From 24-26 October 2025, I, as one of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) delegates and the laity representative and deputy secretary of the SACBC Commission for Synodality, attended the Jubilee of Synodal Teams and Participatory Bodies in Rome.
On the first day we went for our accreditation – that’s when delegates from different parts of the world got a chance to meet and greet each other. According to Cardinal Mario Grech, the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, over 2000 participants were in attendance. The theme of Synod on Synodality, “Communion, Participation, and Mission”, had truly come alive.
Later on in the day, as delegates we had an encounter with Pope Leo. The Holy Father listened to regional reports on the implementation phase of the Synod on Synodality and answered questions from those who were delivering the reports. What stood out for me was when the Pontiff said, “Synod on Synodality is a faith response to what’s going on in the world.”
The second day started with the jubilee pilgrimage and passage through the Holy Door at the Basilica. It was mesmerizing seeing how the participants, with utmost humility made their way through the Holy Door. After the pilgrimage we all moved into different language groups, where we were going to attend various workshops and seminars. Each was to attend two sessions – I chose to attend one on ‘Inter-religious Dialogue in the Life of a Synodal Church’, and the other on ‘Training in the Conversation in the Spirit.’
The reason I chose the workshop on inter-religious dialogue, is because of my representation of the SACBC within the South African Council of Churches. As Mons. Luis Marin de San Martin, O.S.A., Undersecretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod put it, “Mission means walking together. It is not enough to ‘tell’ others, nor merely to ‘do’ for others, it is necessary to ‘be’ with others, to go to them, to feel with them.” As for the attendance of the one on training in the conversation in the Spirit (which I think should’ve been a session for everyone), I just wanted to equip myself for when as the conference’s commission we will be dialoguing with the teams of the various dioceses within the SACBC region.
The jubilee came to a close on Sunday, 26 October with Mass by Pope Leo.
In his homily, the Pontiff said, “As synodal teams and members of participatory bodies, you know that ecclesial discernment requires “interior freedom, humility, prayer, mutual trust, an openness to the new and a surrender to the will of God. It is never just a setting out of one’s own personal or group point of view or a summing up of differing individual opinions” (Final Document, 26 October 2024, 82). Being a synodal Church means recognizing that truth is not possessed, but sought together, allowing ourselves to be guided by a restless heart in love with Love.”
For me, I believe that through Synod on Synodality, we are fully opening up ourselves to being led by the Holy Spirit – we are deepening the fruits of the Holy Spirit in our lives, within the Church, and in the world. We are also reinforcing our bond with the Church and Christ. And in a world that prays to a God they somehow do not believe in, through the Synod on Synodality, we are equipping ourselves to defend our faith in action more than just in words.
We read in Acts 2:1-4, that
“When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
Right now, as a Church, through Synod on Synodality we have given the Holy Spirit the chance to rest on us and make us speak in tongues that are understood by the poor, the marginalized, and all those who want to renew their relationship with God.
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