The great enemy of synodal process is Fear

“Evangelisation is at stake. A Church weighed down by structures, bureaucracy and formalism will struggle to walk in history at the pace of the Spirit, meeting the men and women of our time. The great enemy of this process is fear,” said Pope Francis.

Jun 02, 2023

VATICAN: “Evangelisation is at stake. A Church weighed down by structures, bureaucracy and formalism will struggle to walk in history at the pace of the Spirit, meeting the men and women of our time. The great enemy of this process is fear,” said Pope Francis.

“We need Christian communities in which space is enlarged, where everyone can feel at home, where pastoral structures and means foster not the creation of small groups, but the joy of being and feeling coresponsible.”

The Pope was addressing the bishops and diocesan representatives of the synodal path in Italy in the Paul VI Audience Hall, as the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI) concluded its 77th General Assembly focused on the synodal process.

The Pontiff said that as he entered the Vatican audience hall for the meeting, someone not so politely told him that the whole synod process is creating a mess.

“Think about the Apostles on the morning of Pentecost,” the Pope said. If the synod is “a blank, Pentecost morning was even worse. It was worse. Total disorder. And who provoked that mess? The Holy Spirit. He’s good at creating disorder to move people. But the same Spirit also provoked harmony.”

“Don’t be afraid when there is disorder provoked by the Spirit,” said the Pope. One need fear “only when it is provoked by our selfishness or the spirit of evil.”

The Pope urged everyone, especially the fearful, to pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, who opens people to listen to others, who makes dialogue fruitful, enlightens discernment and guides choices and decisions.

Pope Francis told the bishops and representatives that he would try to respond to their questions about “the priorities for the Church in relation to society, about how to overcome resistance and concerns, on the involvement of priests and lay people, and on the experiences of marginalisation.”

Church unity and shared responsibility are essential, he said. An “always lurking” temptation is to rely on “a few ‘qualified actors’ who carry out pastoral activity” while the rest of the faithful stand by and watch. Sometimes one gets the impression that religious communities, chanceries and parishes are still too self-referential,” said the Holy Father.

Promoting co-responsibility in the Church, he said, is not simply a matter of finding a new way to “distribute power.” Rather, he said, it means learning how to recognise the gifts of each person, particularly those “who still struggle to see their presence recognised in the Church, those who do not have a voice, those whose voices are drowned out or even silenced or ignored, those who feel inadequate perhaps because they have difficult or complex life paths (and) are sometimes almost ‘excommunicated’ a priori.”

The Pope said those already active in the Church need to remember the parable of the wedding feast from Matthew 22.

“When none of the invited guests show up, what does that gentleman say? ‘Go to the crossroads and call everyone.’ Everyone: sick, healthy, righteous, sinners, everyone, everyone.”

“We should ask ourselves how much space we make and how much we really listen in our communities to the voices of young people, women, the poor, those who are disappointed, those who have been hurt in life and are angry with the Church,” the Pope said. “As long as their presence remains sporadic in ecclesial life overall, the Church will not be synodal, it will be a Church of the few.”

Bringing his address to a close, Pope Francis again encouraged the Italian Church to continue this journey together, trusting in the Holy Spirit, “the protagonist of the synodal process”. “Let’s entrust ourselves to the Holy Spirit. He is harmony. He causes all this disorder, but He is capable of creating harmony which is something totally different from the order that we could create by ourselves.” — Agencies