Pope Francis has invited many bishops and others from around the globe to Rome in October 2023 for a synod, an important meeting to look at the future of the Roman Catholic Church. He has made it clear that the best path that local churches can take in preparing for this meeting is to find creative ways of listening to the experience of church members—clergy and laypeople, men and women, old and young, those fiercely attached to the Church and those alienated from it. At present dioceses worldwide are drawing up ambitious plans to enable this to happen. What will be the result? Only the Holy Spirit knows! What the Pope has recognised in this way of proceeding is the importance of allowing people to tell their story, to explain what the world looks like from their own particular perspective, and to be heard to do so, by each other and by those in power. This, it is hoped, will have a result very different from the kind of meeting where a few explain to the many what has already been decided, even when the intention is to gauge the response to such explanations. The outcome may well be messier, less clear-cut, than might otherwise have been the case. But Christian belief is that God speaks through all people, and so it is important that all people be heard.
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