Synodal journey: messages and initiatives in the Baltic countries. “Responding generously to such journey”

“We are addressing ourselves to you, while congratulating Pope Francis on his having wanted to have a Synodal journey, so that you may be proactively involved in the renewal of the Church, by voicing intuitions felt in the silence of prayer and reflection and inspired by the Holy Spirit”. This was written in a joint letter by the Lithuanian bishops to their devotees, calling them to “look together – the clergy and the lay – at the way we are building the community of the Church, from the smallest parish or community of prayer onwards”. The bishops call to take “joint responsibility for the Church”, to find ways to “meet and find God’s will together”, and involve “also those who for some reason are far from the Church or at the margins of society, because it is important for us to listen to their voices too”. And a website for the Synod has been launched in Lithuania (sinodas.katalikai.lt). In Estonia, the archbishop of Tallinn, Philippe Jourdan, opened the diocesan stage of the Synod in the Cathedral yesterday, by asking the congregation to “respond generously to the Pope’s request to take part in such journey. It is proof of love for the Church and the wish to take part in its life as the Body of Christ”. Because participation “strengthens our Christian call”. The three big issues that Pope Francis is asking us to explore (communion, participation, mission), again according to mgr. Jourdan, “are not abstracts or theoretical matters”, but actually want to answer the question about the way “the Catholic Church in our city, in Estonia, in Europe and in the world” can best accomplish the mission to announce the Gospel and the way “each one of us can be more proactively involved in such mission“.
Valentina Bombelli