Listening, discernment, prophecy. The three phases of the path that brought the Italian Church until the appointment of the second synodal assembly outline the importance of enhancing the participation of the communities to welcome the voices of the spirit in concrete experiences, the identification of the pastoral priorities, always led by the Gospel and the courageous choices to be made to build open, inclusive and solidarity communities, avoiding reducing the Synod to mere structural change.
Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, president of the CEI, opened the second synodal assembly by guiding prayer to invoke the spirit and the health of the Pope. Francis intervenes, with a message, insisting on the theme of Christian joy. “Christian joy,” he writes, “it is never exclusive, but always inclusive, it is for everyone. It is accomplished in the folds of everyday life and sharing: it is a joy with wide horizons, which accompanies a welcoming style. It is the gift of God – let’s always remember -; It is not an easy joy, it does not arise from comfortable solutions to problems, it does not avoid the cross, but flows from the certainty that the Lord never leaves us alone. I have experienced it too in hospitalization, and now in this time of convalescence ». A joy, Cardinal Zuppi continues, rooted in the encounter with God and in the fraternity, as an antidote to pessimism and individualism. “Our thoughts”, he reiterates, “goes to Pope Francis, who has made the figure of his ministry about the rest of the Gaudium, to free from a sad Christianity, folded on himself, reduced to a reassuring, restless for the interior and not for the world, obsessed defender of his fears that exchanges by truth because he has lost the sense of history, becoming a purist judge, active pelagia that reasoning or interpretation of various sign ». And urging “outgoing” Christianity, he recalled the importance of the synodal path started in 2021, inspired by the 2015 Florence conference and the Pope’s magisterium, to renew the church.
By recalling the Second Vatican Council, in particular Gaudium et Spes, the Cardinal highlighted the vocation of the Church to dialogue with the world, to the sharing of joys and suffering of humanity, and to universal fraternity by urged to overcome self -referentiality and fears, favoring authentic relationships and the commitment in existential suburbs.
Finally he invited to continue with hope towards Jubilee 2025, living as “pilgrims of joy” united to Christ. And, in recalling the task of the assembly to translate the synod propositions into concrete actions, for a more missionary and communal church, he recalled the words of Father Turoldo: “You who believe / you who hope / run on all the streets, the squares / to reveal the great secret … go to tell the four winds / that the night passes / that everything has a meaning / that Love in the end will win the oblivion / and life will defeat death. / You who have intuited it by grace / continue the journey / spread your joy / continue to say / that hope has no boundaries ».
