RECOMMENDATIONS

Prioritize accountability

Accountability is a key element in building synodal Church culture and restoring trust with the People of God.

• Strongly encourage every new pastor and new bishop to hold a synodal consultation with their parish or diocese within one year of appointment to help establish accountability and listening with their faith community.

• Ensure each parish, diocese, or Catholic organization has active and functioning boards, councils and/or committees that regularly meet, plan, and follow through.

• Create metrics around co-responsibility — i.e. number of lay, religious, and clergy participating to ensure a balance — and work to ensure each consultation or decision-making gathering meets those targets.

• Personally reach out to those who participated in the synodal process and invite them to deeper life in the Church, i.e. greater service if they are already involved, or ways to get involved if they are not active.

• Cultivate leaders within the faith community, set expectations, and review progress toward those expectations to help build accountability and ownership at every level.

Create a synodal Church culture

Pope Francis has called upon the Church to become synodal — listening to the Holy Spirit, engaging all members of the body of Christ, especially those historically marginalized, in dialogue and discernment.

SYNODAL FOLLOW-UP

• Establish a process at the parish and diocesan level to review the results of the Synod in the U.S. and the global synthesis and understand where it aligns and diverges from the results of local consultation(s).

• Share and promote both the U.S. and global synthesis documents within faith communities by providing access to the full report as well as highlights and analysis and/or synthesis.

• Offer to host follow-up consultations to review and receive feedback from faith communities on the results of the U.S. and global syntheses and to develop actions or steps to take in light of the results.

• Invest in skill-building for clergy, staff, and volunteers, with a specific focus on the skills central to synodality: listening and discernment.

• Encourage and support personal development in human formation competencies that further support listening and discernment skills, including, but not limited to: history, arts, literature, emotional intelligence, and social skills training.

Ongoing Synodal Consultation

• Periodically host a synodal consultation within parishes, dioceses, or Catholic organizations that focuses on the experience of faith and accompaniment at the parish level: What fills your heart? What breaks your heart?

• Engage in a synodal process of listening and discernment to identify changes needed to create a synodal culture and develop recommended actions to move toward those changes.

• Take steps to ensure participation from diverse members of the faith community in any synodal process, including, but not limited to: direct outreach to the full community, hosting multiple sessions to accommodate schedules, and offering alternative ways of participating such as email or Zoom.

• Deliberately make time and space in every synodal consultation for the Holy Spirit through moments of silence, prayer, and by avoiding any efforts or questions that would drive the consultation to a predefined conclusion.

• Utilize available resources and best practices to ensure that the concerns and questions of those engaged through synodal processes are accurately captured, understood, and reported.

• Communicate openly with members of the faith community about the results of any synodal process and the next steps that will be taken.

• Build credibility by identifying concrete actions that a local faith community can take in response to the synodal consultations and results.

• Identify tangible ways to accompany members of a faith community, especially those who have been marginalized by the Church.

Invest in formation for clarity and action

As the Church strives to become more synodal, there is a need for ongoing communication, information-sharing, and transparency so the ideals and purpose of synodality are understood and the outcomes are realized.

• Develop and share resources for formation in synodal leadership and the principles of synodality that can be utilized across the Church.

• Create a planning process that parishes, dioceses, or Catholic organizations can follow to adopt synodal leadership and the principles of synodality into management structures.

• Find ways to bridge the gap between the ideals of synodality envisioned by Pope Francis and the experience of the Synod by the majority of Catholics.

• Clearly communicate to faith communities the intended outcomes and purpose of any synodal consultation or process, including the ongoing Synod.

• Use and distribute existing resources on synodality from the USCCB and the Vatican to communicate the purpose and intent of the Synod.

• Develop and share communications around synodality and synodal leadership that can clearly and easily help people understand synodality.

• Develop a diocesan-level effort to educate clergy about the Synod and synodality.

• Incorporate coursework in listening and other social skills training into seminary curriculum.

• Develop a resource guide that parishes, dioceses, and Catholic organizations can use based on the U.S. and global syntheses.