Journeying Together

This past October, Pope Francis launched a 2-year global process to ‘encounter, listen, and discern.’ He wants to shift the Catholic Church toward a decentralized model of decision-making by inviting laypeople and those who have not traditionally had a voice in Catholic leadership into discussions on how it can be more inclusive and collaborative – ‘to journey together.’ The process will culminate with a ‘synod on synodality’ (a council meeting to discern the will of the people) in Rome in October 2023.

The process starts at the local level with input from current and former Catholics and members of the community that are not Catholic. Through an invitation from Dr. Hanycz, Rev. Abby King-Kaiser, Dr. Bill Madges, Fr. Eric Sundrup, and I are gathering feedback from various campus groups to be collated, summarized and submitted. As the President notes, “we have much to offer from Xavier, given our own privileging of dialogue and collective discernment as belonging to the gifts of our Ignatian heritage.”

As such, your engagement is appreciated by sharing your anonymous response to the question below.  Thank you for contributing to this important work that impacts the Catholic Church and all of us working at this Catholic university. ~Debra Mooney, PhD, Chief Mission Officer

My compassionate and anonymous hopes for the Catholic Church as they pertain to dialogue, ecumenism, expressions of faith and service, and/or hospitality are:

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