Synod on Synodality

Introspection & self expression, not so much proselytizing

Feb 01, 2022

Woodstock: By Joni Mitchell 1969 1

… “We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden” …

About the world there are sixteen percent atheists, agnostics and people who do not identify with any particular religion, say 1,126,500,000 people. The Christian faith embraces about thirty one percent of the world’s population. Say for easy reference that equates to 2,200,000,000 (billion) people, multiply that by three and one-half times, then one has approximately 7,900,000,000 (billion) people on earth today. Of the 2.2B number, 50% are Catholic, 37% Protestant, 12% Orthodox, and 1% other according to worldometers.info2.

I have been a Roman Catholic (Christian) longer than my memory of the christening allows. The time period is even longer than my mother’s time, God rest her soul, when she had her conversion to the Catholic faith in the late ’50’s. I tell you so, because the faith instructed my character and beliefs, be they good and correct, or, bad and crooked.

I respect all faiths and religiously unaffiliated peoples although I do not know the trusts specific to the many faiths. This respect is based on the higher sense of spirituality which intellectually, faithfully and scientifically suggests a continuum of souls from birth to beyond death and who knows.

My Uncle Millard Carey Jarrett was fond of saying “You can wait on the Lord, or, you can wait on the Lord.” He played guitar in Alabama with Hank Williams, for a time. I respected his thoughtfulness as an elder. The ‘church’, as within any assembly or family, is made up of elders. Just as I had high regard for Uncle Millard’s wisdom, I learned with age and time to recognize the richness of the Judeo-Christian heritage passed along through recorded history.

With the likes of Michael the Archangel, Anthony of Padua, or Francis of Assisi, these lives impacted my life. None of which discounts any belief or unbelief, you the reader, may carry. Millard’s grandson once talked with me at length about the 10 universes concurrent to ours.

So this is a consequential zoetic message that may be carried beyond earthly eyes and ears, to unseen rays and waves of unknown dimensions. It is a message of spiritual movement be that spirit be a ghost, holy, great, or a force moving through all things.

There is a lot to digest when addressing the document put out last year by the Vatican”:

‘ 1. The Church of God is convoked in Synod. The path entitled “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission” will solemnly open on the 9th – 10th of October 2021 in Rome and on the following 17th of October in each particular Church. ’3

The synod is “joining together” some aspects of a global assembly with balance, without homogenizing the whole. I opine the synod to be a conversation to glean from the mass of billions, a deep and quiet and profound voice, maybe voices, to help elucidate the path as a people as a whole travel. Individuals within the entire church about the globe, have been asked to address a series of questions to help prepare for the 2023 Synod on Synodality, Here is a sampling of the items I intend to answer.

How do we promote a free and authentic communication with the community of the Church and its organizations?
How do we listen to one another and listen to the Holy Spirit?
How do we encourage openness in our society to those who are poor and living on the margins?
What kind of change can build up the church so that the church speaks to the needs of the 21st century?
What do you hope for the church?
What do you most want for your children through their Catholic faith formation?
What causes you (if anything) sadness about the Church?
What is it that you want to tell Pope Francis that is important to you?

I will hit “Submit”. An abbreviated narrative to some items I will address in my the synod request form responses, as follows:

Gender recognition of God to be considered. This idea may cause sacred scripture to be rewritten such that all understand the gender neutral character of a divine source and what the results in our world views.
The hierarchy can begin to blend the human patriarchy and add human matriarchy for equality, (E = P + M). There has for millennia been dominance of one sex over another in known history, Greek culture not withstanding. Current canon law may be interpreted to suggest this remain the truth. I disagree with the conventional thought. Certain groups may require such inequality, however a planetary “catholic” church need not follow suit.
Rid the church of the notions of a just war, begin to justify the alternatives to war, look with unbiased eyes the reasons wars begin, the innocent people ruled by domination and the lives lost, Both the holy innocents and subjugated bystanders in all wars, during all eras, touching all humans have been and remain at risk to fall victim to violent conflict. It is time the thirty percent of the world’s population emphatically declare all war outlawed, illegal and never useful.
Re-unite Roman Catholic with Eastern Orthodox Catholics, as well as Protestants. Ecumenicalism is certainly one of the aims of the synod.
Rekindle goodwill and knowledge, for and in, the lost generations particularly in Western Europe and the US of A. Reactions and inaction by Bishops allowing cleric pedophilia caused such a brutal backlash against those in authority in the hierarchy.
Rid the rank and file clergy of the hypocrisy of homosexuality. Allow marriage, holy matrimony within the ranks.
Encourage the entire assembly, all about the world, how best to implement the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, in a more proactive manner to minimize physical and spiritual suffering of others.

As the “corporal works of mercy” grow as a concern, the material and physical needs of others will be met. As the “spiritual works of mercy” grow as a concern the spiritual needs of others will be realized and acted on.

The corporal works include feeding the hungry, allowing water to the thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering those without homes, visiting the physically and mentally ill, the imprisoned, helping those in bondage to be free, bury the dead.
Spiritual works include instructing the ignorant, counseling the doubtful, warning the transgressors, patiently communicating with those who have wronged us, forgiving offenses, comforting the afflicted, being united and in union for the living and the dead.

Synod on Synodality, I know very convoluted, yes? If the notion of a “synod” is of interest to you a preparatory document from the Holy See is found here: https://www.synod.va/content/dam/synod/document/common/preparatory-document/pdf-21x21/Documento-Preparatorio-EN-21.pdf.

As with many Vatican documents there there is much to digest. It takes a lot of fortitude for the common lay person to open, investigate, study and correctly understand ecclesial materials. This message can not address the entire scope involved.

To be exceedingly brief, with one synod excerpt quoted below, that strikes home in the the main objectives of the document, “which manifest synodality as the form, the style, and the structure of the Church:“

“ accrediting the Christian community as a credible subject and reliable partner in paths of social dialogue, healing, reconciliation, inclusion and participation, the reconstruction of democracy, the promotion of fraternity and social friendship;”

Voices of the Synod

To truely listen to another earthling, be they human, animal or plant , one’s attentiveness is paramount. The difficult task of being non disapproving of another’s acts and station in life is seemingly the first step. One is helped in knowing what makes up the selfless attitude of the person.

A Zoetic Message:

We (no matter faithful or faithless) somehow have lost ourselves and our mission of destiny, throughout a significant number of human generations. This should not be a reason to maintain the status quo. Joni Mitchell sings the message for us, “… get ourselves back to the garden”. The way has been mapped out we need only to listen to, feel, and see the inner Spirit.

As Uncle Millard says, ‘Wait, on the Lord”. The choice of how this, to wait or to wait, is accomplished, is a decision that is solely up to the individual. In the great mystery of life either choice will be acceptable to the cosmic goodness that permeates all space and non-space, in an unending universe. It is in our acts of love, our message moves.

A Zoetic Message

Synod on Synodality

Introspection & self expression, not so much proselytizing

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