Picture: Sean Curtin/FusionShooters.
A 16-page print publication – The Synod Script – has documented the historic journey the Diocese of Limerick has taken as it approves wide ranging new steps to reenergise Church locally.
The Synod Script, available in this weekend’s local print press or as a download file here, has recorded the decisions and votes of the Synod that the will see the Church in Limerick embark on a new era of inclusiveness and unity in what Bishop Brendan Leahy described as a “Camino of hope”.
After three days of deliberations on its future direction locally, the Church will now move forward, revitalised and reunified as it adopts the wide ranging outcomes of the Synod.
The 97 agreed proposals cross six themes that emerged as the biggest issues for the Church during a listening process that connected with over 5,000 people across the diocese. It will ultimately pave the way for significantly increased lay leadership and, within that, greater recognition and involvement of women in key roles.
The proposals at the first Irish synod for 50 years were decided on by 400 delegates, over 300 of them lay. It was also the first Synod in Ireland to have such a large lay representation.
The proposals’ adoption and the journey towards the weekend Synod was described by Bishop Leahy as “an event of history in the making”. But he also called for patience and support of the faithful, with a huge volume of work ahead in terms of implementing the proposals.
“The Synod has been a gift to encourage us, offer us spiritual consolation, fresh hope. We know there are difficulties. But I have the sense that God has given an experience of light proportionate to the wounds,” he told delegates.
“We’ve come from the past and take so much of what we have from the past and want to build on it. We have lived a moment of history.
“We’re directed to the future. We’ve placed our flag in the ground and able to say, ‘this is where we’ve reached’ and now we’re moving forward from here.
“It’s been like one enormous ‘Quality Review’. Such quality reviews take place in institutions, schools and businesses. But we’ve engaged in it for a whole diocese. It will remain as a moment for us to return to for clarification and inspiration in order to go forward, remembering that if we don’t go forward, we go backwards.”
Looking ahead, Bishop Leahy explained that the Synod will only be as good as its implementation. “We have travelled an incredible journey, a Camino of hope, as it were. So many people have sacrificed so much for this over the past 18 months and I am truly grateful for that. It has been a massive affirmation from the people that they treasure their faith but they need more from their Church.
“We have had our reckoning and now have true, democratic direction from all the faithful in Limerick as to what type of Church they want ahead. There were many seminal moments and much emotion at Synod but we need now to echo and amplify all of that across the diocese with action.
“From here we have to implement these proposal. We will put them into a plan and policy, formulate decrees and send them to Rome for approval. We will then embark on implementation and while this won’t happen overnight, we will have a clear plan to work to.
“We have the World meeting of the Families in Ireland in 2018 and that’s a watermark for us in terms of where we want to be then, with much of the roadmap set out for us at the weekend traveled.
“It won’t be easy, change never is. But we have listened and voted and now move forward together in a way that we have never before and I am deeply, deeply heartened and encouraged by this.”
