The Synod of Bishops began, with Pope Francis addressing those gathered, on the 4th October. In the following paragraphs Pope Francis explains the decision he took to extend the membership of the Synod, last year and this year. He says: “In choosing to convene as full members of this 16th Assembly also a significant number of lay and consecrated persons (men and women), deacons and priests, I acted in continuity with the understanding of the exercise of the episcopal ministry set forth by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. The Bishop…cannot carry out his ministry except within the People of God and with the People of God, preceding, standing in the midst of, and following that portion of God’s People entrusted to his care. This inclusive understanding of the episcopal ministry is meant to be clearly seen, while avoiding two dangers. First, an abstractness that would ignore the concrete fruitfulness of differing places and relationships, and the value of each individual. Second, the danger of breaking communion by pitting the hierarchy against the lay faithful. It is certainly not a matter of replacing one with the other, rallying to the cry: “Now it is our turn!” No, this does not work: “now it is up to we the lay faithful”, “now it is up to we priests”. No, this does not work. Rather, we are being asked to work together symphonically, in a composition that unites all of us in the service of God’s mercy, in accordance with the different ministries and charisms that the Bishop is charged to acknowledge and promote.
This “journeying together” with everyone, is a process in which the Church, in docility to the working of the Holy Spirit and sensitive to in reading the signs of the times (Gaudium et Spes, 4), continually renews herself and perfects her sacramentality. In this way, she strives to be a credible witness to the mission to which she has been called, to gather all the peoples of the earth into one, when at last God himself will give us a seat at the banquet he has prepared (cf. Is 25:6-10).The composition of this 16th Assembly is thus more than a contingent fact. It expresses a way of exercising the episcopal ministry consistent with the living Tradition of the Church and with the teaching of the Second Vatican Council. Never can a Bishop, or any other Christian, think of himself “without others”. Just as no one is saved alone, the proclamation of salvation needs everyone, and requires that everyone to be heard.