To view/download/print/post/share a document exhorting the need and purposes for effective Evangelization, a Synod and much more, please click HERE.

ARCHDIOCESE OF DETROIT

SYNOD 16
 

Friday, November 18- Sunday, November 20, 2016

The Most Reverend Allen H. Vigneron, Archbishop of Detroit, has announced he will convoke an Archdiocesan-wide Synod to take place in the Fall of 2016. All information regarding the Synod, once disseminated, shall be shared on this webpage. Please share the link with friends, family, fellow parishioners and, especially, potential converts you may be acquainted with. This promises to be a dynamic opportunity to EVANGELIZE and bring fresh souls into the Church!
 
Please explore related articles and links below and in the lower sidebar, to include the official AOD Synod '69 document.  Related Central Macomb Vicariate links for the Synod of Bishops and more appear over in the lower sidebar. Modifications are welcome at GoodNewsCMV@gmail.com.

To read/share current and archived Synod-related articles appearing in the Michigan Catholic, please click HERE.

“We must give people back the joy of the Gospel. We have to help them rediscover the joy that comes from knowing that they are loved by God, and that they can reciprocate that love to God, and that God wants it back.”
 
The Most Reverend Allen H. Vigneron, Archbishop of Detroit
Chrism Mass Homily
Holy Thursday, April 2, 2015
 
To read, listen to or view the entire Homily, please click HERE.

To explore Archbishop Vigneron's Pentecost Vigil Mass homily, delivered on Saturday, May 23, 2015 at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, please click HERE.

As we continue our preparations as an Archdiocese for our Synod on Evangelization, there is much to learn from Pope Francis’ remarks:

• the very name “Synod” – ‘walking together’ indicates what the Lord is asking of us
• a Synod is a “place of prayer where the People of God speak with courage and open themselves to God ‘who always surprises us’ ”
• a Synod is not a convention or a parliament, but rather it “is an expression of the church; it is the church that walks together to read reality with the eyes of faith and with the heart of God”
• “in a spirit of prayer the Spirit will speak through everyone who allows themselves to be guided by God….who reveals to the little ones that which is hidden from the wise and intelligent by God who created the Sabbath for men and women and not vice-versa, by God who leaves the 99 sheep to find the one missing sheep, by God who is always greater than our logic and our calculations”
• at a Synod we need to experience a church who listens aware that “listening is more than hearing; it is a process of mutual listening in which each person has something to learn”
• at a Synod members need “to listen to each other and to listen to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth”
• Synod members must be faithful to church teaching, “the deposit of faith, which is not a museum to be visited or even preserved, but a living spring from which the church drinks to quench the thirst and enlighten” people
• Synod members must have the humility that will empty the self of one’s own convictions and prejudices in order to listen to other synod members and fill ourselves with God
• it is this humility which leads us not to point a finger in judgment of others, but to extend a hand to help them up again without ever feeling superior to them
• every Synod member will need trust-filled prayer to listen to the soft voice of God who speaks in silence
• without listening to God, all of our words will be just words that don’t quench or satisfy – without prayer all of our decisions will be just decorations that cover and hide the Gospel rather than exulting it

These excerpts from the words of Pope Francis are offered to each person who will be chosen to be a member at the Archdiocesan Synod on Evangelization.