As Phase 1 of the Synod on Synodality comes to a close, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has released an assessment on what the archdiocese learned from the process.

"We are so grateful to all who participated in the Synod process,” Karen Luna, official spokesperson for Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez, said in an interview with American Catholic Tribune. ‘We are now called to continue to journey together and live into synodality to listen to the Holy Spirit and share Jesus with the world. As leaders, we are tasked to continue to pray and discern with what our faithful have shared in the reports to inform our ministries.”

Pope Francis announced plans for the “Synod on Synodality” in 2020, with the process to take place over 2022 and 2023. America Magazine defines a synod as “a meeting or assembly of church leaders.” Synods are a religious tradition that exist in most faiths.

One of the more noted popular examples is Vatican II, which brought together bishops from around the world to discuss important issues. “Synodality” refers to the way the Church makes decisions during a synod, America Magazine explains. After a synod ends, the bishops draft a document that the Pope uses in the future.

The Synod on Synodality is a four-phase process, the Synod’s website says. Phase: 1. The Diocesen Phase, 2. The Episcopal Conference/Synods of Oriental Churches Phase, 3. The Continental Phase and 4. The Universal Phase. The Church has completed the Diocesen Phase. That called for dioceses around the world to meet with parishioners and hold open discussions on certain issues pertaining to the Church and the world.

Phase 2 will be starting soon. The website describes the goal of the Synod as “not to provide a temporary or one-time experience of synodality, but rather to provide an opportunity for the entire People of God to discern together how to move forward on the path towards being a more synodal Church in the long-term.” The three themes are participation, communion and mission.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has put forth a report describing the participation in the first phase. Of the 66.8 million Catholics the National Synthesis says are in the U.S., about 700,000 actively participated in Phase 1. The raw information led the USCCB to compile 22,000 reports.

Before every synod, a traditional prayer — The Adsumus Sancte Spiritus (“We stand before you, Holy Spirit”) Prayer — is offered up The prayer is posted on the Vatican’s synod website.

In Los Angeles, Luna said the archdiocese was actively involved in soliciting input from parishioners.

“Over 500 listening sessions were hosted from January through April 2022 in 158 parishes and 19 communities within the Archdiocese, including in and among religious congregations, apostolates, schools and communities,” she said, citing an L.A. Archdiocese report.

"Each parish and community have a copy of their report and we invite them to use this to keep discerning how the Holy Spirit is leading them to journey together,” Luna added. “We pray they can use their reports as they discern their councils, ministries, and faith formation." 

When asked about Phase 1, Luna said, "We invited all parishes and communities to host Listening Sessions. The Steering Committee hosted a variety of virtual trainings, drop-in question sessions and Deanery/Parish presentations to support those leading the synod process in their communities. We provided our Synod toolkit with all they would need to facilitate these listening questions, hybrid options, electronic material. They then were invited to submit their parish, community’s report online to add their voice to our Archdiocesan report."

More than 19,000 parishioners participated, she said.

"We had no reports of any incidents along the way. We were intentional in grounding the Listening Sessions with the sharing of the Gospel and sharing norms for respectful conversations,” Luna summed up. “Everyone who participated reported a wonderful experience of praying, listening and being heard. The challenge that we all experienced was the limited time for the process. We all had a timeline to work with and this made it a challenge in the midst of the pandemic surge, Holidays and the Season of Lent but we made the best to accommodate and journey with those facilitating Listening Sessions."