Synod’s Final Document and accompanying resource

Monday, March 24th 2025

The Final Document of the Synod on Synodality and a simple, accessible ‘take-outs’ resource has been produced to help Catholics engage with the Final Document (FD).

On Saturday afternoon, 26 October 2024, the members of the Second Session of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops approved the Final Document of the Synod on Synodality. Pope Francis approved its publication.
You can download it in English here: Synod on Synodality – Final Document

‘Take-outs’ resource

A simple and accessible ‘take-outs’ resource has been produced by the Diocese of Westminster to help Catholics engage with the Final Document (FD). The resource is particularly useful ahead of the ‘Implementation Phase’ that Pope Francis has recently commissioned the Church to move into as we journey to the celebration of an ecclesial assembly in the Vatican in October 2028.

The resource is titled: How to be a Synodal Church in Mission. Take-outs from the Final Document: ‘An Informal Reaping of the Fruits’. Synodal Journey Final Document: Take-outs Each section of the Final Document is numbered, and this ‘take-outs’ resource takes a particular topic or key point and explores it with reference to the FD’s more in-depth text.

• An example:
• Synodality calls for formation in the faith and in what it means to be missionary disciples
• “The formation required… needs to explore theological, biblical and spiritual foundations. All the baptised need this formation in witness, holiness and service, which emphasises co-responsibility.” (80)
  You can then visit section 80 of the Final Document for more information.

Several aspects of synodality are explored in the resource including exactly what synodality is, what it calls for, how we can walk alongside people in all their joys and challenges, and how to have a ‘Conversation in the Spirit’. It also looks at how a synodal Church places the poor at its centre, and how Mary, Mother of Christ, is at the heart of a synodal, missionary and merciful Church.

Among many other points, the take-outs look at participatory decision-making, and how the FD advocates for bishops and priests to listen to laypeople and vice-versa.

The resource is titled: How to be a Synodal Church in Mission. Take-outs from the Final Document: ‘An Informal Reaping of the Fruits’. Synodal Journey Final Document: Take-outs

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Pope Francis: May we be a Church on the move, sharing the joy of the Gospel

Marking the conclusion of the XVIth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, Pope Francis presided over the Synod’s closing Mass on Sunday, 27 October 2024, in Saint Peter’s Basilica. The Pope gave thanks to the Lord for the “journey we have made together” in the Synod on Synodality that began three years ago with local, regional and continental meetings, and culminated in month-long October meetings at the Vatican in 2023 and concluding in 2024.

At the concluding Mass of the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, Pope Francis encourages us to be like Bartimaeus in today’s Gospel and “entrust our blindness to the Lord” in order to be “a missionary Church that walks with her Lord through the streets of the world.”

Synodal Prayer

We stand before You, Holy Spirit, as we gather together in Your name,
With You alone to guide us, make Yourself at home in our hearts;
Teach us the way we must go and how we are to pursue it.
We are weak and sinful; do not let us promote disorder.
Do not let ignorance lead us down the wrong path nor partiality influence our actions.
Let us find You our unity
so that we may journey together to eternal life
and not stray from the way of truth and what is right.
All this we ask of You,
who are at work in every place and time,
in the communion of the Father and the Son, for ever and ever.
Amen.