This weekend marks two particularly poignant moments in the life of the church. One of them is an historical reflection on a past experience with on-going importance for us, and the other is the genesis of a process yet to unfold.
The first of these is the celebration of the 140th anniversary of the creation of the Diocese of Trenton. Pope Leo XIII announced the division of the Diocese of Newark and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia on August 2, 1881. The Diocese of Trenton at that time comprised Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Hunterton, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Salem, Somerset, and Warren Counties. Fr. Michael J. O’Farrell of New York was named as its first bishop, being installed as Bishop on November 1. The new diocese had 68 churches, 23 parochial schools and 51 priests. In 1937 Pope Pius XI created the Diocese of Camden to serve Catholics in the six counties in the southern part of the state. Much of the growth of the diocese took place during the episcopacy of Bishop George W. Ahr (1952 to 1979). Bishop Ahr established more than 50 new parishes and blessed more than 250 new buildings, including 100 new churches and parish centers, and 90 schools and school additions. Among the new parishes is our own, established on July 15, 1959. In 1981 Pope St. John Paul II created the Diocese of Metuchen, reducing the Trenton diocese to the four central counties: Mercer, Burlington, Monmouth, and Ocean. Today there are some 885,000 Catholics in 105 parishes served by 212 diocesan priests, about one-third of whom are retired. Bishop David O’Connell, C.M. is the tenth bishop of the diocese, having been named bishop here on June 4, 2010.
The second event of note is the Synod on Synodality which Pope Francis announced on April 24th. The official opening at the Vatican is this Sunday, October 10th. This is a two-year long world-wide listening process. While the church regularly conducts synods they usually happened on the local level until the 1970’s when Pope St. Paul VI established universal synods as a regular element of church governance. Such synods have been held at the Vatican every two years. To some extent I believe that the synodal process established then stands as the replacement for the ecumenical councils which have been rare in the life of the church over the past 500 years. While there have been twenty-one such councils, only Trent (1545-1565) Vatican I (1870) and Vatican II (1962-1965) have occurred since the Reformation of 1517.
This synod, however, is different. Each diocese throughout the world is asked to participate by developing its own synodal process to listen to the concerns, needs, desires, and experiences of the faithful, the religious, and the clergy alike. In a sense Pope Francis seems to be calling the church to listen and then to develop a process to renew herself through the synods. Many of the synods that have been held over the past fifty years have had lofty goals and wonderful agendas, but they have seldom impacted the daily life of the faithful or reinvigorated the life of the church. They have, however, produced some very interesting documents.
While many are want to dismiss this synodal process as the establishment of another bureaucratic process, I am hopeful that if done well on the local and then national levels throughout the world, that this can be invigorating in the life of the church. It is a risk, for sure, but Pope Francis has been nothing if not a risktaker through much of his pontificate to date.
Bishop O’Connell has yet to announce the local synodal study, but that will be forthcoming.
Let us hope and pray that this process is more than just process on every level, especially as the Synod itself will convene at the Vatican in 2023. Nothing is more disheartening than expecting to engage in a process expecting to be heard (even if your desires are not in the final document) only to learn that it is all show and little substance.
Next Sunday (October 17th) Bishop O’Connell will celebrate a Mass at 3:00 pm at the Cathedral in Trenton to celebrate both the diocesan anniversary and the opening of the Synod. The Mass is open to the faithful and will be live-streamed, with a link on the parish website.
I am sure there will be prayers forthcoming for the synod, but let us pray that it is more than prayers.