Is Synodality enough to stop the haemorrhaging from our parishes? 02
A series of newsletters on Synodality in the parish
This is the second of a series of four newsletters on synodality, as the Church lives through the Synod on Synodality this month in Rome. This series originally appeared as a single article on Church Life Journal. The first instalment can be read here.
Key #1: The Primacy of Evangelization
At the beginning of this year, 2023, Pope Francis embarked on a new series of catechesis on mission and evangelization. His uncompromising passion for evangelization—epitomized in the defining and inspirational Evangelii Gaudium—has catalyzed a new missionary zeal within the Church. His direct style, which has turbocharged missionary efforts, is encapsulated well in these recent words:
When Christian life loses sight of the horizon of evangelization, the horizon of proclamation, it grows sick: it closes in on itself, it becomes self-referential, it becomes atrophied. Without apostolic zeal, faith withers. Mission, on the other hand, is the oxygen of Christian life: it invigorates and purifies it.1
Fr. James Mallon points out an important link between the root of the Greek word for synodality, “syn-hodos” and the similar word, exodus, or “ex-hodos.”
“Syn-hodos” means “on the road together”; “ex-hodos” means leaving to go on the road. The problem is that so many of our churches are still locked up into a kind of fortress mentality. You’re not going to be on the road together if you’re locked up in the fortress. I think there needs to be an “exodus” first and foremost.
Synodal meetings that have had a whiff of self-referentiality about them—hand-wringing, insular politics, and tired doctrinal debates—have likely been attempting the “syn-hodos” without the “ex-hodos”: communities that have not left the building, that are “closed in on themselves” and “locked up,” blind or ambivalent to the disengaged falling away in droves.
And yet, when the “syn-hodos” is effectively defined by the “ex-hodos,” we see the gift to the evangelization of building “synodal muscle.” While we may have experienced a fair amount of eye-rolling at the phrase, “listening Church,” countless small testimonies across the world have witnessed to the evangelizing power of listening. Deep listening is a step towards “making room” or empathy, overcoming divisions through getting into the shoes of the other, with a desire to understand his or her otherness. A synodal approach calls us to acquire these new skills or muscles which are so needed in a Church marked by deeply anti-missionary culture wars.
Using listening in this way can be a powerful pre-evangelization tool—not the kerygmatic proclamation itself (see General Directory for Catechesis §31–37 for the stages of evangelization). Many have described listening as a healing or bridge-building process (cf. Sherry Weddell’s first threshold of conversion, “trust”2). If you are actively engaged in walking with someone to faith, whether from no religion, or in the case of someone who has lapsed, back to the Church, you will know that a good proportion of your evangelistic activity is spent listening. Fr. Mallon comments,
I’m in an Alpha small group right now with a group of young people several of whom have no connection with the Church and almost see the Church as an enemy, and yet here we are, sitting in a circle opening our hearts to each other. And some of the things that are said are pretty wild and crazy, and there’s that voice that says, “shut up and listen.” Because it’s in the listening, in hearing the heart of another person that builds relationship, that builds trust. It’s this process that can open people up to hearing the truth of the Gospel.
Sr. Nathalie Becquart shares that, “synodality begins with a cup of coffee . . . In a diocese in the United States, . . . they organized 60,000 cups [to be distributed to parishes]. They asked each person in the pews to have coffee with three people who are not part of the community.” It is a clear and tangible example of synodality with a missional (exodus) heart.
While there are countless communities that have not yet left their churches to go on the road (maybe walking together around the insides of their parish halls?), there are growing numbers of other communities that have left their church buildings: for these communities, listening to those far from the Church is leading to profound moments of healing and conversion. It is precisely the power of evangelization tools such as Alpha, which have the wisdom and experience to listen before teaching.
Practically Speaking
Synodal evangelization, I would suggest, entails three realities:
1. Evangelizing Collectively (As Well As Individually)
For decades, Catholics have known they are commissioned to evangelize, and yet individuals without a strong personal charism of evangelism will be defeated by a powerful, non-evangelizing Catholic culture. The only way to shift culture is the power of everybody. Building “synodal muscle” reminds us that we are more powerful when we go out together. Parishes normalize evangelizing culture over years through multiple, overlapping means: preaching about invitation; evangelizing collectively through tools such as Alpha; pastors modeling invitation by engaging their own unchurched friends; prayer campaigns where every parishioner prays at the same time each day for those they plan to invite; testimonies of conversion at big gatherings or at Mass. Relentless, determined energy is needed to change stubborn and ingrained cultural behaviors and this is where support from ministries like Divine Renovation can be invaluable.
2. Pre-Evangelization Tactics Such as Listening are Only the Warm-Up Act to Kerygmatic Proclamation
All our patience in listening reaches its climax in the proclamation, the main event. “We have rediscovered the fundamental role of the first announcement or kerygma, which needs to be the center of all evangelizing activity and all efforts at Church renewal” (Evangelii Gaudium §164). Evangelization that stops with listening, or with great hospitality and welcome, is not evangelization. And proclaiming the kerygma always invites a response: “Conversion means accepting, by a personal decision, the saving sovereignty of Christ and becoming his disciple” (Redemptoris Missio §46).
3. Going Out, Not Just Welcoming In
Churches developing inviting environments, hospitality, and welcome ministries are undertaking admirable preliminary groundwork for evangelization: but they are still missing the all-important “ex-hodos” and have not left the building. Building the culture of a collective approach (“everybody’s doing it”) normalizes a culture where parishioners grow in natural evangelization: building relationships, witnessing to, and inviting friends, colleagues, family members, and even strangers.
In the final two instalments, we will look at how Synodality relates to the other two keys of parish renewal: the best of leadership principles and the power of the Holy Spirit.
“Mission is the oxygen of Christian life,” L’Osservatore Romano, 13 January 2023.
Weddell, Forming Intentional Disciples.