Synod office outlines timeline toward 2028 assembly

The 6000-word text, published last week by the General Secretariat of the Synod, details how local churches should prepare for the event, which is a continuation of the global synodal process launched by Pope Francis in 2021.

The document, called “Towards the Assemblies 2027-2028 – Stages, Criteria and Tools for Preparation”, outlines a four-stage process concluding with the 2028 ecclesial assembly. It labels each stage with a word that sums up its purpose. Each of the four stages includes some form of assembly.

The first half of 2027, known as the “Recollecting” period, will feature “evaluation assemblies” in dioceses and Eastern Catholic eparchies, focused on the Synod on Synodality’s final document.

This period is expected to generate two documents. The first is a “narrative report”, describing “what concrete form of a missionary synodal Church and what new paths of synodality” are emerging in the local community. It will be prepared ahead of the evaluation assembly by the local synodal team and signed off by the bishop.

The second text is a brief “letter to the other Churches”, directed to other dioceses and eparchies, which highlights “the principal fruits that have emerged in the process of implementing the synod”. This will be prepared during the evaluation assembly.

The second half of 2027, called the “Interpreting” period, will be marked by national or regional assemblies of bishops conferences. These will also produce two documents: a “theological-pastoral report” and a letter to the other local churches. Both texts should be sent to the continental synodal team and the General Secretariat of the Synod by December 31, 2027.

The first four months of 2028, the “Orienting” period, will see continental assemblies, which will draft “perspective reports” that offer “an overall rereading” of the synodal journey. These must be handed to Vatican synod officials by April 30, 2028.

Finally, in October 2028, the Church will enter the “Celebrating” period, as participants in the ecclesial assembly gather in Rome with Pope Leo XIV. The assembly is not a synod, but like a synod it will have its own instrumentum laboris or working document.

According to the new document, the unity of the process will be guided by a common question at every level: “In light of the journey undertaken after the conclusion of the 2021-2024 Synod, and with a view to offering its fruits as a gift to the other churches and to the Holy Father: What concrete form of a missionary synodal Church, and what new paths of synodality, are emerging in your community?”

The document says the process is not meant to repeat the consultation stage of the Synod but to help the churches learn from what has already been lived, recognise fruits and difficulties, recalibrate priorities and processes “in the light of careful discernment”, strengthen co-responsibility and foster an “authentic exchange of gifts among the churches”.

FULL STORY

Synodality, but not a synod: Inside the new timetable for the 2028 ‘ecclesial assembly’ (By Luke Coppen/The Pillar)

Synod office sets path to 2028 ecclesial assembly (EWTN News)