1. In accordance with the task entrusted to it, the First Session of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (October 2023) addressed the questions that had emerged
during the People of God consultation and listening phase of Synod 2021-2024, with the aim of continuing to focus on the steps that «the Spirit invites us to take in order to grow as a synodal Church »1 . The fruits of the work of the First Session are brought together in the Synthesis Report (RoS), which articulates them around twenty nuclei, to each of which it devotes a chapter. In each chapter, the RoS highlights the points of convergence, the issues to be dealt with and the main themes to be addressed.
proposals.
2. Among the fruits of the First Session was the emergence of a number of pertinent questions concerning the life and mission of the Church in a synodal perspective, on which the Assembly reached a coherent consensus, almost always exceeding 90 %. These are questions that «must be dealt with at the level of the whole Church and in collaboration with the Dicasteries of the Roman Curia »2 , with adequate working time. These questions have a double link with the Synod 2021-2024 process. On the one hand, in fact, they have an impact on the physiognomy and style of a synodal Church; on the other, their in-depth study requires to be carried out in an authentically synodal way, involving Experts from all continents, strengthening interdicasterial collaboration and thus configuring a practical laboratory of synodality. It's not just the themes that are important, but how we think about them, listening together to the voice of the Holy Spirit. It is He, in fact, who is the true master of harmony and communion, who overturns our forecasts and expectations to create something new; it is He who guides us in mission and who knows what is needed at every time and every moment....
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