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Archbishop J. Michael Miller of Vancouver and Catherine Clifford, professor of theology at Saint Paul University in Ottawa, arrive for a working session of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops in the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall Oct. 26, 2023.
CNS photo/Lola Gomez
March 12, 2025
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Valleyfield Bishop Alain Faubert senses enthusiasm for the synodal cause “is brewing” in dioceses and archdioceses across the country.
The 59-year-old, one of Canada’s bishop delegates at the General Assembly of the Synod on Synodality last October, told The Catholic Register clerics and lay leaders across the country are intently discerning how to implement the suggestions contained in the final report.
“I can tell you that we are not at this point looking toward another synod in three, four or five years,” said Faubert. “We want to receive the fruits from this last synod in this implementation phase.”
Catherine Clifford, one of the four lay Canadian Catholic delegates to the synodal summit in Rome in 2023 and 2024, concurs with Faubert. She is delivering a lecture March 20 at St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo, Ont., centred on how the seeds of synodality were planted during the Second Vatican Council 60 years ago.
The professor of systematic and historical theology at Saint Paul University in Ottawa said the Second Vatican Council recognized the “equality and the dignity of all the baptized Christian faithful and the co-responsibility of all the baptized for the life and mission of the Church.”
Clifford said there was a belief back in the 1960s that “lay people should be also, in a sense, advising Church leaders, and Church leaders should seek their prudent counsel because they have the competencies and charisms that the Church needs.”
Though enacting those structures over the past 60 years has been a slow process, there are now clear signs that this vision is being actualized.
Consider that the group Concerned Lay Catholics (CLC), an independent group of committed Canadian Catholic non-clerics invested in upholding the laity’s co-responsibility mandate, is hosting a conference centred on synodality in June.
Catherine Pead, a founding member of CLC, said more specific details about the event, likely to occur at St. Jerome’s, will be unveiled within “one or two weeks.” Clifford and Faubert will participate as advisors and speakers. CLC also invited Fr. Jean-Pierre Ducharme, OFM, of Richmond, B.C., Fr. Raymond Lafontaine of Montreal, and Canadian Catholic intellectual and author Michael Higgins to consult.
Ducharme was one of the three Canadian delegates who attended the International Meeting for Parish Priests in Rome from April 28 to May 2, 2024, alongside Fr. Fabio de Souza of Calgary and Fr. Daniel Ouellet of Quebec’s Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière diocese. He also organized a nationwide conference call last August, attended by over 80 Canadian priests, to discuss the synodal pathway.
The Franciscan said the Archdiocese of Vancouver’s synodal progress at an archdiocesan level has “been in a holding pattern” over the past several months as Archbishop J. Michael Miller hands the reins to Archbishop Richard Smith, but he is hopeful great strides can be taken under Smith’s leadership after he is officially installed this spring.
“I know that the Edmonton Archdiocese did their part to contribute to the synod,” said Ducharme. “I know that Archbishop Smith has been involved in synods in the past, not this most recent one, but he has been involved. I also know that he believes in collaboration so I think he will call the priests of this archdiocese together to collaborate.”
Canadian Catholic leaders—and clerics around the world—should expect additional guidance from Rome in the coming months. The 10 synod working groups are scheduled to complete their work before the end of June (the mandate for some of the groups could be extended).
Among the themes of these study groups are listening to the cry of the poor, mission in a digital environment, ecumenism and examining the relationship between Eastern Catholic Churches and the Latin Church.
Ducharme would greet any additional insight from Vatican City. From his perspective, “the past four months have been very quiet” since the general assembly concluded. He thinks “it is going to take renewed energy from Rome” to create propulsion.
While noting the final report from the Synod of Bishops is “very prophetic,” Ducharme said it is a document “that takes several readings to kind of understand where it is calling us,” and that could mean “it's almost way too easy to dismiss.”
“I hope that doesn’t happen,” said Ducharme. “But it's going to take some renewed energy and some leadership at various levels of the Church to get it going again.”
Visit YouTube starting at 7:30 p.m. EST on March 20 to hear Clifford’s lecture 'From Vatican II to a Synodal Church'.
(Amundson is an associate editor and writer for The Catholic Register.)
A version of this story appeared in the March 16, 2025, issue of The Catholic Registerwith the headline "Synod takes root across Canada".
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