The Australian National Synthesis for the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, colloquially known as the Synod on Synodality, has been published this morning. The Australian synthesis draws from the local diocesan consultations that took places between October 2021 and March 2022, after which diocesan reports were prepared. Countries around the world are producing national syntheses that will assist the Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops in its ongoing work to prepare the international gathering in Rome in October 2023.

Can synodality become a deeper element of Catholic life in the United States? Our current process may prove this to be so. One of the central sentiments expressed in our diocesan synodal consultations has been that the people of God have at times not been meaningfully heard and responded to in the institutional life of the church, and they fear that the synodal process might be another in a series of moments when hopes are raised only to be frustrated. But the current synod process offers a glimpse of a church yet to come. Hundreds of thousands of Catholics have engaged with the church on their joys, their sorrows and their hopes for what the church can be today and tomorrow.

The Plenary Council, the most significant event in the life of the Catholic Church in Australia for 80 years, comes to its conclusion in early July in Sydney, with the second session.

For most people who have been on the journey of these past six years it has been a fruitful time. My own experience is that while the process was unfamiliar to me, it is not an unfamiliar pathway of the Church over 2000 years. I have found that one can only understand what synodality is all about when you are part of it. Just because it is unfamiliar; just because it has called us to learn new, or forgotten skills such as listening, collaboration and discernment; just because it is not perfect, does not mean that the process is wrong or that we should as those signs on the highway say ‘Go back wrong way’. It is a legitimate pathway forward.

Family road trips tend to be the stuff of lore. Growing up in the American Midwest, my family of six regularly piled into our Ford Econoline conversion van to drive several hours across state lines to visit grandparents and cousins. Even the short trips required planning, packing and multiple references to the road atlas. As soon as we climbed into the van, dad would lead us in a prayer for a safe journey and off we went. Stops were frequent – petrol top-offs, toilet breaks, roadside cafes, or the need to blow off some steam after an argument. There were the occasional flat tyres or some other mechanical failure that would force us to delay our trip. Sometimes weather events like a blizzard or tornado would force us to turn around and go back home or spend the night in a roadside motel.

We drown in information today. What was so brilliant about the consultation and discernment phases of the Plenary Council and our own Diocesan Assembly was the role of discernment and asking that vital question, ‘What do you think God is asking of Australia at this time?’.

If we are not still asking that question then we might be a little bit stuck on that previous question, ‘What’s in it for me?’. While not a bad question, it is inadequate. We need the ‘What’s in it for us?’ so continuing to ask ‘What do you think God is asking of Australia at this time?’ is vital.

How do the Diocesan Assembly, Plenary Council and 2023 Synod of Bishops tie together?

For all its prominence in church jargon these days, the term synodality does not have a long history; it is a neologism coined only about 20 years ago. No wonder, then, that Catholics are puzzled by it and by Pope Francis’ call for a more synodal church. The puzzlement is especially acute in the United States, where until recently scant attention has been paid to synodality. Yet it is an urgent issue, vital for the well-being of the church today. The Catholic Church in the United States should not lag behind the rest of the world in addressing it.

Adelaide Archbishop Patrick O’Regan is one of two Australian bishops chosen to participate in the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Rome in October 2023.

The first general assembly of the Plenary Council, meeting October 3-10, was an extraordinary experience. About 300 members of the Catholic community in Australia engaged in a process of communal discernment involving people from almost every sphere of Church life including laity, deacons, bishops and priests.

Within the space of a month, three significant events have happened within our church: our local Diocesan Assembly, the first session of the Fifth Plenary Council of the Catholic Church in Australia and the beginning phase of the next Synod of Bishops to be held in 2023 on synodality.