Content:
INTRODUCTION
PREAMBLE
PART I “HE WALKED WITH THEM”
Chapter 1 A Listening Church
Chapter II Three crucial Elements
Chapter III Identity and relations
Chapter IV Being young Today
PART II “THEIR EYES WERE OPENED”
Chapter I The gift of Youth
Chapter II The Mystery of Vocation
Chapter III The mission to accompany
Chapter IV The Art of Discernment
PART III THEY SET OFF WITHOUT DELAY
Chapter I The Missionary Synodality of the Church
Chapter II Walking together in daily life
Chapter III Renewed Missionary Vigour
Chapter IV Integral Formation
CONCLUSION
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INTRODUCTION
The Synodal event that we experienced
1. “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams” (Acts 2:17; cf. Joel 3:1). This is what we experienced during the Synod, walking together and listening out for the voice of the Spirit. He astonished us with the wealth of his gifts, he filled us with his courage and his strength so as to bring hope to the world.
We journeyed together, with the Successor of Peter, who strengthened us in faith and gave us fresh vigour and enthusiasm for the mission. Even though we came from widely differing backgrounds in cultural and ecclesial terms, we were aware from the outset of a spiritual bond uniting us, a desire for dialogue and a real empathy. We worked together, sharing our deepest concerns, communicating our anxieties, not concealing our burdens. Many of the interventions touched us deeply and awakened our evangelical compassion: we felt as one body, suffering and rejoicing together. We want to share with everyone the grace that we experienced and we want to pass on the joy of the Gospel to our Churches and to the whole world.
The presence of young people was a new departure: through them the voice of a whole generation was heard loud and clear at the Synod. Journeying with them as pilgrims to the tomb of Peter, we experienced how coming together in this way creates the conditions for the Church to become a space for dialogue and a witness to a life-giving fraternity. The strength of this experience overcomes all weariness and weakness. The Lord continues to say to us again and again: Do not be afraid, I am with you.
The process of preparation
2. We drew great benefit from the contributions of the episcopates and from the insights of pastors, religious, laypersons, experts, teachers and many others. From the outset the young people were involved in the synodal process: the online questionnaire, the large number of personal contributions and above all the Presynodal Meeting were an eloquent indication of this. Their contribution was essential, just as in the story of the loaves and the fish: Jesus was able to perform the miracle thanks to the helpful actions of a boy who generously offered what he had (cf. Jn 6:8-11).
All the contributions were summarized in the Instrumentum Laboris, which provided a solid basis for discussion throughout the weeks of the Assembly. Now the Final Document gathers together the results of this process and launches it into the future: it expresses what the Synod Fathers recognized, interpreted and chose in the light of God’s Word.
The Final Document of the Synodal Assembly
3. It is important to clarify the relationship between the Instrumentum Laboris and the Final Document. The former is the comprehensive and synthetic frame of reference that emerged from two years of listening; the latter is the fruit of the discernment that followed and it draws together thematically the key discussion points that the Synod Fathers focused on with particular intensity and passion. So we recognize the diversity and the complementarity of these two texts.
The present Document is offered to the Holy Father (cf. Francis, Episcopalis Communio, 18; Instruction, art. 35 §5) and also to the whole Church as a fruit of this Synod. Since the Synodal process is not yet over and the phase of implementation is still to come (cf. Episcopalis Communio, 19-21), the Final Document will be a roadmap for the next steps the Church is called to take.
* In the present document the term “Synod” may refer to the entire Synodal process or else to the General Assembly held from 3 to 28 October 2018.
PREAMBLE
Jesus journeys with the Emmaus disciples
4. We took the account of the journey to Emmaus (cf Lk 24:13-35) as a paradigmatic text for understanding the Church’s mission to younger generations. This passage expresses well what we experienced at the Synod and what we would like every one of our particular Churches to be able to experience in relation to the young. Jesus walks with these two disciples who have not grasped the meaning of what happened to him, while they are moving away from Jerusalem and from the community. So as to be in their company, he walks alongside them. He asks them questions and he listens patiently to their version of events, so as to help them recognize what they are experiencing.
