The Opening Mass for the Synod on Synodality on 4 October, commenced with a procession of Synod participants through St Peter’s Square.  The pageantry was fitting for this historic Synod in which lay men and women have been granted full voting rights for the first time; and the submissions of everyday Catholics – from what has been an unprecedented scale of global consultation – will be formally considered.

For the next three weeks, Synod participants, including Bishop Shane Mackinlay and eleven others from Australia, will meet in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall to engage in conversations of the spirit and eventually advise Pope Francis on the theme: “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission.”

In his Homily, Pope Francis reminded participants that the purpose of the Synod is not to carry out a parliamentary meeting or a plan of reformation, but a convocation of the Spirit.

Pope Francis asked participants “to walk together with the gaze of Jesus”.  He said, when each one of us keeps the gaze of Jesus, the Church grows as one with God firmly at the centre; it reaches out to the world; ‘stirs the indifferent’; remains true to the teachings of Jesus and does not lose heart – even in amid the ‘sometimes agitated waves of our time’.

Read pdf Pope Francis' Homily (979 KB) .