Pope Francis' Final Synod Address "In our time marked by wars, we must be witnesses of peace, even by learning how to live out our differences in conviviality."

 In his final address at the Synod Assembly, Pope Francis presents the Synod's Final Document as a "threefold gift."  Addressing the Synod Assembly on Saturday, Oct. 26th in the evening, Pope Francis highlighted how the Final Document, written over the course of the 2nd Session of the Synod on Sinodality that began on 2 October following a process of listening and dialogue, is the fruit of over three years of listening to the People of God. It reveals, he noted, a shared path forward toward a "synodal Church" that embodies the Gospel not merely through words but through every act and interaction. This XVIth Ordinary Assembly of the Synod will officially conclude on Sunday, 27 October, with the celebration of Holy Mass in St. Peter's Basilica presided over by Pope Francis.

SECOND SESSION OF THE
XVI ORDINARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS (2-27 October 2024)
17th GENERAL CONGREGATION
FULL TEXT FINAL GREETING OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
Paul VI Hall - Saturday, 26 October 2024
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Dear brothers and sisters,
with the Final Document we have gathered the fruit of years, at least three, in which we have listened to the People of God to better understand how to be a “synodal Church” – listening to the Holy Spirit – in this time.

The biblical references that open each chapter arrange the message by crossing it with the gestures and words of the Risen Lord who calls us to be witnesses of his Gospel, with our lives before words.
The Document on which we have expressed our vote is a threefold gift.
First to me, Bishop of Rome. In convening the Church of God in Synod I was aware of needing you, Bishops and witnesses of the synodal journey. Thank you!
The Bishop of Rome too, I remind myself frequently, and you, needs to practice listening, indeed he wants to practice listening, to be able to respond to the Word that repeats to him every day: "Confirm your brothers and sisters ... Feed my sheep".
My task, you know well, is to guard and promote - as Saint Basil teaches us - the harmony that the Spirit continues to spread in the Church of God, in the relations between the Churches, despite all the hardships, tensions, divisions that mark its path towards the full manifestation of the Kingdom of God, which the vision of the Prophet Isaiah invites us to imagine as a banquet prepared by God for all peoples. All, in the hope that no one is missing. All, all, all! No one outside, all. And the key word is this: harmony. What the Spirit does, the first strong manifestation, on the morning of Pentecost, is to harmonize all those differences, all those languages… Harmony. This is what the Second Vatican Council teaches when it says that the Church is “like a sacrament”: it is a sign and instrument of the expectation of God who has already prepared the table, and waits. His Grace, through his Spirit, whispers words of love in the heart of each one. We are given to amplify the voice of this whisper, without hindering it; to open the doors, without erecting walls. How much harm do women and men of the Church do when they erect walls, how much harm! All, all, all! We must not behave like “dispensers of Grace” who appropriate the treasure by tying the hands of the merciful God. Remember that we began this Synodal Assembly asking for forgiveness, feeling ashamed, recognizing that we are all merciful.
There is a poem by Madeleine Delbrêl, the mystic of the peripheries who exhorted: «Above all, do not be rigid» - rigidity is a sin, it is a sin that sometimes enters clerics, consecrated men and women -. I will read you some verses by Madeleine Delbrêl, which are a prayer. She says this:
Because I think that perhaps you have had enough
of people who always talk about serving you with the attitude of a leader,
of knowing you with the air of a professor,
of reaching you with sporting rules,
of loving you as one loves in an old marriage
…Let us live our life,
not like a game of chess where everything is calculated,
not like a match where everything is difficult,
not like a theorem that breaks our heads,
but like an endless party where your encounter is renewed,
like a dance,
like a dance,
in the arms of your grace,
in the music that fills the universe with love.
These verses can become the background music with which to welcome the Final Document. And now, in the light of what emerged from the synodal journey, there are and there will be decisions to be made.
In our time marked by wars, we must be witnesses of peace, even by learning how to live out our differences in conviviality.
For this reason I do not intend to publish an “apostolic exhortation”, what we have approved is enough. In the Document there are already very concrete indications that can be a guide for the mission of the Churches, in the different continents, in the different contexts: for this reason I am making it available to everyone immediately, for this reason I said that it be published. I want, in this way, to recognize the value of the synodal journey completed, which through this Document I deliver to the holy faithful people of God.
On some aspects of the life of the Church indicated in the Document, as well as on the themes entrusted to the ten “Study Groups”, which must work with freedom, to offer me proposals, time is needed, to reach choices that involve the whole Church. I, therefore, will continue to listen to the Bishops and the Churches entrusted to them.
This is not the classic way of postponing decisions indefinitely. It is what corresponds to the synodal style with which the Petrine ministry must also be exercised: listening, convening, discerning, deciding and evaluating. And in these steps pauses, silences, prayer are necessary. It is a style that we are learning together, little by little. The Holy Spirit calls us and supports us in this learning, which we must understand as a process of conversion.
The General Secretariat of the Synod and all the Dicasteries of the Curia will help me in this task.
The Document is a gift to all the faithful People of God, in the variety of its expressions. It is obvious that not everyone will start reading it: it will be you above all, together with many others, who will make what it contains accessible in the local Churches. The text, without the testimony of the experience completed, would lose much of its value.
Dear brothers and sisters, what we have experienced is a gift that we cannot keep to ourselves. The impetus that comes from this experience, of which the Document is a reflection, gives us the courage to testify that it is possible to walk together in diversity, without condemning one another.
We come from all parts of the world, marked by violence, poverty, indifference. Together, with the hope that does not disappoint, united in the love of God spread in our hearts, we can not only dream of peace but commit ourselves with all our strength so that, perhaps without talking so much about synodality, peace can be achieved through processes of listening, dialogue and reconciliation. The synodal church for the mission, now, needs shared words to be accompanied by facts. And this is the path.
All this is a gift of the Holy Spirit: it is He who creates harmony, He is harmony. Saint Basil has a very beautiful theology on this; if you can, read the treatise of Saint Basil on the Holy Spirit. He is harmony. Brothers and sisters, may the harmony continue even when we leave this hall and may the Breath of the Risen One help us to share the gifts we have received.
And remember - these are still the words of Madeleine Delbrêl - that "there are places where the Spirit blows, but there is a Spirit that blows in all places".
I would like to thank all of you, and let us thank each other. I thank Cardinal Grech and Cardinal Hollerich for the work they have done, the two Secretaries, Nathalie and San Martín - you have done well! -, Father Batocchio and Father Costa who have helped us so much! I greet all those who have worked behind the scenes and without them we could not have done all this. Thank you so much! May the Lord bless you. Let us pray for each other. Thank you!
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