Prophetic Communities-Synodal Synthesis Report 2023

SYNODAL SYNTHESIS REPORT

COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS ENGAGE IN THE SYNODAL PROCESS

From February 9 to 11, nearly 150 Catholic community organizers, community leaders, academics, women religious, priests, and people involved in faithbased community organizing within the Catholic Church in key areas such as labor, immigration, climate justice, civic participation, racial and economic justice, etc. participated in a synodal listening and discernment process as part of a conference titled “Prophetic Communities: Community Organizing as an Expression of Catholic Social Thought.” The goals of the three rounds of spiritual conversation, in addition to continuing to form these faithful people in the method of synodality, were to name the joys and obstacles of journeying together with the Church as community organizers, to illuminate places where Catholic social teaching (CST) is most alive and most threatened, and to identify priorities for moving forward, together as Catholic organizers, in renewing a commitment to both CST and community organizing in the U.S. context.

Participants self-selected into a “community of practice” rooted in either our contexts of organizing or the focus of our organizing efforts (youth, women, higher education, conservative congregations/communities, racism, and Latinx communities) and engaged in two rounds of spiritual conversation in groups of 3-4 within each of those communities. The first round surfaced joys and obstacles of journeying with the Church as organizers, and the second the vitality of and threats to CST in participants’ respective contexts. Small groups

Conference participants engaging in synodal conversations and relationship building.

captured their shared insights from each round of conversation on large 3M sheets, which were hung in the main meeting space. Before the final discernment round, in which mixed groups of three or four participants discerned priorities for our national Catholic community moving forward, participants made a silent “gallery walk” to read the insights from the previous sections. They applied colored stickers to ideas that resonated. Those highlighted ideas, as well as a set of ranked priorities determined through an anonymous electronic voting tool, generated the content of this report.

What follows is: 1) a summary of participants’ experience of the signs of the times in Catholic organizing in the U.S.; 2) an emerging vision of Catholic organizing in the midst of a global synod process that seeks on ongoing conversion of the Church into a people who listen, discern, and act together; and 3) recommendations for how Catholic organizers might move forward together and in partnership with Church leadership in serving the Church’s mission.

We envision the following uses of this document:

O Capture the themes and spirit of the dialogue that unfolded at the Prophetic Communities conference at the University of San Francisco

O Provide a resource for further dialogue and discernment among key stakeholders in the Church (e.g., conversations with individual bishops and the USCCB, conversations across academic institutions, conversations with congregations of religious men and women, conversations between lay leaders engaged in organizing and their pastors, conversations among the organizing networks).

O Develop and implement collaboratively specific, actionable proposals to address priorities identified within the document.

Key takeaways from synodal conversations from folks working with youth. The dots signify resonate comments from other participants at the conference during a final gallery walk.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES IN CATHOLIC ORGANIZING

As organizers, we are challenged to understand and navigate dynamics unfolding both within faith congregations and the broader world. Our conversations included reflections on our experiences organizing within Catholic institutions and communities, as well as a number of emerging challenges at a societal level that require a prophetic response from faith communities. The following reflects several themes that came into focus in both spheres.

O The Privatization of Faith: “Politics” is sometimes used as a pejorative and, in this way, parishioners are discouraged from fully living out the social dimension of the Gospel. “Not getting ‘political’ means not connecting people to social justice issues.” “Politics is not partisanship.”

O Polarization within the Church: Participants echoed the observation of the North American Synod Team that the Church has not been immune to the deep partisan and ideological divisions within our nation. The resulting divisions and flashpoints, for which Catholics in opposing ideological camps are both responsible, make it difficult to dialogue and find common ground on contentious issues. “Listening is hard,” said one participant. “We struggle to find common ground in how we see our ‘signs of the times’,” reported one group in the higher education community of practice.

O Politicization of the Church: Social justice has been derided in some Catholic circles as though it were an ideological add-on to “authentic” church teaching, relegating social justice issues to the margins. “CST from the pulpit so rarely happens,” said one group. This has created a “lack of moral imagination” and a “void that will be filled by fear of the stranger and lack of meaning,” noted the ministering to youth community of practice.

O Growing Challenges to CST Formation and Community Organizing:

“People don’t know about CST” due to limited CST formation in many parishes, dioceses, high schools, and universities, and there is a related decline in institutional commitment for faith-based community organizing. Thus, there is limited awareness about the opportunities to work in faith-based community organizing and a lack of skills-training as well as apprenticeships. Institutional support for CST and organizing are needed, given that “CST is a lived, embodied reality, NOT just an intellectual framework.”

Plenary participants, Nicholas Hayes-Mota, doctoral candidate at Boston College and Fr. Bob Fambrini S.J., pastor of St. Francis Xavier parish in Phoenix, AZ, discussing why organizing matters to them and how it is connected to their faith.

