"No going back"
Speaking Notes
Bishop Brendan Leahy
Meeting with Synod Delegates
Strand Hotel
October 15th 2016
I am very pleased that we are gathered here today, reliving the memory of our Synod experience, reviewing the work that has gone on over the past few months and writing together our Diocesan plan. I thank all involved in preparing this day.
I want to say straightaway that both at the Synod and since, I have been very grateful for what we experienced and what the Synod produced. I very much look forward to doing my part as we take the steps outlined in the Diocesan plan that we are working on today.
Now that some months have passed since our amazing gathering in April, I would like to share a little of how I view the Synod. There are four aspects that I would like briefly to highlight.
The Synod as Event of the Holy Spirit
The first thing that strikes me about the Synod is the Synod itself! It was an event of the Holy Spirit. The image I keep is one on our website – the hall in Mary Immaculate College full of circles of people, lay, priests, single and married, young and older, working hard but joyfully at discerning what God was calling us to as a diocese. We were learning together to be “synodal”. And it’s something we can’t take for granted. We are all in this together, learning a way of synodality. It’s a theme Pope Francis emphasises a lot.
I recall more than one person saying to me how moved they were to find themselves sitting side by side with priests, chatting about future directions of the Church. It was something new and they were delighted. Some young people said to be – I’m sure if other young people could see this, they would be hugely impressed and really begin to understand more about the Church.
So I thank God for the Synod. It has given us an experience, an image, a benchmark that remains in our hearts and minds for the future.
The Synod as an Event of Looking at Reality with New Eyes
A second point that struck is that the Synod provided us with an opportunity to look around us with new eyes. Pope Francis often invites us today to have what he calls a “contemplative gaze”, that is, we need to look around us in our home, our streets, our village, our town, our city and discover God dwelling among us, “fostering solidarity, fraternity, and the desire for goodness, truth and justice”. Perhaps those around us aren’t coming to Church but they are searching for meaning in their lives. And even in the negatives and apparent rejections that we find, something of God’s work can be uncovered.
Our Synod journey has been a time of looking at the reality around us with eyes of hope and, in this Year of Mercy, we could also say, with eyes of mercy and tenderness, one of the great themes of our times. We made a realistic assessment. The proposals we’ll be looking at today reflect our assessment. There are less priests and we need new models of leadership; young people find it hard to connect, we need to find new ways to be with the young church; families need support in handing on the faith and in facing difficulties as a family, liturgy today is being called to link more with life, and, above all, as a Church community we recognise our desire to reach out much more beyond the sacristy, beyond the church, beyond the usual structures that we are used to.
The Synod as an Event that calls us Forward to a Community of Communities with Jesus among Us
It seems to me the Synod has called us to a more Mission-shaped Church, less relying on the priest-on-his-own, and indeed not just a parish council and a priest. Let me offer some images to share what I mean.
