The last of four Regional Synod Listening Sessions May 14 concluded the local public process for the 2021-2023 Synod with echoes of concerns raised elsewhere in The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. Repeated themes included the need for a welcoming Church, with parishioners who better understand the Church’s teachings in order to effectively evangelize, particularly to young people and those whose communities have long been marginalized in society and the Church.

Group after group among the 100 or so participants mentioned the need to be better at listening to each other and to provide the varied kinds of support necessary in parishes and communities that are diverse in age, race, culture and experience.

In his homily at the Synod’s closing Mass, which followed the afternoon-long listening session, Cardinal Wilton Gregory touched on those themes as he focused on Christ’s command to “love one another” and the challenges that poses. “None of us ever reaches the apex of Jesus’ commandment,” the cardinal said. “However, none of us can ever settle for a lesser expression of that commandment. It is in the struggle, it is in the attempt, it is in the effort that we reach sanctity.”

The regional session for parishes in the District of Columbia also included representatives from a handful of Maryland parishes, several religious orders and Catholic high schools. It was held at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Southeast Washington. As at the previous regional listening sessions, the parish and community representatives were to report on the concerns raised in the local listening sessions. The delegates were spread around the room at tables with designated note-takers and reporters who brought the key points of table discussions to the larger gathering.

“Someone brought up the point that the shepherds need to know the sheep in order to guide the Church,” one group’s reporter said, after saying “we want to participate in the life of the parish. We want formation. We want accompaniment.”

“So, we want to ask all our shepherds, at every level, are you truly listening to everybody and are you truly listening to the Holy Spirit?” she concluded.

Another group’s reporter said: “at both the local parish level and the archdiocesan level, we need to look at this as an opportunity to prepare and promote emerging organizational leaders within the parish organization.”

Several times, participants said the structure of listening sessions was greatly appreciated, because people too often feel as though nobody in the Church takes the time to hear their concerns.

Cardinal Gregory sat in with a couple of different discussion groups during the listening session.

Reporting for one of those tables, Carolina Herrera, a senior at Elizabeth Seton High School in Bladensburg, Maryland, said a main topic for that group was how to bring people back to or into the Church.

“Sometimes people drift away. Some people are afraid of confrontation,” she said. Herrera later admitted to being quite nervous at speaking for a table full of adults that included the cardinal. She was one of half dozen students representing Seton High and the Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart.  Another dozen participants came from men’s and women’s religious orders.

Dr. Jeannine Marino, the archdiocesan Secretary for Pastoral Ministry and Social Concerns and one of two archdiocesan contacts for the global Synod, said she and her staff would begin working to take 1,000 individual surveys, 106 parish reports and the feedback from the regional sessions and compile a 10-page report to submit to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In concluding the program with a summary of the listening sessions, she said a highlight was an appreciation for both listening to others and for “being heard.”

“You felt that this process highlighted the diversity of our parishes and not just the ethnic diversity – the diversity of ages, of socioeconomic background, of liturgical traditions and practices. That was absolutely highlighted in the other three listening sessions,” she said.

She referenced hearing multiple times “a concern for catechesis and the need for evangelization…. We need to invite people back. COVID was hard. There was a lot of loss during COVID – human loss, a sense of community -- and that we really need to take the next step in inviting people back.”

Continued listening sessions, civil dialogue, “and that the Holy Spirit is calling us to accompaniment and encounter,” also were frequently mentioned that day and in other sessions, Marino said.

One theme raised multiple times in the May 14 session was appreciation for the availability of the traditional Latin Mass in churches of the archdiocese and fear that the traditional Latin liturgy would become unavailable.

Pope Francis in a July 2021 decree, Traditionis Custodes, limited the use of the traditional Latin Mass and left it up to the heads of dioceses to establish local policies. Cardinal Gregory has not yet announced any changes to the use of the traditional Mass in the Archdiocese – which is available at a handful of parishes.

In his homily, Cardinal Gregory said he had been asked recently by Confirmation candidates about the appropriate Christian response to perpetrators of great violence. The questions “came down to the issue of whether it was acceptable to hate those whose actions had brought such sorrow to the people of any community,” he said.

The answer, he said, is that “no one ever lies outside of the love of Christ and His command to His disciples. It is a commandment with no exemptions,” he said.

The consultative process was launched in the fall by Pope Francis to gain insights from the world’s Catholics in preparation for a Synod of Bishops in 2023. In addition to local listening sessions, those who wished could participate through an online survey, which is still available.

The Synod’s theme is “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission.” The 10-page report from the Archdiocese to the USCCB will be part of 196 diocesan reports that the bishops’ conference will summarize in a report for a continental gathering of North American and Central American dioceses. Ultimately, the reports of continental gatherings will go to the Vatican for the Synod of Bishops, to form the basis of the agenda for the October 2023 Synod.