Justin McLellan

As members of the Synod of Bishops entered the last week of their meeting in Rome, the synod’s secretary-general urged them to resist the temptation of “covetousness” — the desire “to keep everything for ourselves, to possess, to hoard, to define, to close.”

As the Synod of Bishops on synodality engaged in conversation on the church’s hierarchy, synod delegates examined the relationship between the local and universal church during a public theological and pastoral forum.

Recent synods convened at the Vatican as well as the worldwide synod on synodality have “shown us the value of listening as a common thread in any process of humanization,” said Sister Liliana Franco Echeverri, a member of the Company of Mary and president of the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious.

The pope, bishops and priests cannot fully awaken the missionary spirit of the Catholic Church alone, so all Catholics must play a more central role in spreading the Gospel, according to participants in the Synod of Bishops on synodality.

The Vatican group studying the question of women’s ministry, including the ordination of women to the diaconate, will expand its consultative phase to include women who do not serve as consultors to the dicastery in charge of the study group, synod officials announced.