Pope Francis’ invitation to be part of a Church that listens, learns, and teaches

By Richard Shields

From the start of his Pontificate we knew that Pope Francis would be a different kind of leader. Referring to himself as the Bishop of Rome, rather than the supreme Pontiff, Francis signalled his intent to work collegially with the bishops across the world. In order to capture more easily the spirit of the new Pope, an image first coined by Karl Rahner comes to mind: Local Churches (dioceses, parishes) are not branch offices or franchises of Rome. They are communities of faith in their own right (Vatican II. Lumen Gentium, n.26). Their experiences count and their voices must be heard, if the Church hopes to discern the direction it must follow in “scrutinizing and interpreting the signs of the times (Vatican II. Gaudium et Spes, n. 4).”

Vatican II and the Pope's leadership provide the background for the upcoming (1223) Synod of Bishops themed “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission.” In a word, the Synod is about becoming a listening and learning Church, which finds truth not only in the teaching authority of Rome, but in the experiences of all the baptized: their joys and joys, their griefs and anxieties (Gaudium et Spes , n. 1).

Today we are challenged "as the People of God to take on the pain of our brothers and sisters wounded in their flesh and in their spirit. If, in the past, the response was one of omission, today we want solidarity, in the deepest and most challenging sense, to become our way of forging present and future history (Letter to the People of God)."

It is impossible to think of a real change in how we understand and live out "Church" without a "conversion of our activity as a Church that does not include the active participation of all the members of God’s People. Indeed, whenever we have tried to replace, or silence, or ignore, or reduce the People of God to small elites, we end up creating communities, projects, theological approaches, spiritualities and structures without roots, without memory, without faces, without bodies and ultimately, without lives (Pope Francis, Letter to the People of God, August 2018)”.