VATICAN - Study Seminar for new Bishops - Archbishop Mons. Nikola Eterovic Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops illustrates the institution: “The Synod of Bishops is a valuable fruit of the Council”

Vatican City (Fides Service) - “The post synodal exhortation ‘Pastores gregis’: an example of synodal method”: was the subject of a talk which the secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, gave to participants at the seminar organised by the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples for newly appointed Bishops in mission territories, taking place in Rome, 5-18 September.
After recalling some basic facts about the Synod of Bishops (institution, norms, celebration of the assemblies, participants...), Archbishop Eterovic illustrated the methods of the synod taking as an example the path of a post synodal exhortation, in particular the document ‘Pastores gregis’. “In the process of a synod the method of which is based on collegiality, there are alternate stages of consultation, elaboration of results through collaboration and formulation of a summary oriented to reaching a consensus on the different aspects of the theme of the Synod in question” the Secretary General said.
Tracing the steps of this path the Archbishop dwelt on the criteria for selecting a theme of a Synod, the process of the preparing the Lineamenta followed by the drafting of the working paper Instrumentum Laboris. He went on to describe the different stages of the actual Synod assembly which concludes with a final Message and the continuation of the synodal process with the work of the ordinary Council, which examines the material elaborated and drafts a summary which is presented to the Pope in view of the writing of the post-synodal apostolic exhortation .
Archbishop Eterovic referred in particular to the exhortation “Pastores gregis”, published on 16 October 2003 as the fruit of the Synod on the ministry of the Bishop, a document, he said “which can be considered a sort of pastoral programme for bishops of the third millennium”. He affirmed that the long series of apostolic exhortations issued as fruits of ordinary Synods and Special Synods held for all five of the world’s continents, “which left a deep mark on the universal Church and the particular Churches all over the world, are the best justification of the utility of the Synod of Bishops which, in these 39 years of its existence, has proved to be a valuable instrument of the College of Bishops at the service of the Church present in the world today”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 7/9/2004; Righe 28 - Parole 337)