Pope Francis convened the 15th Synod of Bishops in October 2018. A synod of bishops brings together bishops from around the world, to discuss important topics in a fraternal way with the Pope, their brother bishop and leader. The 15th Synod has as its focus “young people, the faith and vocational discernment.”
Pope Francis invited 300 young people from around the world to come together in Rome for one week as a Pre-Synodal meeting – a gathering that issued a document to inform the Synod’s work. This document became part of the instrumentum laboris, or working document, prepared for final use at the Synod in October.
Nicole Perone '16 M.Div. was a delegate to the meeting and on the writing committee.
The experience of the Pre-Synodal Meeting which most struck me was how BIG the Church is. To spend time with young people from all corners of the world, living experiences I can only imagine, was breathtaking. It presented a challenge when writing the document, because of the breadth of lived experience that needed to be summarized. It also heartened me to see the threads of unity which bound us all, the same concerns which arose and the same spots of joy we sought. The global context of the Pre-Synodal Meeting was also impactful because it provided much-needed perspective: the issues which we think are of paramount importance can be far from the needs of our brothers and sisters.
"It is authentic to actually bring the people that you are talking about to the table and invite them to help shape the conversation in a way that is faithful to their lived experience." Nicole Perone '16 M.Div.
The fact remains that many Catholics have no idea what a Synod is or that one was taking place, let alone the Pre-Synodal Meeting. I am grateful that STM invited me to share my story at a fall Sunday dinner and made space for conversation around the experience of young people in the Church. STM and other avenues like it present an opportunity for evangelization of sorts: to share the magnificence of 300 young people, many of whom know and love Jesus, and speak on behalf of their generation to an ancient institution. Those who were there have the responsibility of sharing with others the hope that was palpable and entering into conversation – not only about what is written in the document, but about the experiences of young people in the Church moving forward.
That hope is why the Pre-Synodal Meeting matters: it called together the topics of the conversation to be protagonists of the conversation, to create space which became the conduit for the views, needs, struggles and dreams of young people. It is authentic to actually bring the people that you are talking about to the table and invite them to help shape the conversation in a way that is faithful to their lived experience. This is what Pope Francis did by asking us young people to be present: have a hand in the ways the Church will hear, understand and engage with us.
For more about the 15th Synod of Bishops: bit.ly/YoungPeopleSynod2018.
Pictured above, Nicole Perone meets Pope Francis.
