From October 7 until October 28, 2012, Bishops and about 40 experts from around the world met to consider “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith.”  A Synod is an assembly of bishops that functions as a consultative body for the Universal Church.    The Synod offers an opportunity for the Church to reflect on a particular topic from a global perspective.  Usually the end product is a document that gives the highlights of the discussion and common themes which will help guide the Church.

Preparation for the Synod started with a document called a Lineamenta which acts as a guide with questions to assist the participants in the Synod to prepare for the synod.   After the Bishops around the world receive the lineamenta, they send in responses to questions posed by the lineamenta. These responses were gathered and summarized in the Instrumentum Laboris or working document for the Synod for the New Evangelization.

The Synod Bishops then gathered for the Synod from October 7 – October 28 to discuss ideas and proposals to help the church with the mission of evangelization.  With special permission of the Holy Father, the Vatican press office has released a document with fifty-eight propositions, which the Synod produced and the Holy Father received.  The fifty-eight propositions cover a wide are of topics, but there are several themes that recur repeatedly.  Some of these themes are the need we have to encounter Christ: to not just know about him, but to know him.  Another theme is that we can encounter Christ in beauty:  we see Christ in the beauty of creation, but also in art and music and liturgy.  A third theme running though the propositions is the need for reconciliation.   This requires that we recognize our sinfulness but also come to know God’s great mercy.  All through the document, the propositions continually refer back to the Paschal Mystery: that Christ became Man, that he suffered and died for us and that He rose again on the third day and that by this paschal mystery we are saved.   The Holy Father can use these proposals as a basis for a papal document on the New Evangelization.

At the end of the Synod, the Synod Bishops released a Message to the People of God, which inviting all of us to encounter Christ anew and opening ourselves to conversion and renewal in order to seize new opportunities for evangelization in the world today.