About 500 delegates to the Archdiocesan Synod Assembly June 3-5 brought their perspectives, experiences and faith to advancing the local Church’s effort to evangelize, Archbishop Bernard Hebda told “Practicing Catholic” radio show host Partrick Conley for an episode debuting 9 p.m. June 17.
“I’m edified by the experience, energized by it as well,” Archbishop Hebda said. “And really, I’m hopeful that over the next few months, we’ll be able to dig deeper into those responses” as part of preparing a pastoral letter on the Archdiocesan Synod for release Nov. 21, honoring the feast of Christ the King, the archbishop said.
Archbishop Bernard Hebda
“To see the breadth of our diocese and the leadership gifts God has given to so many of our faithful was pretty amazing,” he said. “And seeing how it is that even with great diversity they were able to have very profitable conversations. We had no fisticuffs. We had no raising of voices. There was a great desire to help one another, to understand and to listen.”
The three-day gathering at Cretin-Derham Hall high school in St. Paul culminated three years of gathering insights from around the archdiocese and offering prayer and faith formation opportunities as part of the Synod process that led to three focus areas: 1) Forming parishes that are in the service of evangelization, 2) Forming missionary disciples who know Jesus’ love and respond to his call and 3) Forming youth and young adults in and for a Church that is always young.
The Assembly’s 500 delegates came from parishes and religious institutions across the archdiocese. “It was a good mix of ages as well,” the archbishop said, “from high school kids who needed permission from their parents to be there, to those who were definitely senior citizens, and then once again, rural and urban. So, it was pretty much everybody,” the archbishop said.
To hear more from Archbishop Hebda about the Synod Assembly, tune into “Practicing Catholic” on Relevant Radio 1330 AM. The June 17 show repeats at 1 p.m. June 18 and 2 p.m. June 19.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes interviews with Patrick Martin, chair of Nativity of Our Lord’s long-running festival in St. Paul, and Ryan O’Hara, a Catholic speaker and father of four young men, who discusses faith and Father’s Day.
Listen to their interviews after they have aired:
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