Vatican releases working document for October meeting of Synod

June 19, 2012

The Vatican has released the instrumentum laboris, the working document that will form the basis for discussion at the October meeting of the Synod of Bishops, which will be dedicated to the theme: “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith.”

The goal of the New Evangelization is to provide “an adequate response to the signs of the times, to the needs of individuals and people of today and to the new sectors with their cultures through which we express our identity and the meaning of our lives,” the document says. The text—divided into 4 chapters and 169 paragraphs—is intended to spark discussion among the participants in the worldwide Synod meeting.

The Synod of Bishops will meet in Rome from October 7 to 28. The instrumentum laboris is the final preparatory document for the meeting. It ws prepared by the staff of the Synod of Bishops after an earlier document, the lineamenta, suggesting a general outline of topics, was circulated among the world’s bishops for comments.

Introducing the Instrumentum Laboris to reporters at a June 19 press conference in Rome, Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, the secretary-general of the Synod of Bishops, said that the October meeting will be “enriched by its association with the Year of Faith” decreed by Pope Benedict XVI, which will open on October 11.

 

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Further information:

• Instrumentum Laboris of Synod on New Evangelization (VIS)
• To transmit the Christian faith (L'Osservatore Romano)
• The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith (full text of instrumentum laboris)