Welcoming new parishioners, keeping communication open among Church communities and clergy, and providing opportunities for parishioners to join each other in faith outside of Mass are three of many goals discussed during the Synod listening session on March 25, dedicated to Catholics in Trumbull and Ashtabula county parishes.
At the Portage and Stark listening session for the Synod on Synodality, participants shared success stories of collaborations and welcoming immigrants, and concerns about mixed messages and minister burn out.
At the Columbiana and Mahoning listening session for the Synod on Synodality, priorities such as encouraging vocations, unburdening the priests and secular activities on Sundays rose to the top.
Taking to heart the lesson of the parable of the good Samaritan is the key to assisting the millions of migrants and refugees forced to travel far from their homelands and often exploited along the way, Pope Francis said.
A “synodal church” where all the baptized participate and take responsibility for mission will need structures and processes to help church members listen to the Holy Spirit and to one another, members of the synod on synodality were told.
The synodal way is not an invention of Pope Francis, but it is based on Jesus’ way of inclusivity and listening, and on divine revelation itself, said Redemptorist Father Vimal Tirimanna, a leading moral theologian from Sri Lanka.
In many places in the world, including in Rome, people with disabilities cannot enter Catholic churches because of the architectural barriers, but even when they do, “we are not asked anything and we are not asked to participate either,” said Enrique Alarcón García.
The life of women in the Catholic Church “is full of scars” and alternating experiences of being encouraged or rejected, the president of Latin America’s religious superiors told members of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops.
The Catholic Church “needed this time of grace and discernment, a time to look back on the road we have traveled, with its glories and failures, and draw lessons for a new beginning,” Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo of Kinshasa said in his homily during a Mass with synod participants in St. Peter’s Basilica Oct. 13.
Synod participants who have known war and conflict firsthand led the assembly of the Synod of Bishops Oct. 12 by praying for peace between Israel and Palestine, throughout the Middle East and across the globe.
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Located in Northeast Ohio, the Diocese of Youngstown includes six counties; Ashtabula, Columbiana, Mahoning, Portage, Stark and Trumbull.
