Archbishop José H. Gomez is among the bishops elected by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and ratified by Pope Francis to represent the United States at the upcoming XV Ordinary General Assembly: Young People, the Faith, and Vocational Discernment, to take place October 3-28.
“It is an honor and privilege to be selected to represent the Church in the United States,” said Archbishop Gomez. “I’m happy to join my brother U.S. bishops, including our own Auxiliary Bishop Robert Barron from Los Angeles. For me, this Synod will be a moment of hope. Many are pessimistic about evangelizing our young people, who face so many challenges in this cultural moment. But I am not. I believe young people are the way for the Church and the hope for the new evangelization of our culture. So I am looking forward to working with my brother bishops from around the world to find new ways to meet these challenges and bring young people to the encounter with Jesus Christ.”
The delegates are Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, President of the USCCB, Archbishop José H. Gomez, Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Vice President of the USCCB, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth, Bishop Frank J. Caggiano, Diocese of Bridgeport, member of the USCCB Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth and Auxiliary Bishop Robert E. Barron, Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis.
The XV Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops has been convened by the Holy Father, Pope Francis, along with the Vatican Synod Office.
The Vatican collected responses from an online questionnaire aimed at youth and young adults conducted last year. In March 2018, over 300 young adult delegates gathered in Rome, where Pope Francis convened a pre-synod gathering to listen directly to the voice of young people from around the world. The gathering produced a Final Pre-Synodal document.
The Working Document (“Instrumentum Laboris”) for the October Synod was released in late June 2018 and includes a summary of all the Synod consultations to date. It describes the purpose of the 2018 Synod of Bishops as an opportunity for the Church “to accompany all young people, without exception, towards the joy of love,” realizing that “taking care of young people is not an optional task for the Church, but an integral part of her vocation and mission is history.”
Full story at Angelus News.
Overall, I like the American delegation, especially Bishops Chaput and Barron. I think both men will be real assets at the synod.
Whoop-de-doo. Whatever comes out of this synod will be on their heads.
Young people are in such a difficult situation these days. It is good that the Church is getting together to discuss this. It is good that they consulted young people before having the Synod. Being Catholic is counter-cultural and you have to give up so much to be a good Catholic, especially your pride in a culture that now endorses pride and considers it a good. You have to relinquish your self-will in a culture that promotes self-will as the ultimate good.
“The youth” need confession, after a good examination of conscience. Problem is that “the youth” don’t see anything wrong with the mortal sins they embrace. For that matter, neither do their parents, and in some cases, even their bishops. Time to stop listening to “the youth” and call out their sins for what they are. Teachable moment.
The problem with the Youth Synod is going to be the same problem as with the two sessions of the Synod on the Family. Youth from many different countries came together to discuss and propose topics to be discussed at the Synod. Then the youth went home and people in the Vatican added LGBT to the working document, something the youth never proposed. Therefore, even before the Synod begins, it is being manipulated from the Vatican just like the Synod on the Family. At this point it is a tremendous waste of money to even hold the Synod.
It should henceforth be referred to as the Sin-nod. Look at who’s running it: Cardinal Farrell. You’re right that the Sin-nod is being manipulated and the outcome has already been predetermined. The meetings and discussions and preparatory documents are all pretense and farce. The Sin-nod is going to propose accepting certain LGBT sexual sins as okay, just as Amoris Laetitia tried to do. Hey, sing a new church into being or how does that song go? More like sin a new church into being.
The man running the synod — Cardinal Farrell — was in the innermost circles of two clerical homosexual deviants: Marciel Maciel (Legion of Christ) and Cardinal McCarrick. Yet Farrell claims never to have heard nor seen anything untoward. Yeah, right. THAT guy has a Vatican curial position and is running the synod. God help the Church. Seems like the people who get promoted are the ones who go along with and help to conceal homosexual deviants. There truly is a Lavender Mafia in the Church.
The youth of today in much of North America and Europe have their faces glued to their computers and hand-held devices, rather than interacting with real people. The Church needs to learn how to reach them. The old ways won’t work. Kristin said that the youth need a good confession. She may be correct, but the young think confession is only for those who have sinned. That doesn’t include them, in their opinion. Bishop Barron suggested that we need more apologetics and evangelization, but was criticized for being too old fashion to meet the needs of today’s youth. The needs of the majority of Catholic youth are very different from those of U.S. young adults. It should be an interesting meeting.
Click on working document in the article above, if you have not already
Sacraments can’t be given via a phone app.
Is this a meeting about youth or young adults? They’re not the same thing. Here’s where Catholic youth/YA ministry has become such a joke. Young adults in many diocese extend to age 40. Sorry, that’s not young adulthood, that’s pushing middle age. Young adults should be college-age. After college age, you’re just an adult. but this youth synod is really targeting Catholics aged 20-40. How is that youth? It’s all a joke.