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Pope Francis’ final greeting on receiving the Final Document of the Synod
Audience Hall – Saturday, 26 October 2024
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
With this Final Document, we have gathered the fruits of at least three years of listening to the People of God in order to better understand how to be a “synodal Church” – that is by listening to the Holy Spirit – in this time.
The biblical quotations at the beginning of each chapter indicate the content, linking it to the gestures and words of the Risen Lord, who calls us to be witnesses of his Gospel, first with our lives and then with our words.
The document on which we have voted is a triple gift:
Firstly, for me, as Bishop of Rome, in convoking the Church of God in Synod.
I was aware that I needed all of you: Bishops and witnesses of the Synodal journey.
I thank you all!
The Bishop of Rome, I often remind myself and each of you, also needs to practice listening, or rather he wants to practise listening, in order to be able to respond to the Word which every day says to him, “Reassure your brothers and sisters…Feed my sheep”.
My task, as you well know, is to guard and promote – as St Basil teaches – the harmony which the Spirit continues to spread in the Church of God, in the relations between the Churches.
Notwithstanding all the efforts, tensions and divisions that mark her journey toward the full manifestation of the Kingdom of God, which the Prophet Isaiah invites us to imagine as a banquet prepared by God for all peoples.
All, in the hope that no one will will be excluded.
All peoples, and no one left out!
The key word is harmony. This is what the Spirit does.
The first powerful manifestation of the Holy Spirit was on the morning of Pentecost, harmonizing all those different languages.
That is what the Second Vatican Council teaches when it says that the Church is “like a sacrament”.
She is a sign and instrument of our waiting God, who has already prepared the table and is now waiting.
His grace, through his Spirit, whispers words of love into the heart of each person.
It is up to us to strengthen the voice of this whispering, without hindering it; by opening doors instead of building walls.
It is harmful for men and women of the Church to build walls.
Everyone is invited in!
We must not behave as “dispensers of grace” appropriating the treasure by tying the hands of our merciful God.
Remember that we began this Synodal Assembly by asking for forgiveness, experiencing shame and recognizing that we are all in need of mercy.
There is a poem by Madeleine Delbrêl, a mystic of the peripheries who admonished, “Above all, do not be rigid” – rigidity is a sin that sometimes creeps into the life of clergy or of consecrated persons.
I would like to read some lines from Madeleine Delbrêl, which she wrote as a prayer:
Because I think that you may have had enough
of people who, always, speak of serving you with the look of a leader,
of encountering you with the air of a professor,
of approaching you with sporting regulations,
of loving you as one loves in an old marriage.
…
Let us live our lives,
not like a game of chess where everything is calculated,
not as a game where everything is difficult,
not as a theorem that breaks our minds,
but as a never-ending party where your encounting is renewed,
like a ball,
like a dance,
in the arms of your grace,
in the music that fills the universe with love.
These verses can become the background music for welcoming the final document.
In the light of the synodal journey, there are and there will be choices to be made.
In our time marked by wars, we must be witnesses of peace, also by learning how to live out our differences in conviviality.
For this reason, I do not intend to publish an Apostolic Exhortation. What we have approved is sufficient.
The document already contains very concrete indications that can guide the mission of the Churches in their specific continents and contexts.
That is why I am making it immediately available to all That is why I said that it should be published.
In this way, I wish to acknowledge the value of the Synodal journey which has been accomplished and which, by means of this Document, I entrust to the holy and faithful People of God.
With regard to certain aspects of the life of the Church indicated in the Document, as well as with regard to the themes entrusted to the ten “Study Groups”, which will work freely to make proposals to me, more time is needed in order to arrive at decisions which involve the whole Church.
I will continue to listen to the Bishops and the Churches entrusted to them.
This is not the classical way of postponing decisions indefinitely.
It is the way which corresponds to the synodal style with which even the Petrine ministry is to be exercised: by listening, convening, discerning, deciding and evaluating.
On this journey we need pauses, silence and prayer.
It is a style that we are still learning together, little by little.
The Holy Spirit calls and supports us in this learning, which we must understand as a process of conversion.
The General Secretariat of the Synod and all the dicasteries of the Curia will help me in this task.
2. The Document is a gift to all the faithful people of God, in the diversity of its expressions.
It is obvious that not everyone will set out to read it. It will be largely up to you, together with many others, to make its contents accessible in the local Churches. Without the witness of lived experience, the text would lose much of its value.
Dear brothers and sisters, what we have experienced is a gift that we cannot keep to ourselves. The impi;se that comes from this experience, of which the document is a reflection, gives us the courage to witness that it is possible to walk together in diversity, without condemning one another.
We come from all parts of the world, some of them marked by violence, poverty and indifference.
Together, with the hope that does not disappoint, united in the love of God in our hearts, et us not only dream of peace, but also commit ourselves with all our strength so that, perhaps without talking so much about synodality, peace may be achieved through the processes of listening, dialogue and reconciliation. In order to go on mission, the synodal Church now needs its common words to be accompanied by action. This is our journey.
3. All this is the gift of the Holy Spirit: it is he who creates harmony because it is he who is harmony.
St Basil has a very beautiful theology on this, if you can read his treatise on the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is harmony.
Brothers and sisters, may harmony continue even as we leave this hall, and may the breathe of the Risen One help us to share the gifts that we have received.
Remember – in the words of Madeleine Delbrêl – that “there are places where the Spirit breathes, but there is only one Spirit that breathes in all places”.
I would like to thank you a;;, and let us thank each other.
I thank Cardinal Grech and Cardinal Hollerich for their work, the two secretaries, Nathalie and San Martín – you have done a good job! –, Don Batocchio and Father Costa who helped us so much!
I thank all those who worked behind the scenes and without them this wouldn’t have been possible.
Thank you very much!
May the Lord bless you. Let us pray for each other. Thank you very much!
