Vicariate Apostolic of Brownsville
Synod leaders share experience with students LESSONS LEARNED IN LISTENING
VATICAN NEWS Bishop Daniel E. Flores has been elected to the Ordinary Council of the General Secretari- at of the Synod of Bishops. At the 15th General Con- gregation of the Synod of Bish- ops Oct. 23 in Rome, delegates elected the new members of the Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod. Pope Francis made a mod- ification to the current Instruc- tion governing the Assembly's work, increasing the total num- ber of members to 17. Of these, 12 were elected from among the diocesan/eparchial bishops or equivalents who are part of the Assembly: One from the East- ern Catholic Churches, one from Oceania, and two each from North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. In addition to these, the Pope will appoint four members, as well as the head of the Dicastery of the Roman Curia responsible for the theme of the next Synod. The Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat is responsible for preparing and implementing the Ordinary General Assembly. Members of the Ordinary Council begin their term at the end of the Ordinary General As- sembly that elected them, they are members of the next Ordi- nary General Assembly, and their mandate concludes when that Assembly is dissolved. Chaired by the Holy Father, the Council is an essential part of the General Secretariat. The new Ordinary Council will play a key role both in implementing this synodal process on synodal- ity and in preparing for the next Synod. Bishop Flores elected to council to oversee implementation, plan next synod
each other, we pray. We listen to one another,” she said. Mem- bers hear from people with similar ideas and experiences, but also hear “our differences, our cultures, our way of seeing things, our ways of experiencing God. And at the end, we realize that we are in communion, that we are the church and that we are one church, and we are transformed by that.” “Once you are touched with that experience, you take it with you,” she said, “and you prolong it in time, and you share it with the people that you encounter.” Bishop Daniel E. Flores, one of synod’s presidents delegate, said he was asked in his own diocese about the purpose of the listening sessions and whether there were plans to change church teaching. “The aim of synodality is for the sake of the mission,” he said. “And the mission is to announce the Gospel and to invite (peo- ple) to a richer, fuller life that comes through Christ, crucified and risen from the dead.” But, he said, “We really do have to be real.” “That is to say, you can't keep announcing the Gospel if you don't have a sense of the reality people are living,” the bishop told the students. The listening is not just about hearing someone’s words, he said. It is trying to hear “the realities under the words -- the ex- periences, the pains, the hopes and the longings, because un- derneath a lot of the words there is a longing. And one of the church's convictions is that the longing is for a sense of belonging and a sense of communion.” “It is a gift when somebody tells you something about their life,” Bishop Flores said. “It’s a gift that you should appreciate as something rather sacred.” But the synod also is listening “to the voice of those who have gone before us” – Catholic tradition – and, especially, to the Scriptures and to the voice of the Holy Spirit in prayer. “I trust the Holy Spirit,” the bishop said. “I really do. I mean, the church has been messy for 2,000 years, and the Holy Spirit still manages to keep us together. It’s bumpy, it’s messy, but I have faith that we will be faithful to the teaching of the church.” 0 Bishop Daniel E. Flores responds to questions from university students about the Synod of Bishops in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican Oct. 18, 2024. He is seated between Company of Mary Sister Leticia Salazar, a U.S. synod delegate, left, and Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the synod relator general. OPPOSITE PAGE: Bishop Flores, center, speaks to the artist who made a mosaic with thoughts about the synod and prayers for the synod written by U.S. university students as Cardinal Mario Grech, kneeling, adds his prayer to the mosaic. (CNS photos/ Pablo Esparza)
BY CINDY WOODEN Catholic News Service
Celebrating our history
T he listening that has been part of the Synod of Bishops changes people, can change the Catholic Church and can change the world for the better, four synod members told U.S. university students in Rome. “The person with a different opinion is not an enemy,” Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the relator general of the synod, told about 140 stu- dents gathered Oct. 18 in the Vatican's Paul VI Audience Hall. The students, from 16 Catholic universi- ties in the United States – along with a small group of young adults from Germany, Austria and Switzerland – had spent a week in Rome studying synodality and had questions for syn- od leaders. The questions included: whether the listen- ing sessions held at the beginning of the syn- od process reached enough people; why young people who are not involved in the church should care; how they could guarantee that the synod’s outcomes would be faithful to the teaching and tradition of the Catholic Church;
and would the synod really change anything. Maltese Cardinal Mario Grech, general sec- retary of the synod, told the students that “it aches me” when people say the listening ses- sions reached only a small percentage of Catho- lics when the outreach for the 2021-2024 synod was much broader than anything achieved be- fore and will keep growing. Cardinal Hollerich, noting that most of the students were from the United States, told them, “When I see on television about the elections in the States, there are two worlds which seem to be opposed, and you have to be enemy of the other – that thinking is very far from synodal thinking.” The synodal listening, he said, helps people experience that “together we are part of humanity, we live in the same world, and we have to find common solutions.” Company of Mary Sister Leticia Salazar, a U.S. synod delegate and chancellor of the Di- ocese of San Bernardino, California, told the students that learning to really listen changes a person. “We come together, we get to know
Hundreds gathered for the 150th Anniversary of the es- tablishment of the Vicariate Apostolic of Brownsville dur- ing a special Mass Sept. 18 at the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle-National Shrine. The Vicariate was the predecessor of today’s Diocese of Brownsville; the Diocese of Corpus Christi, which once included our area; and the Diocese of Laredo. With the observance of the 150th Anniversary of the Vi- cariate Apostolic of Brownsville, the diocese launches a year-long celebration of our history which will culminate with a Mass observing the 60th Anniversary of the Dio- cese of Brownsville in 2025.
THE VALLEY CATHOLIC
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Anniversary Mass
History Video
Photo Gallery
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DIOCESE OF BROWNSVILLE
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