Bringing out the hidden treasures of their communities, practicing community discernment and sharing fraternity between priests and bishops: these are the three main recommendations that Pope Francis shared in a letter with the priests at the end of the international meeting “The priests for the Synod. The Holy Father invited those who participated to continue and pass on what they have experienced and learned in recent days.
Xavier Sartre – Vatican City
“Gratitude” And “estimated”: Pope Francis takes advantage of this meeting this Thursday, May 2 in the Synod Hall at the Vatican, to transmit a letter in which he says he remembers in his prayer all the priests in the world without whose commitment and service “the Church could not move forward”. This audience concludes the three days of the international meeting “The priests for the Synod» which aimed to hear the specific voice of these field pastors as part of the synodal process which will continue next October with the second session of the synod on Synodality.
These priests exercise their ministry in very different contexts, from the outskirts of large megacities to almost deserted territories, from young to aging communities. “The priests know all this very well, they know from the inside the life of the People of God, its sorrows and its joys, its needs and its riches”writes the Pope in his missive.
Objective: to become a synodal Church
This is why, believes the Bishop of Rome, “a synodal Church needs its priests: without them, we will never be able to learn to walk together”And “we will never become a missionary synodal Church if parish communities do not make the participation of all the baptized in the unique mission of announcing the Gospel the characteristic feature of their lives”.
Hence the exhortation to the priests of the Holy Father to be “builders of a missionary synodal Church”because parish communities must become more and more places “where the baptized leave as missionary disciples and where they return full of joy to share the wonders wrought by the Lord through their testimony”. Priests must therefore support their communities and engage “through prayer, discernment and apostolic zeal” so that their ministry is adapted to the requirements of a missionary synodal Church.
Discover and promote charismas
The Pope thus invites priests to live their “specific ministerial charism increasingly at the service of the multiform gifts poured out by the Spirit in the People of God”. They urgently need “discover”, “encourage” And “valorize” the different charisms of their parishioners in order to bring out the “many hidden treasures” and find yourself less alone “in the great task of evangelizing”doing “the experience of the joy of authentic fatherhood which does not dominate but which brings out in others, men and women, many precious potentialities”.
Francis also suggests to priests “to learn and practice the art of community discernment, using the method of conversation in the spirit” in use during the first session of the synod. Finally, he recommends “put at the basis of all sharing and fraternity” between priests and their bishops, because “we cannot be authentic fathers if we are not above all sons and brothers. And we will not be able to generate communion and participation in the communities entrusted to us if, above all, we do not experience them among ourselves..
Last invitation from the Holy Father, specifically addressed to the priests who participated in these meetings this week: “be a missionary of synodality”share lived experience, lead reflection on the renewal of parish ministry and allow the General Secretariat of the Synod to collect their contribution “irreplaceable”and continue to speak because, François insists, “we need to continue to listen to you”.