Then, with affection and energy, he proclaims the Word to them, leading them to interpret the events they have experienced in the light of the Scriptures. He accepts the invitation to stay with them as evening falls: he enters into their night. As they listen, their hearts burn within them and their minds are enlightened; in the breaking of bread their eyes are opened. It is they who then choose to resume their journey at once in the opposite direction, to return to the community, sharing the experience of their encounter with the Risen Lord.
In continuity with the Instrumentum Laboris, the Final Document consists of three parts which correspond to the stages of this Gospel story. The first part is entitled “He walked with them” (Lk 24:15) and it seeks to illuminate what the Synod Fathers recognized of the context in which the young find themselves, highlighting its strengths and its challenges. The second part, “Their eyes were opened” (Lk 24:31), is interpretative and it provides some fundamental tools for understanding the synodal theme. The third part, entitled “They set out at once” (Lk 24:33), presents the choices for a spiritual, pastoral and missionary conversion.
PART I
He WALKED WITH THEM”
5. “That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them” (Lk 24:13-15).
In this passage the evangelist conveys the need of the two wayfarers to search for meaning in the events they have lived through. He focuses especially on the attitude of Jesus who joins them on their journey. The Risen Lord wants to walk alongside all young people, hearing their expectations, even those that are unmet, and their hopes, even those that are paltry. Jesus walks, listens and shares.
Chapter 1
A Listening Church
Listening and seeing with empathy
The value of listening
6. Listening is an encounter in freedom, which requires humility, patience, readiness to understand, and a commitment to formulate the answers in a new way. Listening transforms the hearts of those who do it, especially when it takes place with an interior disposition of harmony and docility to the Spirit. So it is not just a gathering of information, nor is it a strategy for achieving a goal, but it is the manner in which God himself relates to his people. God sees the wretchedness of his people and he hears their cry, he is deeply moved and he comes down to deliver them (cf. Ex 3:7-8). The Church, through listening, enters into the movement of God who, in his Son, comes close to every human being.
The young want to be heard
7. The young are called to make constant choices that give direction to their lives; they express the desire to be heard, recognized, accompanied. Many find that their voice is not considered interesting or useful in social and ecclesial circles. In some situations little attention is paid to their cry, particularly the cry of the poor and the exploited – few older people are willing and able to listen to them.
Listening in the Church
8. In the Church there are plenty of initiatives and consolidated experiences that can offer young people an experience of acceptance, listening and making themselves heard. The Synod recognizes, though, that the ecclesial community does not always succeed in conveying the attitude shown by Jesus towards the Emmaus disciples, when he asked them, before enlightening them with the Word, “What is this conversation which you are holding with each other as you walk?” (Lk 24:17).
Sometimes there can be a tendency to provide pre-packaged answers and ready-made solutions, without allowing the young people’s questions to emerge in their freshness and engaging with the challenges they pose.
Listening makes possible an exchange of gifts in a context of empathy. It allows young people to make their own contribution to the community, helping it to grasp new sensitivities and to consider new questions. At the same time it sets the conditions for a proclamation of the Gospel that can truly touch the heart, incisively and fruitfully.
Listening as practised by pastors and qualified laypersons
9. Listening is a key element in the ministry of pastors, above all in that of bishops, although bishops are frequently burdened by many duties and they struggle to find enough time for this essential service. Many have pointed out the shortage of qualified people dedicated to accompaniment. Belief in the theological and pastoral value of listening implies the need to rethink and renew the ways in which priestly ministry is ordinarily exercised and to conduct a review of its priorities. Moreover, the Synod recognizes the need to prepare consecrated persons and laypersons, male and female, who are qualified to accompany young people. The charism of listening that the Holy Spirit calls forth within the communities might also receive institutional recognition as a form of ecclesial service.
The variety of contexts and cultures
A plural world
10. The very composition of the Synod brought out the presence and the contribution of many different regions of the world, highlighting the beauty of being a universal Church. Notwithstanding a context of growing globalization, the Synod Fathers asked that the many differences between contexts and cultures, even within a single country, be duly noted. The plurality of young people’s worlds is so great that in some countries there is a tendency to use the term “youth” in the plural.
