Originally published at National Catholic Register
The Vatican announced on Saturday its latest plans for the Synod on Synodality’s ongoing implementation — a multiyear “accompaniment and evaluation process” leading to a Church-wide assembly at the Vatican in October 2028.
CNA explains more about the process and why it has been initiated:
Implementation Phase
Initiated by Pope Francis in October 2021, the Synod on Synodality was a multiyear, worldwide process of the Catholic Church focused on exploring the question “What steps does the Spirit invite us to take in order to grow in our ‘journeying together’?”
The synod went through diocesan, national, and continental stages in phase one, the “consultation” phase. Two global, monthlong assemblies were held at the Vatican in October 2023 and October 2024 as part of the next “discernment” phase.
The 2024 synod gathering, which included for the first time both bishops and non-bishops as voting members, was largely focused on discussing the question “What processes, structures, and institutions are needed in a missionary synodal Church?”
At the end of the month, Pope Francis chose to ratify the assembly’s final report rather than write his own postsynodal document, stating that “there are already very concrete indications in the document that can be a
