Circular: 27/2024
September 01, 2024
My dear Collaborators,
As I write these lines, I thank God for all the blessings and graces that HE has bestowed on us: priests, religious men and women and the lay faithful of our Diocese. God has accompanied us and motivated us to journey together so that as “pilgrims of hope” (the theme of the Ordinary Jubilee Year); we can and must instill hope in the people who experience hopelessness in their lives: the poor, marginalized, suffering at home and/or in the hospitals, the oppressed, those on the peripheries, truly, the list is endless. We continue to be a people of faith, knowing and believing that God will not abandon us but will surely use us for the growth of HIS kingdom in our Diocese.
We have just entered into a new month of September and we have many liturgical celebrations during this month: the Memorial of St Gregory the Great (Sept. 03); the Memorial of St Teresa of Kolkata (Sept. 05); the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Sept. 08) – the Day of the Girl Child; the Memorial of St John Chrysostom (Sept. 13); the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (Sept. 14); the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows (Sep. 15); the Memorial of Sts Cornelius and Cyprian (Sept. 16); the Memorial of Sts Andrew Kim Taegon and companions (Sept. 20); the Feast of St Matthew (Sept. 21); the Memorial of St Pius of Pietrelcina (Sept. 23); the Memorial of St Vincent de Paul (Sept. 27); the Memorial of St Jerome (Sept. 30). We also have the World Day of Migrants being celebrated on Sunday, September 29.
September is also the month dedicated to Creation in the Universal Church. The Season of Creation is a global ecumenical celebration of prayer and action to protect our common home, starting each year from September 01 and concluding on the Feast of St Francis of Assisi on October 04. The World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, celebrated on September 01, kicks off the Season of Creation, a time of sustained prayer and action which lasts a month and four days. During this season, we are encouraged to pray and engage in community events in order to deepen our relationship with God, our neighbor and the earth we share, being ever more attentive to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. “Hope and Act with Creation” is the theme of the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation this year. I invite you to please bring to attention the message of the Care for Creation in your parishes, Schools and institutions during this month through the Prayer Services, reflections and simple activities.
As we celebrate all the Liturgical Feasts and Memorials in our Diocese, may I draw to your kind attention to the following:
September 08: The birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary should enable us to have a deep respect particularly towards the girl children. Please motivate your parishioners to care for the Girl Child/ girl children so that they grow as significant people in our society.
September 27: The Memorial of St Vincent de Paul should inspire us to have a heart for the poor. May of our parishioners are deprived of “roti, kapda aur makaan” – the basic necessities of life. Could we explore ways and means of reaching out to our brothers and sisters so that no one is lost and is wandering but through our priestly ministry they are brought back into the mainstream of our parish ministry.
Much has happened in our Diocese since June 2024: a number of our Diocesan Committees and Commissions are organizing liturgical celebrations and/or programmes; the participation at such events is a sight to behold. I believe that as we move ahead, the Coordinators of the Committees and Commissions will continue to organize programmes that will bring people together and enabling them to experience joy and happiness in their lives.
As for me, I thank God each day after my return from the pastoral visits. These visits are enabling me to know first-hand as to how my brothers and sisters live in trying and difficult situations and yet are happy and contented. There have been times when I have motivated the families that I have visited to pray the Rosary daily as a family, preferably before dinner time. I am often reminded of Fr Patrick Peyton’s slogan: “a family that prays together stays together”. Thank you, my dear Fathers, for having organized my pastoral visits. As my collaborators, I want to state that you are a source of strength to me: you do much for me in the parishes and institutions which you have been appointed to. Even in the midst of difficulties, you have not complained but you have accepted your ministry as part of God’s plan for you. Please keep up the good work you are doing in your parishes and institutions.
As we look ahead, we have the second and last session of the Synod which will be held in Rome from October 02 to October 27, 2024. We have already received a copy of the Working Paper/Document, referred to as Instrumentum Laboris; enclosed, please find a summarized version of the Document. It is nice to know what topics the participants will be reflecting upon. May I earnestly request you to pray for the success of the Synod: a prayer card was distributed to the parishes on the Recollection Day on August 01. A number of Parish Priests collected the prayer cards printed in English and Marathi. Those who have not received the prayer cards are requested to contact Mr Anthony Pillai and motivate your parishioners to pray the prayer daily, if possible, or at least on Sunday when the entire community gathers together for prayer and worship.
As I come to the end of the newsletter, may I request you to look after your health. If you keep good health, you will certainly be in a position to serve your parishioners well. There have been times when I have reflected on the health care of each one of you, my beloved collaborators: I am truly concerned about your health: please eat well and rest well. My prayer accompanies you daily and I believe that the Lord is blessing you and our Diocese. Please do not forget to whisper a prayer for me that the Lord may continue to inspire me to lead our Diocese to greater heights.
Thank you for your presence and the selfless work you do in our Diocese and with every good wish,
Yours in Christ,
+Barthol Barretto Bishop, Diocese of Nashik
Encl.: a.a.
RETREAT FOR DIOCESAN PRIESTS
Dates: Sunday, November 10, 2024 (Dinner) to Friday, November 15, 2024 Venue: Satyagiri Dominican Retreat Centre, Igatpuri
PLEASE BLOCK THE DATES AND ATTEND THE RETREAT. The Retreat is compulsory for all the Diocesan Priests.
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Synodal Instrumentum Laboris - 2024
The 50-page text, known as the Instrumentum laboris (Latin for “working instrument”), will guide participants in the October 04-27 session of the event officially styled as the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.
Where are we in the global “synodal process”? What does the new document say? And what will happen next? Here’s a brief guide:
How we got here
As the Vatican Council II drew to a close in 1965, Pope Paul VI established a permanent institution in Rome called the Synod of Bishops.