Moreover, the age range considered by the present Synod (16-29 years) does not represent a homogeneous category, but is made up of different groups each with their own life experience.
All these differences have a profound impact on young people’s concrete experience: they affect the different phases of maturing, the forms of religious experience, the structure of the family and its importance for the transmission of the faith, relations between generations – as for example the role of the elderly and the respect due to them – ways of participating in the life of society, attitudes towards the future, ecumenical and interreligious questions. The Synod recognizes and accepts the richness of the diversity of cultures and puts itself at the service of the communion of the Spirit.
Changes that are taking place
11. Of particular significance is the difference in demographic dynamics between countries with a high birthrate, where young people represent a significant and growing proportion of the population, and those in which the influence of the young is on the wane. A further differentiating factor is the result of history: there are countries and continents of ancient Christian tradition, whose culture is marked by a memory that is not to be lightly dismissed, but there are also countries and continents marked by other religious traditions, in which Christianity is a minority presence – often a recent one.
In other territories again, the Christian communities and the young people who belong to them suffer persecution.
Exclusion and marginalization
12. Then there are differences between countries – and within countries – caused by the structure of society and the economic power that separates, dramatically at times, those with access to the increasing opportunities offered by globalization from those who live on the margins of society or in the rural world and who find themselves excluded or discarded. A number of interventions signalled the need for the Church to align herself courageously on their side and to help build alternatives that remove exclusion and marginalization, reinforcing acceptance, accompaniment and integration.
This highlights the need to be aware of the indifference that affects many Christians too, so as to overcome it by deepening the social dimension of the faith.
Men and women
13. Nor must we overlook the difference between men and women with their characteristic gifts, their specific sensitivities and their experiences of life. This difference can give rise to forms of domination, exclusion and discrimination, from which all societies, including the Church, need to be liberated.
The Bible presents man and woman as equal partners before God (cf. Gen 5:2): all domination and discrimination based on sex is an offence against human dignity. The Bible also presents the difference between the sexes as a mystery that is constitutive of the human being and cannot be reduced to stereotypes. The relation between man and woman is understood in terms of a vocation to live together in reciprocity and in dialogue, in communion and in fruitfulness (cf. Gen 1:27-29; 2:21-25) in every area of human experience: life as a couple, work, education and so on. God has entrusted the earth to their covenant.
Cultural colonization
14. Many Synod Fathers coming from non-Western contexts point out that in their countries globalization brings with it forms of cultural colonization which uproot young people from their cultural and religious origins. The Church needs to make a commitment to accompany them in this process so that they do not lose sight of the most precious features of their identity.
There are contrasting interpretations of the process of secularization. Some see it as a welcome opportunity to be purified from a religiosity based on mere custom or on ethnic and national identities, while others see it as an obstacle to the transmission of the faith. In secular societies we are also witnessing a rediscovery of God and of spirituality. For the Church this should act as a stimulus to recover the importance of the dynamisms of faith, proclamation and pastoral accompaniment
A first look at the Church of today
The Church’s involvement in education
15. There are many regions where young people see the Church as a force that is alive and engaging, of significance also for their contemporaries who do not believe or who belong to other religions. The Church’s educational institutions seek to welcome all young people, irrespective of their religious choices, their cultural origins and their personal, family or social situation. In this way the Church makes a fundamental contribution to the integral education of the young in many different parts of the world. This happens through education in schools of every shape and size, in centres of professional formation, in colleges and in universities, but also in youth centres and oratories; this commitment is also demonstrated through the welcome given to refugees and the great variety of forms of social engagement. In all these ways the Church unites her witness and her proclamation of the Gospel to her educational work and her human promotion. When inspired by intercultural and interreligious dialogue, the Church’s educational activity is appreciated even by non-Christians as an authentic form of human promotion.
Activities in youth ministry
16. As the Synod progressed, it became clear that youth ministry needs a vocational slant, and that vocational pastoral care should be directed towards all young people. It was emphasized that pastoral programmes need to address the whole period from infancy through to adult life, helping the young to find their place in the Christian community. It was also noted that numerous parish groups, movements and youth associations already offer an effective process of accompaniment and formation for the young in their life of faith.
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