Witnessing the Church

“Welcome to the beating heart of the church.”

Last October, as I met the cobblestone streets of Rome, this remark greeted me. I’m sure the speaker intended to imbue me with awe and wonder as my peers of the Curran Center for American Catholic Studies course Church on the GO and I witnessed the monumental First Session of the Universal Stage of the Synod on Synodality. Yet, instead of awe and wonder, it sparked questions and unsettled, incomplete dissatisfaction. Welcome to the beating heart of the Church reminded me of the historically exclusive and hierarchical reality of the Catholic Church. Though wary, my presence in Rome sustained me with hope for the synodal process that is gifting the Church with renewal and reorientation.

As I continue to witness from my engagement and research, the Synod on Synodality is an ongoing process of conversion for the Catholic Church. The Holy Spirit leads this process, expanding the Church’s horizons to new ways of being, thinking, and loving, which more closely embodies the inclusive, relational, and just essence of our unfolding God. 

The process began by inviting communities worldwide to host consultative listening sessions, where all the faithful were encouraged to share their experiences of church, including their joys and sufferings, with honest transparency. The wisdom-filled experiences of the People of God were then deeply listened to, prayed with, refined, and gathered through the synthesis processes, which took place on local and continental levels. Then, at the Universal Sessions, respectively, during October 2023 and October 2024, synod delegates, who are not only bishops but lay people, women, and young people, gather to participate in the communal discernment of what the Holy Spirit has raised from the People of God.   

Visiting Rome to witness the first Universal Session in October 2023 was a gift. Yet, once I returned to Fordham, I knew that this process and call to conversion must take root in my own heart and community, too. As the hopes and wounds of the People of God on the local level, in parishes and other Catholic communities, have been raised by the Holy Spirit to the top of the hierarchy, the model and practices of synodality must conversely trickle down. If this is genuinely Church-wide conversion, as opposed to another program that is inclusive to the powerful, collared members of the Body of Christ, its fruits, attitudes, and processes must be embraced with openness, commitment to hard work, and trust in all levels of the Church.

Believing in the essentiality of the wholehearted grassroots-level embrace of synodality, my project partner, Mollie Clark, and I felt called to investigate the ways that synodality is manifesting in the peripheries beyond the Vatican walls, or as I see them, the many beating hearts of the Church. Supported by Fordham’s Center on Religion and Culture Duffy Fellows Program, we set off to discover the diversified embodiments of synodality practiced in and transforming dioceses, parishes, lay and community movements and organizations, and individual hearts across the United States. 

This past summer, we were received by communities in San Diego, Houston, San Antonio, and Seattle, among others willing to share their hard work, processes, and creative practices, of synodality relating to their unique contexts. Our efforts will uplift the incredible work of the committed individuals and communities that embraced us, continue to pave the path for the Church to actively learn from and with each other on this communal conversion, and help synodality become more accessible and recognized beyond the media-covered official synodal process.

Before leaving for our summer pilgrimage of synodal encounters, I endured the temptation to self-doubt and deprecate. I am a young woman, historically intended to be devalued and irrelevant in the eyes of the Church. How can I believe, let alone imagine, that I am a gift to the Church? Similarly, while I am privileged to undertake my undergraduate studies, I don’t have impressive degrees or qualifications to show for myself. While these discouragements tempted my heart, the daily scripture readings, days before our departure, consoled and affirmed my role to play in the Church and the synodal process. As God extended a hand to Jeremiah’s mouth, God did the same to Mollie,  you, and me, saying:

 Say not, ‘I am too young.’ To whomever I send you, you shall go; whatever I command you, you shall speak. Have no fear before them, because I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD …  See, I place my words in your mouth! This day I set you over nations and over kingdoms, To root up and to tear down, to destroy and to demolish, to build and to plant (Jeremiah 1:7-10). 

We are nudged to embrace our co-responsibility where our feet are and abandon the illusion of subordination that creeps into a lay, Catholic imagination. 

With newfound courage, Mollie and I were sent to be deep listeners and witnesses to the unfolding synodal process on the ground, from committed hearts on sacred car rides to parish-wide feast celebrations. Every human we encountered on our pilgrimage proved to us that we are all protagonists with an irrevocable role of participation in the synodal process, and the Church’s mission. We were also taught that prayer is central and essential to synodality. Therefore, I share this prayer of mine to unite us and call to mind all who will be gathering in Rome this October:

May synodality, this conversion and new way of being  that is not hierarchical but flows from an embrace of our relatedness and interdependence, take root in the Church and our own communities, relationships, and hearts. May all ears, those in the synod hall and our own, be opened to the Holy Spirit. Teach us to listen, trust, and recognize You in each other as we learn to walk with each other. 

For those of you continuing to learn about synodality and discerning your own role in this process, Mollie and I invite you to witness the experiences of synodality from our project. Our writing will feature the main convergences that the Holy Spirit has raised through the multiplicity of witnesses we received and inspiring practices. Synodality continues to take root in the Church and our communities, which are all the beating hearts of the Church, and we hope and trust that the Church needs all of us.