Reflection / Ken Ogorek

Synodality: A gift to the Church, world

Pope Leo XIV was recently gifted with a purebred Arabian horse. Recently, I was blessed with an opportunity to hear, directly from our Holy Father, a few of his thoughts on the topic of synodality.

As coordinator of the archdiocesan Synod implementation Team, I participated in a gathering of my counterparts from throughout the world during the Oct. 24-26 Jubilee of Synodal Teams and Participatory Bodies at the Vatican. The meetings occurred in the context of a Jubilee Year event in Rome.

‘We’re on a mission from God’

Among the thoughts that Pope Leo shared is that synodality is about having a strong sense of mission, acknowledging that Christ has commissioned each baptized person to be his missionary, witnessing to him to the ends of the Earth.

As an example, the Holy Father commended participants from Asia for giving us hope that even in cultures where faith in Jesus is nowhere near a majority reality, disciples of our Lord are evangelizing effectively by God’s grace.

Synodality’s focus on mission affirms our archdiocesan pastoral planning process, whose theme is “Go Forth in Joy and Hope as Missionary Disciples.” While I wasn’t able to interact with Pope Leo personally, I sense that he’d be pleased with this focus of ours as an archdiocese.

‘I’m an individual!’

Pope Leo made an important distinction between individualism and individuality. The latter is a blessing from God who creates us as unique persons.

Individualism, though, is a plague that isolates us from relationships and community. It harms us while depriving God’s people of our talents and charisms; these charisms could further the common good by his grace, rather than being squandered in our silos of solitude.

Synodality is an antidote to harmful individualism in that it compels us to be present to our neighbor—all of them!

None of us “does Church” alone. We walk with each other, listening authentically, living the reality that we all have at least some responsibility for the body of Christ, for its health, vibrancy and dynamism.

Encountering the living Jesus Christ

Pope Leo’s emphasis on communion rather than individualism reminds me of an exhortation by Pope St. John Paul II.

He wrote to the Church in America (including South America where Pope Leo served for many years) “On the Encounter with the Living Jesus Christ: The Way to Conversion, Communion and Solidarity.”

Conversion from sin, communion with Jesus and solidarity with our neighbors—all of them—in some ways are the essence of synodality. All of God’s people deserve to be heard, and solidarity manifests itself in authentic listening as well as consultative decision-making by those to whom Jesus gives governance authority in his Church: our bishops (successors to the Apostles) and priests who serve as our pastors.

Don’t be a screamin’ demon

Finally, Pope Leo mentioned the demon of discord. While debate about how to apply the teaching of Christ in various situations can be healthy, dissent from the basic doctrinal and moral teaching of his Church works against communion, mission-effectiveness and synodality.

There’s an old saying about never looking a gift horse in the mouth. The gift of encouraging synodality, given to us by Pope Francis and affirmed by Pope Leo, when properly understood and practiced, is a gift to the Church and to our world—a gift that will keep on giving by God’s grace and mercy.
 

(Ken Ogorek is executive director within the archdiocesan Secretariat for Evangelizing Catechesis. He can be reached at kogorek@archindy.org.) †