Foreword
«We affirm that the Church, more than having a mission, is itself a mission. «As the Father has sent me, so I send you» (Jn 20:21): the Church receives its own mission from Christ, sent by the Father. Supported and guided by the Holy Spirit, she proclaims and bears witness to the Gospel to those who do not know it or do not accept it, with a preferential option for the poor rooted in Jesus« mission. It thus contributes to the coming of the Kingdom of God, of which it »constitutes the seed and the beginning» (cf. LG 5)" (Summary Report of the First Session of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops [RdS], 8a). Growing as a synodal Church is a concrete way of responding, each and all together, to this call and mission. The brothers and sisters who took part in the synodal meetings, and in particular the participants in the First Session, had a concrete experience of the unity and plurality of the Church. Even in an age such as ours, marked by growing inequalities, bitter polarizations and a continuing explosion of conflict, the Church is in Christ a sign and instrument of union with God and unity among men, and is called to be so ever more visibly. Listening to the Holy Spirit, welcoming the witness of Scripture and scrutinizing the signs of the times in faith, she can harmonize differences as an expression of the inexhaustible richness of the mystery of Christ. The experience of the Synod as a practice of unity in diversity thus represents a prophetic word addressed to a world that struggles to believe that peace and harmony are possible.
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