Catholics in the Archdiocese of Cologne want change
The diocesan participation phase in the Archdiocese of Cologne for the World Synod 2021-23 has reached a certain milestone. In the course of the Catholic World Synod, users could use the motto “Tell the Pope – what should the future of the Church look like?” from February 1 to March 18, make contributions to various topics named by Pope Francis via an internet platform.
Until the participation platform is closed world synod.cologne on Friday, March 18, 5,417 posts and 1,243 comments were collected. A total of 1,725 users, including 136 groups, made contributions. About 40% of all contributions were determined in the final week.
“Our expectations were clearly exceeded!”
“Our goal of getting the people in the Archdiocese of Cologne interested in participating has become a reality – even more: Our expectations were clearly exceeded!” says Michael Hänsch, member of the synod team in the Archdiocese of Cologne.
“In view of the current situation in the Archdiocese of Cologne, we were ultimately surprised at how many people made the World Synod their own,” says Hänsch happily.
In the coming weeks, the contributions will be evaluated and calculated by the Archdiocese. The result will be the basis for consultation for a diocesan synodal assembly from April 30 to May 1, 2022 in Cologne.
Bishoprics send overall paper to Rome
According to the information, 150 delegates will discuss the feedback at this conference. These are then to be introduced into the further universal church synod process. The German Bishops’ Conference will forward the results of the consultations of all German dioceses to Rome in an overall paper by August 15, it said. The synod was originally planned for autumn 2022. Pope Francis is extending it to a two-year process in which topics are to be collected at the diocesan level worldwide.
Synod of Bishops in autumn 2023
The Plenary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops will convene at the Vatican in October 2023 and will adopt recommendations for the Pope at the end of the process.
The General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops set the goal of the two-year process a few weeks ago with the preparatory document entitled “For a Synodal Church: Community, Participation and Mission”.