The conference suggested that the priority of the church should be to welcome, protect, promote, and integrate the migrants into the mainstream of society, making them feel that they are one of them and they can live in dignity and freedom.
"In Africa, we believe that we have to journey together as a family, to listen to one another. And that is why Pope Francis invited us to journey together in this Synod on Synodality, to enlarge our hearts,” Archbishop Lucio Muandula.
At a press conference on the same day, Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, head of the German Bishops' Conference, recognizing the process to be complex and not "peaceful", denied the allegations of divisions over the national Synodal Path and that the synodal plans would cause a new schism in the Catholic Church.
Cardinal Bo stated that a change of attitude is required in our approach towards the challenges we face. He offered the word L.E.N.T as an acronym for this attitudinal change:
Cardinal Hollerich explained how each delegate is like a musical instrument, and ought to function continuously in tune with others (instruments), with discipline, to produce the synodal symphony.
The Synod, like the Lenten journey, he said, is a call to walk the path of God, to listen to his voice, and to recognize the God of love and tenderness, mercy and compassion.
'Synodality is the way of being the Church today according to the will of God, in a dynamic of discerning and listening together to the voice of the Holy Spirit,' as stated by Pope Francis.
Cardinal Grech empasized, “a Synodal Church is a Church of listening” and stressed that the success of the process depended on the active participation of the people of God and the pastors.
Walking together on the path of synodality means for the Church in Asia ‘to walk in solidary’ with all the peoples of Asia, especially, the marginalized, abused and the poor at the periphery.
he participating delegates consist of representatives of 17 Conferences of Bishops and 2 Synods of Bishops, representing the 29 countries that constitute the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC).
Pope Francis called Lent and the Synod on Synodality a 'strenuous mountain trek.' “The Lenten journey of penance and the journey of the Synod alike have as their goal a transfiguration, both personal and ecclesial,” Pope emphasized.
“The living Church is Synodality. It is visible in the living way of the Church. The action flows from the existence of the Church composed of all baptized. Every baptized person is sent.” Father Hyginus Myint Soe says.
The letter of the secretariat seeks “to share a few considerations for a common understanding of the synodal process, its progress and the meaning of the current Continental stage.”
The 200 delegates consist of 156 from the 39 European Bishops' Conferences, and 44 personally invited by the Council of Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE).
