Vatican City (Fides News Agency) - "We look forward to seeing the fruits of this Synod, of the themes we have talked about and discussed in these months of preparation. We have a desire to understand together how the church can have a greater impact in people's lives. The church is not an NGO, the church looks at spiritual needs." These are the words of Msgr. Joseph Mary Kizito, Bishop of Aliwal in South Africa, one of more than 100 new bishops from the territories of first evangelization who took part in the training course dedicated to them under the theme "Living the Episcopal Mission in a Synodal Church" (see Fides Agency 5 /09/2023). On that occasion, Fides Agency met some of them and we has collected in the attached video some excerpts of their interviews on the experience of the synodal path in their respective dioceses.
Bishop Kolio Etuale, Bishop of the Diocese of Samoa-Pago Pago in American Samoa explains "For the past two years, during the synodical journey, we have been dealing with the issue of Scientology. We are very serious about it because the image of our church is what Jesus wants. In this synod time , we held meetings and we have been talking to our people about the importance of being a Christian, what the church stands for today and how to live this spiritual journey. We are walking together with young people, with older people, with different life stories." Msgr. Christian Carlassare, Bishop of Rumbek in South Sudan, echoes these words, describing the synod path "as an opportunity for rapprochement especially with the committed communities, the laity, the catechists, who are often left aside; although they work they have little space at the decision-making level." Such a journey culminated in the Diocesan Assembly, of which Bishop Carlassare says, "We recognized the formation of lay pastoral agents, the formation of clergy and seminarians, the role of communication within the diocese, the importance of youth ministry, which is central for us because 80 percent of our Christians are young people and young people and they seek in the Church a place where they can express themselves.". For Msgr. Simon Kim Jon-Gang, Bishop of Cheongiu, South Korea, the preparation for the synod was very important and he explains : "We understood more about the nature of our Korean church, our faithful are comforted by the idea of being missionaries all."
(EG) (Fides News Agency 4/10/2023)
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