O Dehumanization and “othering”: Widespread attacks in our larger society on BIPOC communities, immigrants, Muslims, Jews, the LGBTQ+ community, and others are now accepted forms of social discourse. Both these attacks and silence about them are promoting division and violence.

O Challenges to Institutions and Processes of Democracy: Catholic collective capacity to respond to urgent issues impacting the common good is negatively impacted by deep polarization and distrust in democratic institutions and processes at the national, state and local levels, as well as by direct threats to the rule of law, and disinformation which have eroded democratic norms and structures. Beset by our own internal polarization, Catholics have been a muted voice in calling for accountability, unity, and respect for democratic institutions.

O Existential Threat of Climate Change: The underlying threats to our common home are only becoming more urgent, making the viable responses to it through CST and faith-based organizing all the more necessary.

Top Image: Conference participants publicly sharing during the large group.

Bottom image: Communal liturgy

CONSOLATIONS / JOYS OF JOURNEYING WITH THE CHURCH AS ORGANIZING

In reflecting on their vocational journeys with the Church as organizers, grass-roots leaders and academics, a deep sense of joy abounded. Most agreed that community organizing deeply integrates faith into their lives and helps them align their values with their professional commitments to build a more just society, yielding an abiding sense of vocation. “Organizing makes faith tangible,” said one group. Much of that stems from the role of story and storytelling in community organizing, which some connected to the principle of human dignity. “Honoring human dignity means engaging the community in the experience of being human,” stated the anti-racism community of practice, and stories challenge hegemonic myths. Further, there is a growing awareness of the deep connection between human dignity and active nonviolence, i.e. that the latter is the way to act in accord with and illuminate our sacred human dignity. Similarly, organizing provides space for deep connection and belonging. “From organizing we learn relationality vs. transactionality,” that same group noted.

Closing Mass in St. Ignatius Church

This sense of joy is also true on the collective level. Community organizing makes faith commitments real, purposeful, and relevant. Participants lifted up the joy of building the protagonism within communities and moving together in faith to shape our world. “The joy of organizing is real,” shared one group. “Our connectedness is a source of hope,” said another. This joy is amplified in contexts where Church leaders—pastors and bishops—support and participate in community organizing efforts. Participants named the efficacy of community organizing as participating in democracy in a way that rejects current polarization and politicization, and participating in the life of our faith communities in a way that resists clericalism. “This space is a joyful antidote and nationwide efforts/struggles for lay empowerment,” said one participant.

Pope Francis’ vision of the Church as one that welcomes the witness of popular movements brings solace, hope, and energy, as does his unfolding synodal leadership style in which encounter, dialogue, deep listening, and co-responsibility in and for the Church’s mission are key markers of discipleship. Many acknowledged the synergy between the methods of community organizing and that of synodality and were heartened by the role that organizers can play in the process of becoming a synodal Church. “We believe in a spirituality of justice and that is our unique gift to collaborative spaces,” said a small group from the ministering to youth community of practice.

Participants lifted up the prophetic leadership of women in the Church as sources of hope. One is the long arc of powerful witness for social justice by women religious in the Church. Also notable is the leadership of women from populations marginalized in our society and in the Church, particularly Latinas, African Americans, Indigenous, Asian and Pacific Islanders, and multiracial women. Finally, given the exodus of young people from the Church, many find hope in the fact that CST, as well as approaches to social justice informed by the relational praxis of community organizing, remain a viable tool for helping young people to “see, judge and act” in the world. To that end, both are essential for the future of the Church.

Synodal process facilitators, Dr. Maureen O’Connell, Director of Synod & Higher Eduction Engagement with Discerning Deacons and professor of ethics at La Salle University, and Joseph Fleming, Senior Advisor to Faith Leadership Strategies with Faith in Action.

DESOLATIONS / OBSTACLES OF JOURNEYING WITH CHURCH AS ORGANIZERS

Organizers and academics offered the following reflections on the challenges of living their vocational commitments to organizing with and within the Church.

Participants mourned the loss of a sense of belonging and connectedness within the local and national Church, fueled by the pandemic, polarization, and politicization. Despite benefits from technology, participants noted that it has helped to feed isolation and weaken community bonds in many cases, especially among young people. Clericalism was identified as a barrier to engaging parishes in promoting CST formation and community organizing. Clericalism keeps the “Spirit from coming alive in communities.” It has engendered a “culture of passivity” among the laity and presents a particular challenge to women leading organizing efforts. These dynamics have only served to amplify a feeling of alienation and learned powerlessness among lay leaders.

Small groups highlighted the painful experience of BIPOC community members, who have been met with racism and cultural hegemony in many Church spaces. The institutional Church has much work yet to do to overcome the challenges of racism, as well as white Christian nationalism to which the Church is not immune. Peoples of Color can lead the Church along that path, particularly in light of the resurgence of white Christian nationalism on local and national levels. Many noted the challenge of engaging Catholics in exploring their own personal relationships with race and racism, as well as a lack of resources for those communities willing to engage in this critical work.

