Not an administrative check nor an end-of-course assessment, but a spiritual exercise of community discernment. This is the meaning of the document Remember. Accompany the preparation of the Evaluation Assembly of the local Churchpublished by General Secretariat of the Synod and sent to all Eastern Catholic dioceses and eparchies to accompany the final phase of the process of implementing the Synod on synodality.
The text offers criteria, questions and practical indications to bishops and synod teams to prepare theEvaluation Assembly of the Local Churchexpected in the first half of 2027, a decisive stage in a journey that began in 2021 and is destined to culminate in the Ecclesial Assembly of October 2028 in the Vatican.
“Remembering” means recognizing God’s action
The title of the aid recalls a profoundly biblical expression. In Scripture, in fact, “remembering” does not simply mean remembering the past, but recognizing how God has worked in history to illuminate the present and open the future. This is the perspective also indicated by the cardinal Mario Grechgeneral secretary of the Synod: «Evaluating is not a technical exercise, but an experience of gratitude and truth. Remembering means recognizing what the Lord has brought to fruition in the journey of our communities and allowing ourselves to be guided towards the next steps. This is how a Church becomes increasingly capable of conversion». The objective, therefore, is not to measure results with quantitative criteria, but to identify the changes that the Spirit has brought about in the life of Christian communities.
Pope Leo
(HANDLE)
Who is the document intended for?
The aid is aimed first and foremost at the bishops, responsible for the synod process in their respective dioceses, and at the synod teams responsible for coordinating the work.
It does not propose a rigid model to be applied everywhere, but it offers a flexible method that each local Church can adapt to its own reality. In the background remains what was stated by Pope Leo
The first step: telling the story of the diocese
The first part of the document is dedicated to the preparation of Narrative reporta text of approximately 6-8 pages (3,000-4,000 words) in which each diocese will have to re-read its own synodal path.
Before drafting, extensive community listening work is planned. Testimonies from different areas of ecclesial life must be collected: parishes, associations, movements, religious institutes, families, young people and even those who live on the margins of the life of the Church. Alongside the successes, the difficulties encountered and the questions still open must also emerge.
The material collected will then be the subject of a spiritual rereading through three steps suggested by the document: collecting the memory of the lived experience; recognize and listen to the signs of God’s presence and grasp the transformation processes that are changing people, relationships and ecclesial structures.
Discernment must be conducted in light of the three conversions indicated in the Final Document of the Synod: the conversion of relationships, that of ecclesial processes and that of bonds within the community.
The 2027 Evaluation Assembly
The central moment will be the Evaluation Assembly of the local Church, convened by the bishop during the first semester of 2027. The Assembly will not be a simple organizational meeting, but an experience defined by the document as “deeply spiritual”. Participants will receive the narrative report in advance and will be asked to study it in depth through the now characteristic method of “Conversations in the Spirit”, so that the final text is truly an expression of the entire community and not just of the work of the synodal team.
At the end of the Assembly two documents will be approved. The first is the Definitive narrative accountwhich describes the face of the Synodal Church that is emerging in the diocese and identifies the main challenges still open. The second is a Letter to the other Churches, inspired by the ancient ones litterae communionis with which the first Christian communities shared their experience of faith. In approximately two pages each diocese will recount the fruits matured in the synodal journey, the commitments it intends to undertake for the future and a word of hope addressed to the other Churches.
The deadlines of the journey
Once validated by the bishop, the Narrative Report and the Letter will be transmitted to the national or regional synod team and to the General Secretariat of the Synod by 30 June 2027. From that moment a new phase of the journey will begin: the Assemblies of the Episcopal Conferences and the Eastern Catholic Churches will take place in the second half of 2027; in the first quarter of 2028 it will be the turn of the continental Assemblies and, finally, in October 2028 the great ecclesial Assembly will be held in the Vatican which will conclude the process of implementing the 2021-2028 Synod. Each stage will be characterized by a guiding verb: «Interpret» for the Episcopal Conferences, «Orientate» for the Continental Assemblies and «Celebrate» for the final ecclesial Assembly.
A method more than a goal
The aid insists above all on the method. More than setting objectives to be achieved or indicators of success, it invites local Churches to cultivate a style made of mutual listening, participation, discernment and co-responsibility. This is why the document does not speak of a conclusion, but of a stage. “Remembering” means recognizing the transforming action of the Spirit in the life of Christian communities and allowing ourselves to be guided towards new steps of conversion. This is the logic that will accompany the universal Church until the Ecclesial Assembly of 2028, called to collect and share what has developed in the Churches around the world.