This body’s primary task was to “promote a closer union and greater cooperation between the Supreme Pontiff and the bishops of the whole world.”
Marking the Synod of Bishops’ 50th anniversary in 2015, Pope Francis highlighted Paul VI’s observation that the institution could be “improved upon with the passing of time.”
Pope Francis said: “We must continue along this path … It is precisely this path of synodality which God expects of the Church of the third millennium.”
In 2018, Pope Francis issued the apostolic constitution Episcopalis communio (“Episcopal communion”), reshaping the Synod of Bishops. He suggested that while the institution was “essentially configured as an episcopal body,” it was also “a suitable instrument to give voice to the entire People of God.”
The pope formally launched a global “synodal path” at a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in October 2021. The process began with unprecedented consultations at a diocesan level, followed by continental gatherings.
The synodal path entered its “universal” phase with the synod on synodality’s first session in Rome in October 2023. This gruelling event featured delegates seated at round tables in the Vatican’s cavernous Paul VI Hall. The session ended with a “synthesis report” summarizing discussions.
In March this year, Pope Francis announced the creation of 10 “study groups” focused on the most complex and contentious issues raised at the first session. While the groups will report briefly on their findings at the second session, their work will continue until at least June 2025.
And that brings us to today, and the release of the second session’s working document, which draws on submissions from 108 Bishops’ Conferences worldwide and 9 out of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches.
What the new document says
The Instrumentum laboris is 20,000 words long, or around 90 minutes of reading, depending on your pace. It has a somewhat lyrical, scene-setting introduction that describes the synodal process as “a call to joy and to the renewal of the People of God.”
It explains that while the first session focused on the question “How does a synodal Church describe itself?”, the second will address “How to be a synodal Church in mission?”
The text has another preliminary section setting out the “foundational understandings of synodality.” This includes an attempt to define the notoriously nebulous term “synodality.” The word, it says, refers to “a style that starts from listening as the first act of the Church.” It emphasizes that synodality does not detract from the authority of the Church’s pastors and is “not an end in itself.”
The “Foundations” section also addresses one of the central themes of the synodal process: the role of women in the Church. It says that opportunities for greater female participation “often remain untapped.”
It notes that bishops’ conference worldwide have called specifically for women to have “wider access to positions of responsibility in dioceses and ecclesiastical institutions,” more “positions of responsibility in seminaries, institutes, and theological faculties,” and more “women judges in all canonical processes.”
On the much-debated topic of women deacons, the text says that local Churches are divided. It underlines that the issue “will not be the subject of the work of the second session,” but will be addressed by one of the 10 study groups announced by Pope Francis in March (Study Group 5, addressing “some theological and canonical matters regarding specific ministerial forms.”)
The working document proper consists of three parts, which seek to “illuminate the missionary synodal life of the Church from different perspectives.”
Part I examines “relationships — with the Lord, between brothers and sisters and between Churches — which sustain the vitality of the Church in ways more profound than the merely structural.”
Part II looks at “the pathways that support the dynamism of our ecclesial relationships.”
And Part III considers “the places that are the tangible contexts for our embodied relationships marked by their variety, plurality and interconnection, and rooted in the foundation of the profession of faith, resisting human temptations to abstract universalism.”
Each of the three parts tackles big themes that have emerged during the synodal process.
Part I addresses topics such as the gulf between priests and bishops, and how a synodal “reimagining of the ordained ministry” might help to overcome “the difficulty of bishops and priests in truly walking together in their shared ministry.”
Part II touches on the contentious topic of who participates in the Church’s decision-making processes. It also has a section dedicated to “Transparency, accountability, and evaluation” containing some strikingly specific proposals.
A commitment to transparency, it says, should include effective councils for economic affairs, the involvement of competent lay people in pastoral and economic planning, the publication of annual financial statements, ideally approved by external auditors, and — perhaps most interestingly — an annual statement evaluating “the performance of the mission.”
This review, it suggests, should explain what steps each Church body is taking to protect children and vulnerable adults, to promote “women’s access to positions of authority and their participation in decision-making and taking processes,” and to undertake performance assessments of Church personnel.
Part III, meanwhile, looks at the place of “local Churches in the one and unique Catholic Church.” It considers the disputed question of how much authority local bishops’ conferences possess. It notes that a proposal has emerged from the synod process to recognize “episcopal conferences as ecclesial subjects endowed with doctrinal authority, assuming socio-cultural diversity within the framework of a multifaceted Church, and favoring the appreciation of liturgical, disciplinary, theological, and spiritual expressions appropriate to different socio-cultural contexts.”
The working document ends, naturally, with a brief conclusion summing up the ground covered. It says: “The questions that the Instrumentum laboris asks are: how to be a synodal Church in mission; how to engage in deep listening and dialogue; how to be co-responsible in the light of the dynamism of our personal and communal baptismal vocation; how to transform structures and processes so that all may participate and share the charisms that the Spirit pours out on each for the common good; how to exercise power and authority as service.”
“Each of these questions is a service to the Church and, through its action, to the possibility of healing the deepest wounds of our time.”
What’s next
The working document says that when the synod on synodality’s second session begins in October, participants will work through each of the text’s three sections, engaging in “prayer, exchange, and discernment.”
As the gathering wraps up, “a final document relating to the whole process will be drafted and will offer the pope proposals on steps that could be taken.” “We can expect a further deepening of the shared understanding of synodality, a better focus on the practices of a synodal Church, and the proposal of some changes in canon law,” the text suggests, while stressing that “we cannot expect the answer to every question.”
While the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops is scheduled to end Oct. 27, the wider synodal process is intended to be a more or less permanent feature of “the Church of the third millennium.”