Father Timothy Radcliffe predicted that the period between the close of this year’s Synod assembly and the opening of another meeting next October “will be probably the most fertile time of the whole Synod.”
The former master of the Dominican order, who has been appointed by Pope Francis as a spiritual adviser to the Synod, likened the period between the two Synod assemblies to a pregnancy, “a period of germination.” Speaking to Synod participants on October 23, he urged participants to avoid “the sterile, barren language of much of our conflictual society” during the intervening months. He said that the entire process of the Synod is “more like planting a tree than winning a battle.”
Synod organizers have said that the same delegates who participated in this month’s assembly will reconvene next year. A new working document, or instrumentum laboris, will be prepared for the 2024 session on the basis of reports from the current assembly.