First synodal session themes and takeaways.

The Church’s response to LGBTQ+ Catholics is another source of pain within the Body of Christ, along with the role and limited opportunities for women within the Church. Organizers named the wounds of sexism as well, noting that women make up the majority of community organizers in the Catholic Church. “Women ARE the witnesses but are often excluded from leadership,” said one participant. Finally, the potential loss of a generation of young Catholics, who have turned away from the Church and felt the Church move away from them, is a deeply troubling trend that must be reckoned with.

Many participants mourn the decline of formation in CST and community organizing, two life-giving resources for local Catholic communities. With that comes the loss of being formed for community and a shared commitment to the common good, as well as the centering of active nonviolence. As one participant put it, we’ve lost the sense that “relationships are at the heart of it.” Since CST and community organizing have been discredited in many parishes and dioceses, those who remain committed to the work of justice in our communities feel unsupported and unaccompanied by their fellow parishioners, clergy, and bishops. This leaves Catholics largely absent from efforts to address issues impacting our communities and our families: racism, gun violence, poverty, anti-democratic movements, white Christian nationalism, climate justice, and immigration. Catholics’ silence on these issues is a form of violence in and of itself, causing further harm and isolation.

Even in the midst of these challenges, Catholic community organizers have hope, particularly in a story that is beginning to take shape in the U.S. Church. Two general sources of hope were named. First, through his leadership, Pope Francis models how to reach out to the peripheries and center mercy in all of our encounters. His prioritization of care for creation and for migrants has provided a much-needed antidote to political rhetoric and policies in this country. Second, those who participated in the synodal process found it to be an empowering experience that is consonant with the vocation of community organizing. As one participant put it, “trusting that the Spirit is at work in the people leads to action.”

Community altar featured throughout various communal prayer moments.

PRIORITIES / A PATH FORWARD

#1 - BUILD INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT FOR ORGANIZING

Community organizing is vital to providing an effective and meaningful vehicle for American Catholics to live out our baptismal call to transform the world. However, this transformation requires a renewed commitment to support community organizing from the church at every level. For the work to be successful, new structures are needed, including new formation in CST, as well as an openness to collaboration with experts and reliable partners in the field. Organizing also offers skills and resources for the American Church to live into its aspirations to become a synodal church. Certainly, an urgent next step will involve creative thinking, deepening relationships, and dialogue—both across existing networks and between networks and the USCCB—about what a renewed commitment to supporting organizing could look like and how organizers might partner more fully with parishes and dioceses in realizing the mission of the Church.

As a first step, participants began to imagine together what shape that might take:

1. Organizers work more intentionally to offer the skills of listening, relationship building, and discernment to support the U.S. Church in its efforts to embody a culture of listening - bishops, clergy, and lay people are engaged in ongoing listening campaigns and communal discernment in order to identify critical concerns and develop effective responses that link faith and action.

2. Clergy and lay people are regularly formed in the spirituality of synodality and trained in the methods of organizing by Catholic institutions, including seminaries, and lend their individual and collective gifts to local and national efforts.

3. Catholic organizing has long depended on the leadership of women, vowed and lay, and must deepen its commitment to highlighting the leadership of women in the church by: modeling and celebrating shared leadership; investing in the formation of women as organizational, liturgical, spiritual, and strategic leaders; and supporting ongoing global discernment about women’s ordination.

4. Leaders and organizers can bring their skills of leadership development and listening formed through organizing to parishes, diocese committees, and active discernments and commissions within the Church such as the synodal process, the synod of youth and families, the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, and Journeying Together.

5. Catholics in the existing national organizing networks can develop strategies for supporting Bishops, advocating with policymakers, engaging the media, and collaborating with labor.

6. Organizers can help younger Catholics remain in the Church by helping to demonstrate how faith is relevant and a means by which they can affect social change about people and issues they care about.

7. Catholics are engaging with and connected to people beyond the Catholic tradition/Catholic church.

#2 - FORM EACH OTHER IN AN IMPACTFUL CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING

Strong consensus quickly emerged that organizers cannot effectively engage Catholics in the work of fighting polarization, climate change, and racial justice without a revival of formation in Catholic social teaching. “If we give up on CST and organizing, we are giving up on each other–we are giving up on the Body of Christ,” reported one group from the ministering to youth community of practice.

“The faith of a whole generation and generational future are at stake.” Many participants wondered if CST is our best kept secret not only because we do not invoke it sufficiently, but also because we don’t do so impactfully. CST remains largely theoretical and intellectual as opposed to embodied, affective, and practical.

