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, the One 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 that is rooted in the mission of Jesus. In this way it contributes to the coming of the Kingdom of God, of which it «is 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 [RoS], 8a). Growing as a synodal Church is a concrete way of responding, each and all together, to this call and this 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 polarisations and a continuing explosion of conflict, the Church is in Christ a sign and instrument of union with God and unity among people, and is called to be ever more visible. Listening to the Holy Spirit, welcoming the witness of Scripture and scrutinising the signs of the times in faith, she can harmonise 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 therefore represents a prophetic word addressed to a world that struggles to believe that peace and harmony are possible.
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