3/6/2022

There was a mistake in last week’s letter. I wrote that Catholics “fast and abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and all Fridays” except for March 25, the Annunciation. Actually all of us between 18 & 59 are required to fast only on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. The part about abstaining was correct. Sorry about that.
Pope Francis has asked for a universal Synod for all in the Catholic Church to be completed in 2023. The word, “Synod” comes from the Greek, sun (together) + hodos (way) – it is a meeting of those of us who are pilgrimaging along the way to heaven together. It is a way to surface issues from the bottom of an organization up, rather than from the top down which is so characteristic of hierarchical organizations. We should feel honored to contribute, realizing at the same time that with over a billion Catholics in the world, our voice may not be heard. Whether it is or not depends more on how much in tune we are with the Holy Spirit, since the Holy Spirit will influence many more votes than any of us individually. So be sure and consult the Holy Spirit!
On March 27th from 3:00 – 4:30 PM we are going to have our parish Synod Process. Any and all are invited to come. If it is a small number, we will meet in the Parish Hall, if it is a large number, in the church. We will type up our summary of the discussion and get it to the diocese which will then condense all parish reports into a summary to send to the USCCB for the national meeting, at which they will summarize all diocesan reports into one report to be sent to a Continental meeting, which will issue a report to be sent to Rome. These reports will be the basis of what the Synod will be about in 2023.
Our grass roots process will proceed as follows. On March 27th at 3 PM in the Parish Hall or the Church, we will look at ten themes, narrow them down to three, and choose ONE to discuss at length. The ten themes are: 1) Companions on the journey, 2) Listening, 3) Speaking out, 4) Celebration, 5) Sharing responsibility for our common mission, 6) Dialogue in Church and society, 7) Ecumenism, 8) Authority and participation, 9) Discerning and deciding, 10) Forming ourselves in synodality. Then we will type up a summary of our discussion and send it on to the Diocese of K.C. – St. Joseph. If you do not like the theme chosen, you are welcome to offer your thoughts by filling out an Individual Input Form and sending it into the diocese. See their web site (https://kcsjcatholic.org/synod2021-2023/) to do this.
I encourage you to pray about what you would like to say, asking the Holy Spirit to fill your mind and heart with what God would have this Synod do. There was a process similar to this which happened before the Vatican II Ecumenical Council. A friend studied the responses done in preparation from all over the world. One thing I remember him telling me is that many bishops from the USA wrote in Ciceronian Latin that they wanted to have the Liturgy in English – a huge departure from what was then the norm. The bishops from another country wrote in saying that they wanted to keep Latin as the language in the Liturgy, but they wrote in their own vernacular language! Well, we know what happened. So I encourage you to pray, then speak your mind about how the Church should look and act. It is a great opportunity!
May this Lenten season bear fruit in preparing us to celebrate the Resurrection in six weeks!

Peace, Father Albert, O.S.B.