Before he died, Pope Francis set the Roman Catholic Church on a path of listening to each other through a three-year-long process called the Synod on Synodality.
Through synodality, the late Pope wanted to ensure that all 1.4-billion Catholics had a voice on the Church’s mission and future — not just cardinals, bishops and priests.
In Canada, some Roman Catholics have taken his message to heart.
On June 15 to 18, Canadian Catholics will meet at the first national, lay-led synod in the country — and possibly in the world.
The event is being organized by Concerned Lay Catholics (CLC), an independent group of committed lay Catholics formed in 2018 to affirm the laity’s role of co-responsibility in the Church. The event will take place at St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo, Ont.
The main themes to be explored are what it means to be Catholic in Canada today, how the Church can truly be synodal, and how the Christian faith can be a sign of hope in the world.
The event takes its inspiration from Pope Francis, who emphasized that everyone is needed in the Church, says Garry Warner, chair of the CLC and a retired professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont.
“We want to meet in the spirit of the synod that was held in Rome to continue that work,” Warner said, referencing gatherings in Rome in 2023 and 2024.
As happened at the Synod on Synodality when it met in Rome, participants in Waterloo will sit together around tables. Each person will be able to talk uninterrupted for several minutes about the main themes of the event, after which there will be a period of silence. That will be followed by a chance for each delegate to respond to what was heard. After that, a general discussion will ensue.
In Rome, this format was called the “Canadian method,” a reference to the Canadian Jesuits who pioneered the method in the 1970s — possibly based on their experience with Indigenous people and their listening circles.
As in Rome, the synod in Waterloo will be a “place to listen, not to debate,” Warner said. “We will wait for the spirit to speak. It’s very much a listening process.”
The goal is also not to challenge the structures of the Church. Instead, the purpose is to “find ways for lay people to be more engaged in the Church,” he said.
“It is an exercise in collective discernment, in listening to where the Holy Spirit is calling us in living the Church’s mission in the contemporary world,” Warner said.
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, the national assembly of Canada’s Roman Catholic bishops, has not yet said whether it supports the synod, Warner says.
But it is supported by Alain Faubert, the bishop of Valleyfield, Que., and a member of the Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat — the body responsible to see that the global Church’s Synod on Synodality’s recommendations are implemented.
“I’m proud this is happening in Canada,” Fauber said. “I’m glad to be a part of it.”
The event is a sign that synodality is taking root among lay people in this country. “Not everything has to come from bishops and priests,” Faubert said.
The involvement of lay people is needed since God did not give priests, bishops and cardinals “all the gifts and talents” in the Church, he said.
“Everyone has a place in the orchestra,” he said. “We need to build bridges, not walls, not get stuck in echo chambers. That is the way forward. This synod in Waterloo can help lead the way.”
More information about synod can be found at https://www.synodalchurch.ca/
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