“Catholic Social teaching without Spirit and embodiment of the principles is dead,” members of the anti-racism community of practice noted. There was much agreement that we as organizers have a role to play in revitalizing this rich tradition by developing more impactful - concrete, affective, embodied, practical - ways of integrating it into efforts to evangelize. Several priorities on this theme emerged:

O Participants recognized that many of those in the room got introduced to organizing as an expression of CST during their time in theologates, but that the partnership between organizing groups and theology programs has been inconsistent and declining through the years. These partnerships are seen as particularly important in exposing and engaging the emerging generations of Church leadership to the pastoral skills that organizing offers, and situate organizing as part of the Church’s social tradition. A renewal of priestly and diaconal formation rooted in CST needs to be deeply relational, creating encounters anchored in personal stories of faith not only among those seeking Holy Orders, but, more importantly, with the people whom they will minister. To take on the “smell of the sheep” requires being formed to hear both the laments and dreams of the people and using CST to build relationships of co-responsibility for the mission of the Gospel.

O Just as various Church leaders have noted a desire to more deeply integrate CST into the catechetical formation programs and faith development curricula in elementary and high school, organizers see partnerships with youth ministries as another opportunity to bring CST to life for young people. In order

to teach, train, and accompany our young people in using their faith to respond to the burdens of our world they carry, we need to equip seminarians to use CST in ministering to their people by integrating courses and training on CST into their seminary formation (as indicated above). Organizers note that the methods of community organizing speak to our young people and as such can serve an effective tool of evangelization.

O Collaboration, particularly with those in our robust network of Catholic colleges and universities, as well as with Catholic leaders in the four national networks of faith-based organizing, should generate new bi-lingual educational materials and training modules that combine theory and practice for faith communities in a variety of configurations: parish, diocesan, Catholic non-profit, etc.

#3 - COLLABORATE THROUGH ABUNDANCE RATHER THAN COMPETE IN SCARCITY

To counter the constricting dynamics of scarcity, in which we are led to believe there are not enough resources for the mission of the Church, participants expressed a desire to collaborate across all levels of the Church, both within and among dioceses, as well as with Catholic organizations and religious congregations serving the church. They identified the rich intellectual, spiritual, practical, and human resources among those gathered, all of which could be used to think strategically and creatively about how to leverage existing resources for the service of God’s people.

Priorities include:

O Develop deep relationships among Catholic community organizers within and across the four national faith based organizing networks–DART, Faith in Action, Gamaliel, and the Industrial Areas Foundation - in order to accompany each other in formation in and evangelization of Catholic social teaching.

O Develop partnerships between the faith-based organizing networks and Catholic environmental organizations, labor networks, migrations networks, and other organizations promoting life and justice work. The silos between our organizations mean we are competing for audience and support rather than co-conspiring to increase our impact.

O Renew and in some instances establish synodal relationships anchored in listening, communal discernment, and co-responsibility.

#4 - SERVE THE ONGOING CONVERSION TO A SYNODAL CHURCH

As is the case across the global Church, participants found hope and courage in the synodal process of storytelling, deep listening, and communal discernment about shared priorities. Many identified the conversion process of becoming a synodal church as critical for engaging across the differences that are polarizing our society and our faith communities. Others acknowledged the possibility of synodality unleashing the social justice and nonviolent peacemaking traditions of the Church by inviting the protagonism of God’s people to live out the principles of Catholic social teaching, particularly subsidiarity, solidarity, and the common good. Most acknowledged the gifts and skills that Catholic community organizers can bring to this conversion process, and what the synodal process has to teach us as organizers, and all of the People of God, about its central movements of encounter, discernment, and collective action. Several recommendations emerged here:

O Integrate the spirituality and skills of synodality into community organizing within Catholic communities.

O Integrate the methods of organizing into the dispositions and skills of synodality.

O Embrace the synodal process and foster synodal relationships, particularly with clergy and bishops.

O Create spaces to share and listen to stories and to build relational encounters across the dynamics that divide us in our society and Church.

O Catholic community organizers can serve as animators for formation in synodality at the parish, diocesan, regional and national level, offering trainings and opportunities for synodal assemblies, and partnering with Bishops in addressing issues that face the local church.

O Receive and honor the gifts of women for decision making, for preaching, and for leadership within the Church, as manifest in their essential roles within community organizing and the synodal process.

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SPECIAL THANKS TO

The Joan & Ralph Lane Center for Catholic Social Thought & the Ignatian Tradition for generously hosting and sponsoring the Prophetic Communities gathering.

Maureen O’Connell and Joe Flemming for you work compiling this report and facilitating the synodal process throughout the gathering.

The community and work initiated at this gathering and emerging from this synodal report will carry forward through the Collaborative for Catholic Organizing.

COLLABORATIVE FOR Catholic Organizing SPONSORED BY