For the last three weeks, I have used my column to offer brief reflections on the three proposed pastoral priorities that will be given to the Synod delegates for discussion.

My reflections were intended to provide some material for thought and pre-synod discussion. They were not intended to limit the parameters of the discussion.

There are two more issues that emerged from the meetings of the presbyterate and parish administrators in Mayaro that will require the attention of the Synod.

They are: 1) A consensus understanding of the Mission of the Church - which is different from but related to a Mission Statement for the Archdiocese; and 2) A consensus understanding of a Template for Parish Ministry.

I shall consider the Mission of the Church issue this week and conclude next week with a consideration of the Template for Parish Ministry.

Background information

As the delegates to the two prior synod sessions will recall, I tend not to speak at synods unless asked specific questions or there is a particular reason for me to intervene. I believe my role at Synod is to listen carefully to the representatives of the people, to the interventions of the delegates and to the dialogue on the synod floor.

By way of exception, I did intervene during the meeting of the presbyterate and parish administrators in Mayaro on the issue of the Mission of the Church because I thought the issue was already very precisely treated in magisterial documents.

I have always found that even good faith desires to rewrite magisterial documents can result, unintentionally, in conflict with the doctrinal/pastoral teaching of the Catholic Tradition.

At the Mayaro meeting, I recommended that rather than developing a consensus statement on the Mission of the Church, it would be better to prepare “a summary of the Church’s self-understanding of its mission” based on authoritative documents of the Church.

The summary of the Church’s self-understanding could then be used as the foundation for preparing a Mission Statement for the Archdiocese.

To contribute to the pre-synod/synod discussions, I shall offer the archdiocese a summary of the Church’s self-understanding of its mission. I shall use five documents of the Church.
1) Three documents from Vatican Council II: The Constitution on the Church (1964), The Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (1965) and The Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity (1965); and
2) Two papal documents: Evangelization in the Modern World by Pope Paul VI (1975) and The Permanent Validity of the Church’s Missionary Mandate by Pope John Paul II (1990).

While I am certain that there are many people in the archdiocese who have studied the conciliar and papal documents, I think it is fair to assume that most of the Synod delegates just never had the opportunity to study them. The proposed draft is to assist them with their pre-synod reflection.  

A draft statement on the Mission of the Church

“Christ is the Light of all Nations. The Church which he founded is a kind of sacrament or sign of intimate union with God and of the unity of all people. The notion of mission did not begin with the Church. Christ himself was missioned by the Father to re-establish all things.

By his obedience Christ established the kingdom, revealed the Father and brought forth redemption. When his mission was completed, the Holy Spirit was missioned to forever sanctify the Church and unceasingly renew it in Christ. All people are called to union with Christ, the light of the world, from whom we go forth, through whom we live and toward whom our journey leads us.

As the Son was missioned by the Father, so he missioned the apostles to make disciples of all nations and assured them he would be with them until the end of time.

The Church received from the apostles the solemn mandate of Christ to preach the gospel. The Church then missioned others to proclaim the saving truth of the Gospel, to protect people from error and to bring them to maturity in Christ.

The Church has a responsibility not just to the members of the Church but to all of humanity. There is nothing genuinely human that does not interest the Church.

While humanity takes pride in its discoveries and power, it also raises anxious questions about the direction of the world, about the role of the human person in the world and about the destiny of the human family. In an age of rapid change, the Church reminds the world that there are many realities, rooted in Christ, that do not change. The Church must analyse, in the light provided by Christ and the Holy Spirit, the many issues which trouble the human family.

The Church has been sent to all nations that she might be the universal sacrament of salvation. She is by her nature missionary because she has her origin from the mission of the Son and from the mission of the Holy Spirit. The missionary activity of the Church is a continuing process. The specific purpose of the missionary activity is evangelisation which is rooted in the incarnation and in Pentecost.

Evangelisation must touch three pastoral situations:
1) the situation in which Christ and his Gospel are not known or which lack Christian communities sufficiently mature to be able to incarnate the faith;
2)  the situation in which Christian communities have adequate and solid ecclesial structures, bear witness to the Gospel and are committed to the universal mission of the Church;
3) the situation in which entire groups of the baptised have lost a living sense of the faith, who no longer consider themselves members of the Church or who live far removed from Christ and the Gospel.

Papal teaching stresses that the Church of the twenty-first century must become better equipped to proclaim the Gospel. The conditions of society require us to revise the methodology of the present and to seek with all its energies new ways and means by which the Christian message can be brought to the people of our time.

People of the twenty-first century are more impressed by witnesses than by teachers. If they listen to teachers at all, it is because they are also witnesses. All Christians are called to bear this witness so they may be true evangelisers.”

In its Mission Statement, which is to be developed for the Synod, the Archdiocese of Port of Spain will be challenged to pattern itself on the mission of the Church and to respond to the demands of modern evangelisation.    

Conclusion

After Vatican Council II, many new departments were established or significantly expanded in the Vatican e.g. Communications, Family Life, Culture and Health Care.

The same pattern was eventually followed by the dioceses of the Catholic world depending on their resources. 

Each level had to analyse its pastoral context, plan collaboratively and, slowly but surely, modify its pastoral methods to meet its responsibility to share in the mission of the Church and the ministry of evangelisation.

The new systems that emerged from the Council increased requests from the new Vatican departments for information, personnel, collaboration and pastoral adaptations. Documentation from the various departments increased.

There was much material to be read, digested and implemented. As a result, in some cases, dioceses felt overwhelmed. However, eventually, the process, though still challenging, was nuanced successfully. 

Some parishes of the archdiocese experienced the same sense of being overwhelmed by the new Councils, Commissions and Secretariats of the archdiocese.

However, progress on many fronts is undeniable due to the persevering efforts of many people who serve in the departments of the archdiocese.

Similar to the dioceses of the world, we too will adjust to the new systems through reasonable dialogue as we shape the future of the archdiocese together.