Stay Tuned! Next Working Document for the Synod to Be Released Today

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, SJ, Relator General of the Synod

Later today, the Vatican will release the latest working document for the Synod on Synodality.

Known as an Instrumentum Laboris, the document will guide this coming October’s final General Assembly, which concludes the synodal process that began in late 2021. The document was developed in June by approximately twenty scholars, theologians, and canonists who drew from Synod reports submitted to Rome in the months since the last General Assembly concluded in October 2023.

At a press conference to be held today to announce the document’s release, Cardinal Mario Grech, Secretary General for the General Secretariat of the Synod, and Cardinal Jean-Claude H ollerich, the Synod’s Relator General, are expected to make additional remarks.

Through nearly three years of consultations, reports, and assemblies at national, regional, and global levels, LGBTQ+ inclusion has appeared consistently and prominently as a priority for Catholics. However, the synthesis report from last fall’s General Assembly failed to reflect these calls and was quite disappointing for Catholic LGBTQ+ advocates.

Today, Catholics will be able to see what, if anything, the new Instrumentum Laboris might say about gender and sexuality issues—and how that might impact this October’s deliberations as the synodal process ends.

Stay tuned! Bondings 2.0 will provide coverage of the document and reactions to it beginning later today and continuing throughout the coming week.

—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, July 9, 2024