I would like to urge all Catholics of the Diocese to join me in prayer for God's blessing on the third and final solemn session of our Third Diocesan Synod, October 9. You may remember that we bonded in prayer before, during, and after the first session of our Synod two years ago. Before that we had a full-year campaign of prayer. Let us, once again, pray together the Prayer of the Diocesan Synod, found in the box on the front page of this issue. Let us ask our gracious God to pour out his Holy Spirit upon the final work of our Synod. I myself will observe a day of prayer on October 8, as I did before the first session in 2004.
What we thought would be a 10-year journey began with a special convocation of priests in October 2000, the Jubilee Year of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This was followed by an extensive survey of the priests and a special assembly in April 2001, at which the priests endorsed a 10-year vision and process. This led to a professional survey of all the parishes, in which more than 63,000 parishioners participated. Their responses paved the way for the Third Diocesan Synod. The theme for the Synod " "Journeying Together in Christ" " captured the heart and spirit of the participants and fomented the developing of pastoral plans in parishes and collaborative efforts between parishes and in the deaneries. The Synod convened on Oct. 11-13, 2004, with over 400 lay people, religious, and clergy coming together in Yuba City at my invitation. Three quarters were laity.
Bishop Garcia and I presided, listened, and prayed as the membership of the Synod went about their deliberations. The Synod assembly broke into 50 discussion groups, studied the many pastoral proposals, added a few, then prioritized and narrowed down the suggestions to eight pastoral initiatives (with corresponding objectives and action items). After making them my own, I signed and promulgated the Synod initiatives and documents on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Jan. 9, 2005.
One year later, on Jan. 16, 2006, after taking first steps in implementing the Synod's initiatives and priorities, we gathered for the second solemn session of the Synod to evaluate what had been achieved, to take note of how much yet needed to be accomplished, and to recommit to the effort. The Synod Implementation Commission had done a careful survey of the parishes and presented the results. At both the diocesan level and in the parishes and deaneries, some important things had been accomplished or initiated. Some parishes got off to a better start than others. However, we were greatly encouraged by the signs of progress and by the resolve to keep at implementation and to hold one another accountable for it.
At the third and final solemn session of the Synod on Oct. 9, we will again do a "reality check" on how the implementation is going. Special attention will be given to pastoral initiative No. 8, to solicit ideas and recommendations about how to be supportive of our cultural diversity, celebrate it and yet achieve unity. There also will be further consultation on draft statutes for the Diocese which flow from the Third Synod's pastoral initiatives. (I plan to promulgate the statutes on the feast of Christ the King, Sunday, November 26, at the 11 a.m. Mass at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament.)
The Third Diocesan Synod will formally close with a special, multicultural Mass that I will celebrate at the Cathedral at 3:15 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 9, 2006. All Catholics are hereby invited to join me and the solemn assembly of Synod members for this historic Mass.
Looking ahead, how might the Holy Spirit lead us to continue implementing the pastoral initiatives of the Synod? The Diocesan Pastoral Council suggests that we might have "Regional Assemblies" a year from now, modeling these on the structure of the Synod. This would call for all the leaders (lay, religious, and clergy) of two or three deaneries gathering together for a day of prayer, reflection, dialogue, and pastoral planning. Two years from now we might call all these same leaders together in a larger "Diocesan Assembly." The 10-year period since 2000 might well conclude in a large Diocesan Convocation in 2010, in which thousands of our Diocesan family might come together to celebrate our response to how God has been gracing us to share in Christ's mission of building up the Kingdom of God.
Finally, I foresee that the thrust of this Third Diocesan Synod's pastoral initiatives might well guide us to or beyond the year 2015. Thus, what was foreseen as a 10-year process might well turn out to be a 15-year process. At some point, however, the pastoral plan and priorities of the Diocese will need to be reviewed and updated. Whatever the details of the future, we can be certain that the same Holy Spirit who has guided us so effectively since 2000 will continue to inspire and lead us as we "Journey Together in Christ."
