After 12 deanery and three Spanish-speaking sessions, the Synod on Synodality meetings in the diocese are nearing completion.
The faithful throughout the 23-county diocese were invited during two weekends in March to attend sessions where they could respond to questions about their experiences as Catholics.
In April, students at diocesan Catholic high schools can attend a virtual Synod on Synodality session. Ohio Dominican University students also are organizing a meeting to answer the same questions posed to parishioners.
Pope Francis called for the Synod on Synodality last year as a means to solicit feedback from individuals throughout the world. All of the world’s dioceses are facilitating similar meetings and gathering information that will be compiled for reports to send to the Vatican this summer.
The process will culminate in 2023 when the bishops meet in Rome for a Synod. If Pope Francis repeats what he has done after previous Synods under his pontificate, he will issue a document that provides observations and interpretations of what transpired during the process.
“For the people who participated here, we’ll know that they were a part of that and can feel in some small way connected to the universal Church,” said Father Michael Hartge, the diocese’s moderator of the Curia who is leading the diocese’s Synodal response.
The recently completed Synodal meetings in the Columbus diocese drew 543 registrants, including priests, deacons and religious, and many more walk-ins. Each location had facilitators to moderate the discussion and notetakers to record the responses of every participant. In some places, volunteers were recruited as notetakers because attendance was greater than anticipated.
English-speaking sessions were held at Columbus St. Mary, Mother of God in the German Village area, Powell St. Joan of Arc, Columbus Immaculate Conception, New Albany Church of the Resurrection, Reynoldsburg St. Pius X, Columbus St. Cecilia, Marysville Our Lady of Lourdes, Newark Blessed Sacrament, Zanesville Bishop Rosecrans High School, Dover St. Joseph, Lancaster St. Mary of the Assumption and Portsmouth Holy Redeemer.
For Spanish speakers, Synod meetings took place in Dover, Marion St. Mary and at Columbus St. Peter Church. Attendance for these gatherings exceeded 100 at some locations.
Considering diocesan parishioners were also asked to engage in the ongoing Real Presence Real Future initiative over the past few months, the turnout for the Synod was appreciated, Father Hartge said.
“We received very positive responses from the sessions, and people enjoyed them,” he said. “They felt like they had an opportunity to be heard, which is a big part of this.”
Attendees were posed three main questions: As you listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, what have been the joys and obstacles in your journeying together with the Church? How have you experienced the Church reaching out to those who are on the peripheries and marginalized, including cultural groups, women, the disabled, those who experience poverty, marginalization, or social exclusion? How do we promote participation in decision-making within hierarchically structured communities?
After breaking into small groups, each person was given a brief time to respond to a question. Others listened but were asked not to comment to make sure everyone was heard. When time permitted, follow-up questions were posed and answered.
“There were more people than we expected at some spots, and it was harder to get around to all the questions just because there were so many people,” Father Hartge said. “Our facilitators and notetakers had to adapt, and they did an excellent job.”
Jim Gernetzke, a volunteer who served as a facilitator at two locations, had hoped to see more Catholics come to the meetings but said he observed an openness to share thoughts from those who attended.
“I didn’t feel much timidity at all in terms of people being on guard about their observations, which was a really good thing,” he said. “I wasn’t surprised by the specifics of the comments. They expressed the same frustrations that everybody is experiencing with lack of participation by the youth and not knowing how to get them and fallen-away Catholics involved in the Church.”
Other common concerns were how to support priests, involvement in parish leadership as the number of clergy continues to shrink, and getting more parishioners to be active in ministries. Some of the more difficult issues facing the Church were brought up, and those comments were noted but did not create conflict among the groups.
“People welcomed the fact that somebody is going to listen to them,” Gernetzke said. “But then there’s, ‘If you listen, did you hear us, and are you going to take action?’ If you did listen and nothing changes, I think you’re going to have more frustration.”
John Swisher, a St. Pius X parishioner who attended at his parish, said the ideas and suggestions that emerged were intelligent and respectful.
“People were open to sharing, and I learned some things that were eye-opening and that I didn’t realize before, even though I’m a cradle Catholic,” he said. “This is the first time in my experience that high levels of Church leadership have asked for my ideas to such an extent.
“I hope that through the Synod process the Church will recognize that there are a lot of people who deeply love the Catholic faith and are here to do the heavy lifting and help the Church in any way they can.”
Deacon Frank Sullivan, who serves at Lancaster St. Mary , said after the same session, “I didn’t know what to expect, and am pleased that people did a wonderful job communicating with each other respectfully and listening to one another. They were unafraid to share concerns of how the Church needs to involve more young people and to be more welcoming and inviting.
“You could see the intense love and care these people have for the Church, and how they felt the need to share that love. They love the Church and will do anything for it.”
The next phase in the Synod process locally is to pore over the multitude of responses to the questions from each location and distill those into a 10-page report, plus appendices, that will be sent to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C., this summer. A team from the diocese, which will include some of those who actually facilitated the sessions, will read each response and prayerfully compose the diocesan synthesis from the responses themselves.
Some of the feedback from the diocese’s Disciple Maker Index last year could be incorporated into the diocese’s Synod report, which will be made available at a later date. But Father Hartge emphasized that the majority of what’s included will come from the Synod meetings.
“We’re going to do our best to represent themes that a high level of participants expressed and also the things that smaller numbers of people say,” he said. “It’s all valid. We hope it will be representative of what people shared about their journey with the Church.
“What’s important is that each person is an expert in their own experience in the Church and the joys and challenges you’ve faced. You’re not speaking for others but for yourself.”
Though the Synodal sessions have ended, this could be the beginning of a new form of communication within the Church, Father Hartge said.
“This is something that the Holy Father wants us to have in the Church, to adopt a style of active listening,” he said, “to hear others’ experiences and how the Church is walking with us and to share our journeys of faith.
“Hopefully, this active listening among the members of the Body of Christ is something that we can become more comfortable with doing in the future. Pastors and groups might think about using a similar format in meetings and ministries.
“This is more about how can we talk to one another. And I think the Holy Father may be a little prophetic that he sees this great need in the midst of COVID and all of this virtual interaction that didn’t make us more connected to each other, didn’t make us better able to listen, didn’t make us more patient with one another.
“So gathering people together in person, opening us up to the movements of the Holy Spirit, being in a position that we’re comfortable sharing, that is important to the Holy Father, and I think it’s important to the health of the Church.”
“Pope Francis is empowering people not just because he wants to gather information but because he wants the Church to listen to what people are saying so it can better help them along the way to salvation,” Deacon Sullivan said.