From February 13 to 18, the regional phase of the synod on synodality was held in Lebanon. A kind of “spiritual retreat” based on the model of Saint Ignatius that dissipated the “divisions and tensions” between the groups. The “priorities” to be addressed by the Synod of Bishops in Rome were identified. In a final document of 10 points, the summary of the works.
Beirut () – “Since the beginning of the preparations for the Synod, we have felt lost, perhaps because we are moving on unusual ground […]. This theme requires time, courage, repentance, openness to the Holy Spirit, and therefore, from each other, listening to what is behind the words”. With these words, in the homily of the mass celebrated by He, the Patriarch of the Coptic Catholic Church Anba Ibrahim Isaac described the synodal process in the Middle East, in which he participated, and which dealt with the theme “Synodality of the Church: communion, participation and mission”. from February 13 to 18 at the Bethania Conference Center (Mount Lebanon), near the sanctuary of Our Lady of Lebanon, with the participation of religious and lay representatives of the six Eastern patriarchal Churches sui iuris (Maronite, Melkite, Syriac, Armenian, Chaldean and Coptic), as well as the Latin Church.
The work of this session proved to be a tonic for the participants. “We entered exhausted,” explains Souraya Bechaalani, former president of the Middle East Council of Churches, “and we left comforted, consoled.” Bechaalani is pleased with the presence of 40 women among the 110 religious and lay participants (and 120 registered). “Ghassan and Joya, two young representatives of the Anta Akhi association, which cares for people with special needs, asked us not to make a report based on complaints, but to make an invitation to hope,” he added.
Father Dany Younès, Jesuit Provincial of the Middle East (MO), a member of the event’s steering committee, confirmed this approach. “Many said they had experienced this moment as a kind of spiritual retreat, placed under the guidance of the Holy Spirit – he confided to us – and they proposed to take it up again in other situations. We entered somewhat divided, with tensions between some groups, but these reservations dissipated in the course of the dialogue and with the exchanges between the groups”. “Certainly, we are under no illusions,” he added. “We have a long and heavy process ahead of us, but the fundamental experience we take with us is that we have the challenges ahead of us, not each other.”
For Fr. Khalil Alwan, moderator of the synod, the credit for the success of the continental phase is due in part to the method used for conversation and spiritual exchange within the 11 groups into which the participants were divided. A method familiar to the faithful, who performed spiritual exercises according to the model indicated by Saint Ignatius of Loyola, points out Fr. Younès. A kind of “mutual listening without judgment” and “a bold speech, without defense, in which personal vulnerability is manifested, but at the same time respected”.
“We are not trying to solve the problems of the Middle East,” Souraya Bechaalani said. The objective, he continued, was “to identify the priorities that the Synod of Bishops will deal with in Rome. We think about how the Church can be synodal, how all the People of God will commit themselves to walk together to evangelize the world”.
In the 10 points that make up the summary of the final report of the session, in the first we find that “synodality is at the heart of the heritage of our Eastern Churches.” That the presence of lay people and young people in ecclesiastical structures is encouraged, as well as the presence of women in the decision-making process Mention is made of the aspiration of young people for a renewal of the liturgy and ecclesiastical structures, as well as a pastoral ministry specialized in issues related to the family, women and children. youth At the same time, the importance of an effective presence in the media and social networks is mentioned, and finally, new structures are mentioned to guarantee synodality within the Church.
These points of the chapter will later be developed in a document of about thirty pages, which will be sent to Rome and will serve, together with the reports from the other continents, as raw material for the elaboration of the “instrumentum laboris“, the working instrument. This document will be used later in the future sessions of the Synod of Bishops on synodality that will be held in Rome in two stages, in October 2023 and in 2024.
