Interview with Mother Yvonne at the end of the Synod

Rome (Italy). On 27 October 2024, with the Eucharistic Celebration presided by Pope Francis in St Peter’s Basilica, the 2^nd Session of the 16^th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission,” was closed. Interviewed, the Mother Emerita of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Sister Yvonne Reungoat, who participated as facilitator, expresses some ‘warm’ impressions:

“The Synod ended yesterday. To be more precise, the second Synodal Assembly ended yesterday, because in reality it continues, putting into practice all that we have shared and is contained in the Final Document that Pope Francis has already entrusted to the whole ecclesial Community, to all the people of God, and to the Shepherds.

At this moment, I must say that I am inhabited by a deep joy which comes from the experience just concluded of this month of sharing and discernment, immersed in the heart of the Church.

At the beginning, the joy of the participants was very significant in meeting again. It was an explosive joy and I must say that this session has been marked by a fraternity even greater than last year, because we felt immediately that people knew each other and therefore it was spontaneous to share immediately and also deeply. I really experienced the feeling of the Holy Spirit present in the hearts of each person, present in the midst of the Assembly, the Community we were forming together.

I experienced that a seed of new life is sprouting in the heart of the Church. A seed which will continue to germinate, grow, and bear fruit. I do not know if they will be visible in an extraordinary way, but the Spirit is working from the heart of people who show acceptance, willingness to listen to Him, listen to people, to reality, to the cry of humanity today, and especially of those suffering, the poor, those who need to be reached and loved most.

This fills me with joy and hope. I am enthusiastic about the experience of the Synod. It is not a superficial enthusiasm, but really deep and difficult to transmit, because it is part of being. It was a shared enthusiasm at the conclusion of the Synod, with the approval of the Final Document and the great applause for the concluding words of the Pope, who expressed the satisfaction, the joy of the participants. I would like this joy, this hope to be shared. Above all, that it may reach the young people who are the present and future of the Church.

What is new compared to the first session?

Certainly, the fact that people already knew each other because the vast majority of members had already attended the October 2023 Session. It was a re-encounter, with relations lived even between the two sessions. So, in the sharing in groups there was immediately a greater mutual trust. Knowledge leads to trust and, in my opinion, the relationships, the sharing have been more profound, they have gone to the concrete of the situations, of the reflections. Fears were expressed, research was done, the discernment was more in depth. I think it was facilitated by the previous mutual knowledge.

This confidence has also led to a greater degree of differences in points of view. Although it is not always easy in dialogue and discernment to harmonize differences when they express deeply rooted, highly motivated thoughts, it has been a great wealth. Personally, in the facilitation of groups I have experienced the presence of the Spirit that helped, but also the ability to build together a harmony between differences and arrive at a shared discernment. We are often afraid of differences, because it is not easy to harmonize them, make them become mutual enrichment.

As in the previous session, conversation in the Spirit helped a lot. It is not a matter of making one thought prevail over another, but together to listen to what the Spirit says, also through people, situations, through His Word.

The Penitential Vigil at the end of the two days of retreat preceding the Synod, in which the members present, representing the whole Church, made explicit their requests for forgiveness to the Lord, purification, to enter the Synod with a freer heart, renewed by grace, becoming aware of our sins. Lived together as a synodal community in St Peter’s Basilica, was a particularly significant moment.

Another novelty was a day of retreat as we prepared to receive the draft of the Final Document. After a meditation by Father Timothy Radcliffe, we received the draft of the Document in this atmosphere of prayer, recollection, silence, and depth. This helped to enter the text in listening to the Holy Spirit and, at the same time, to the different realities of the world, of the Churches.

The final novelty was that Pope Francis, in approving the Final Document – widely approved by a majority of more than two-thirds – declared that it could be published, that he will not write a post-synodal exhortation and that, therefore, the ecclesial community may immediately begin to put into practice what the synodal discernment of these three years – concluded with this Assembly – has matured and will now place at the disposal of all the people of God and their Pastors.

In this session, the freedom of expression of all members – already great last year – was particularly strong and there was a lot of sincerity, search for truth, and sense of discernment, without the fear of expressing oneself, of giving names to situations. I believe that this has helped the path of discernment and reflection.

I think that the Final Document is truly the fruit of the Synod. We who have lived it recognize what has been shared. It is a roadmap that will help the whole Church, the pastors, the baptized, all vocations to walk together, so that the synodal Church is increasingly missionary and reaches all the ends of the earth. It will depend on what we do with it, because many paths are open. We must have the courage to enter, to go forward, to dare to take risks, in the confidence that we are all missionary disciples and that the Lord is before us and accompanies us.

A significative moment lived

It is difficult to say. I lived all the moments of the Synod in a very, very heartfelt way. A significant experience was the Ecumenical Vigil in Roman Protomartyrs’ Square, on the evening of 11 October, which allowed us to share our prayer and address ourselves together to the Lord. And together to let ourselves be filled by the Holy Spirit, to leave stronger and more aware, to build unity.

I think this Session has made important steps in the direction of ecumenism. The fraternal delegates were more numerous – there were 16 – and they expressed their gratitude for being able to participate in a full capacity. They stressed the strength of the unity of the Church and recognized that surely this Synod is an important step on the path of ecumenism. The attention to ecumenism has been continuous and has become concrete in the choices. Sharing together, knowing each other, being integrated together, of different Christian confessions, in the same reflection, in the same path, certainly creates bonds that sustain a process.

This is what Pope Francis also expressed in his final Greeting to the members of the Synod on 26 October:

“Dear brothers and sisters, what we have experienced is a gift that we cannot keep for ourselves. The impetus that comes from this experience, of which the Document is a reflection, gives us the courage to witness that it is possible to walk together in diversity, without condemning one another. (…) Together, with the hope that does not disappoint, united in the love of God diffused in our hearts, we can not only dream peace but commit ourselves with all our strength so that, perhaps without talking so much of synodality, peace may be realized through processes of listening, dialogue, and reconciliation. The synodal church for mission now needs words shared to be accompanied by deeds. And this is the way.”