USG Assembly: a missionary vision

Sr Nathalie Becquart, under secretary of the Synod of Bishops

(SIR, 24 November 2021) "The challenge of the Synod is to embark on a journey centred on listening to the word of God. For the first time in two thousand years, a Synod involves the entire people of God". This was said by Sister Nathalie Becquart, under secretary of the Synod of Bishops, speaking on the first day of the 96th Assembly of the Union of Superiors General (UGS) with a report on "Synodality, a path of community conversion".

Sister Becquart recalled that "the Secretariat of the Synod is involving people, starting from the grassroots, in all continents": "The majority of dioceses have started the journey with a celebration and have organised a working team.It seems almost like the fruit of the Synod on Young People and the Synod on Amazonia. We must understand that the Synod is the style of the Church and we are all learning to be synodal and to listen to the sensus fidei".

"The diocesan phase is fundamental because it implies listening to all the baptised," the under-secretary continued: "The Pope is trying to reorganise the primacy of synodality in the people of God. A greater horizontality must be adopted, moving from the I to the we. The Synod is a missionary vision for service to society. It is not an experience limited to a few, but open to all".

For this reason, Sister Becquart concluded, addressing the more than one hundred Superiors General present, "we are called to live the synodal journey as a spiritual path": "We must learn to put synodality into practice. The challenge of the synodal conversion of the Church at all levels is a journey that never ends. Communion, participation and mission are the three key words. The invitation, for all, is to think of ourselves within the same people and the same community".