by Carl Chudy

Like other continents worldwide, the North American experience of the Synod of the Church, called by Pope Francis in 2021, has been extraordinary. The final report for the continental stage of the Synod states, ‘Profound joy and enthusiasm were experienced by many, while resistance, suspicion, and anxiety were aroused in some’. This joy and resistance make sense in a Church today that is bedeviled by polarization, yet the sheer number involved in this stage is somewhat staggering and shows the passion for the Church on all sides.

The continental stage in North America consisted of twelve virtual assemblies (sessions): seven in English, three in Spanish, and two in French. Attending these assemblies were 931 delegates. Among them, 146 bishops participated in one or more virtual assemblies. Almost 90% of the dioceses and eparchies in the United States and Canada (236/267) were represented in the assemblies. The reliance on virtual sessions, though, was criticized and led at least one bishop to lament that the Synod had a ‘lukewarm’ welcome by some bishops.

That said, my concern as a religious missionary seeking to serve the mission ad gentes of North America, and beyond, is not only for the voices within the Church, but particularly for those outside it. My interest in the shifting sands of religiosity in North America, beyond Christianity, led me in 2021 to focus on research on those who left the Catholic Church in our local area, particularly on the dynamics of the birth of disaffiliation in Catholic families.

Dwellers and seekers

Listening to the stories of those who left church practice should be an essential and constitutive dimension of what it means to be a faith community. But it is rare for those who struggle with the Church to experience dialogue with family or the Church where their doubts are heard without judgment, and a real dialogue about their ecclesial misgivings can take place. When I refer to the faith community in this context, I generally refer to two groups of people. The first are the dwellers, clergy and lay people who find a home in the Church’s sacramental life. The second are seekers looking for more authentic faith experiences, sometimes not found in their local church environments. Both dwellers and seekers make up the whole faith community.

The Synod offers a remarkable opportunity to dialogue and listen to those who are disaffiliated or feel estranged from the Catholic Church, not as a problem to be solved but as an occasion for personal and communal discernment to fathom what God is saying to all of us, both dwellers and seekers. The final report of the Continental Phase says: ‘What emerged from the assemblies was a recognition that there are strong tensions within the Church’.  Mediating that tension means making accompaniment with seekers a habitual and ongoing discernment. Dwellers and seekers make up one ecclesial community where we need to ask the question that Charles Taylor offers: Who does the Church speak to?

Carl Chudy is a Xaverian missionary priest involved in interfaith and inter-spiritual dialogue and research at Our Lady of Fatima Shrine, Holliston, near Boston.