Synod process must be bottom up, pope tells Italian bishops
Italian Episcopal Conference General Assembly gets underway in the presence of over 200 bishops with a focus on synodality
Updated: May 25, 2021 04:35 AM GMT
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The 74th General Assembly of the Italian Episcopal Conference. (Photo: Vatican Media)
Welcoming the Italian bishops' decision to begin planning a national synod, Pope Francis told them that it must begin at the grassroots with "the smallest parish, the smallest diocesan institution."
"The synod must begin from the bottom up," he told the bishops May 24 at the spring assembly of their conference.
"This will require patience, work, allowing people to talk so that the wisdom of the people of God will come forth because a synod is nothing other than making explicit what 'Lumen Gentium' said: The whole people of God -- all of them, from the bishop on down -- is infallible in belief," the pope said. "They cannot err when there is harmony among all."