Synod 2021-2024: Walking Together as Church 

Sept. 21st news article: "The Biggest Thing in the Catholic Church since Vatican II," click HERE.

ECUMENICAL PRAYER VIGIL for the October 2023 Synod, click HERE.

OCTOBER 2023:  the first session of the UNIVERSAL STAGE of the SYNOD will run from October 4-29, 2023 at the Vatican. The second session is scheduled for October 2024. The assemblies will be held in the Paul VI Hall, instead of the Vatican’s New Synod Hall, with delegates sitting at round tables of about 10 people each. The document to be discussed is the synthesized Intrumentum Laboris.

DELEGATES representing Canada and the United States for the Synod at the Vatican this October were announced in July. Click HERE for that news. For the first time, lay delegates (including women) have been added to the list of bishops who will attend and vote at the Synod gathering in October 2023.

Since March 21, 2023, the seven documents produced in the seven continental assemblies were further synthesized to become Instrumentum Laboris, the working document for the Universal Synod slated for October 2023. 

 The Continental Stage: During January through March 2023, the seven continents (North America; Europe; Asia; Middle East; Latin America and Caribbean; Africa and Madagascar; and Oceania) met in their respective ecclesial assemblies to survey the Working Document for the Continental Stage, "Enlarge the Space of Your Tent" (access HERE). During the Continental Stage, each continent's assembly produced a synthesis document which was submitted to the Secretariat of the Synod in Rome by March 31, 2023.  See FAQ regarding the North American (Canada and US) Continental Stage and its process HERE. 

The SYNOD'S BACKGROUND: As you know, the Synod was announced by Pope Francis in the Fall of 2021 and began its work around the world in Spring 2022. In our own Diocese of Calgary during February through April, the information gathered from the parishes during their Listening Sessions was submitted to the Office of the Bishop and synthesized into a Diocesan Report (denoted in the graphic below and dated June 17, 2022). This report was then sent to the Western Conference of Catholic Bishops. Our Diocesan Report was synthesized together with those from the other regions in Canada into a National Report (read it HERE) and sent (August 15, 2022) to the Holy See in Rome.

 In reference to and appreciation of the results of the Diocese of Calgary's many parish Listening Sessions, Bishop McGrattan, stated the following: "THANK YOU for your participation . . . during the synodal process. The fruits of our communal discernment remain with us . . . we consider the many emerging themes and realities relating to the Church’s pastoral life presented in the document as the Spirit’s call to further discernment and ultimately conversion in each of our parishes and communities." 

Scroll through the Calgary Diocesan Report (June 17, 2022), as collated from the parish Listening Sessions, BELOW.