member was a married woman with children from Chile. The mediator was a married man from Uruguay, Cardinal Tobin said.
The theme of the synod is: “For a synodal church: Communion, participation, mission.” As the synod assembly proceeds through Oct. 29, its members will discuss the issues in the gathering’s working document in order, beginning with the foundational question of what are “the characteristic signs of a synodal church?”
“[We asked] what needs to be recognized, emphasized, or deepened? Thanks to what you contributed,” Cardinal Tobin said in his video message addressed to parishioners in the Archdiocese of Newark, “I have something to offer to that discussion.”
Cardinal Tobin said the silence is just as important in synod, if not more so than the discussion, as it is “the space where God can speak.”
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The Synod of Synodality began in 2021. The Archdiocese of Newark held a series of 700 prayerful listening sessions capturing the voices of more than 15,000 northern New Jerseyans in 2021 and 2022.
The conversations taking place in Rome will be based on three fundamental questions: First, how can we be united, not divided, as missionary disciples? Second, how can we effectively carry out the Church’s mission in today’s world? And third, what do we need to do to engage ALL Christians fully and actively in the mission and ministry of Jesus?
Ideas generated during the Synod this month will be the subject of further discussions in local diocesan communities throughout the world next year in preparation for the Synod’s final session in October 2024, Cardinal Tobin said.
Featured image: Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, N.J., listens to Sister Liliana Franco Echeverri, a member of the Company of Mary and president of the Latin American Confederation of Religious, as she speaks during a briefing about the assembly of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican Oct. 10, 2023. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
