By Rachel Amiri
In October 2024, the global Catholic Church concluded the Synod on Synodality, a process of Church-wide discernment on the themes of “communion, participation and mission.”
The more than three-year process culminated in a meeting of Synod delegates in Rome. The Synod’s final document emphasized the universal Church’s “unity within diversity” as it set forth a renewed mission for all the People of God.
As the 364 voting members – for the first time including lay men and women alongside bishops – met in Paul VI Hall, pilgrims from the Jesuits USA Central and Southern (UCS) Province traveled to Rome for their own synodal experiences.
Through formal gatherings organized by the Catholic Education Network to Encounter Rome and Synodality (CENTERS), a coalition of 15 Catholic universities in the United States and informal meetings around Rome, these pilgrims engaged in listening, dialogue and discernment as they learned about synodality by participating in it. They hope to use these experiences to build a more co-responsible Church in which the gifts of all the baptized are called forth in service to the Gospel mission.
“Synodality is trusting the Spirit has given gifts to all and creating structures within the Church so that we’re listening and discerning how best those gifts can be put in use for the Church and its mission,” said Dan Finucane, SJ, a second-year theologian from the UCS Province who traveled to Rome with the Jesuit School of Theology (JST) at Santa Clara University.
Emily Jendzejec, Ph.D., assistant professor of pastoral studies at the Loyola Institute for Ministry (LIM) at Loyola University New Orleans, collaborated with faculty in organizing the CENTERS gathering in Rome. In Jendzejec’s semester-long course on synodality, graduate students who already serve around the country in pastoral ministry learned about the synod and synodality through readings from the Second Vatican Council and the papacy of Pope Francis.
Then, they took what they learned to Rome.
Both Finucane and Jendzejec found the experiences in Rome compelling and formative.
“It was delightful to experience with my students and see them show up in that spirit of synodality in Rome,” said Jendzejec.
“Being present to the global Church and seeing the global Church gathered, both in the synod and our group, made it feel very tangible,” said Finucane.
Over 150 students visited the Lasallian Generalate and the Aula of the Jesuit Curia in Rome, where they participated in conversations on synodality, as well as topics such as the role of women, the status of LGBT Catholics and polarization in the Church. On October 18, they gathered in the synod hall for a dialogue with a panel of Synod leaders, including Cardinal Mario Grech, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, SJ, Bishop Daniel Flores and Sr. Leticia Salazar, ODN.
The young adults were the only group invited into the synod hall to meet with leaders during the Synod.
“Being there was awe-inspiring,” said Jendzejec. “Being in this powerful, beautiful space that has been a space of such discernment and decisions and held so many rich conversations throughout the years felt like such a privilege,” she added.
To both, the openness and welcome of young people illustrated a response to the call of Pope Francis for young people to be “protagonists” in the Church.
“It wasn’t that we were there to just learn, it was that we were showing up and encouraging the students to show up as protagonists,” added Jendzejec. “That means to share our stories, to share our truth, but also to be co-responsible for how we want to shape and live into this church.”
Finucane said that conversations throughout the week revealed the diversity of perspectives in the Church and the need for vulnerability in listening with openness to one another. He recalled dialoguing with one young person who values the theological and liturgical tradition of the Church and worries about pushes for change, and with another who identifies as LGBT and feels hopeful about the possibility of a more welcoming Church.
“I was very moved by the opportunity to have these conversations and to listen,” he said. “It really gets at the root meaning of synodality from the Greek, ‘walking together.’ This is what happens when you walk together.”
Now back in the United States, Finucane, Jendzejec and the students and faculty involved in CENTERS are considering how to bring the experience to their ministries.
“Journeying with the students right now, what I think is so incredible is this desire and energy to continue to grow,” Jendzejec says. However, she adds, this comes with the recognition that “change doesn’t happen overnight.”
The community forged among students during their time in Rome and the ability to network with others in ministry through CENTERS are equipping LIM students with the resources to make the incremental shifts necessary for a more collaborative, co-responsible Church.
“My students are seeing themselves as part of something bigger [through CENTERS],” she said. “I think that helps give them that grounding that they’re not alone in feeling energized by the Synod.”
As a Jesuit in formation for the priesthood, Finucane is interested in the Synod’s focus on the priority of baptism as an important opening for a more co-responsible Church.
“If we trust that the Spirit gives gifts to all people, then the present Church, but certainly the Church of the future, has to be more collaborative. Not just because there are fewer priests, but because there are just so many more gifts to be put at the service of the community,” he said. “Obviously ordained ministry has a part in that, but ministry has to be shared.”
Both acknowledged that as the Synod concludes, the movement toward a synodal Church is in its early stages.
“We hold this tension that it is a new way of proceeding in church, but it’s actually a very old way of proceeding in Church,” said Jendzejec. “We are all called by our baptism to show up and be equal participants in what Church can be.”
