Seven participants who have been part of various listening sessions for the Synod on Synodality agreed to share their experiences in a video (above) created by the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland to raise awareness about the importance of participation in the worldwide process.
The synod, which was announced in April 2021 by Pope Francis, continues to generate interest throughout the diocese and beyond.
“Over the last couple of months, we’ve trained about 150 parishes and groups to participate in the synod,” said Lynette Saenz, assistant secretary for Parish Life and Development. “So, that’s a lot of facilitators getting ready and organizing these sessions in their parishes.”
Bishop Edward Malesic appointed Saenz and Father Damian Ference, vicar for evangelization, to oversee the diocesan synodal process. Both Saenz and Father Ference appear in the video along with seven people who participated in listening sessions stretching from St. Raphael Parish in Bay Village to La Sagrada Familia Parish in Cleveland’s Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood.
The video also features a 13-year-old student who participated in a session conducted with teens at St. Aloysius-St. Agatha School in Cleveland, along with comments from the two co-founders of Grapevine, a young adult ministry based in Lakewood.