Archdiocesan Synod 2024/Archbishop Hebda's Pastoral PLan  

Update: August 27, 2023

Sign Up for Small Group Leader Training

Our Synod Evangelization Team (SET) has been hard at work over the past six months preparing for the upcoming small group leader training at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church. Last November, Archbishop Hebda published his Pastoral Letter entitled “You Will Be My Witnesses.” The first year of the SETs throughout the Archdiocese is to establish a wide variety of small groups – from traditional faith sharing, focused devotions, young family interests, and whatever else the Holy Spirit is calling us toward. The process begins this fall by training parishioners who are called by the Holy Spirit to be small group leaders. The call may come through an invitation from one of our SET members or a direct prompting of the Holy Spirit. This is a discernment process with no initial commitment beyond the training this Fall.

Is God calling you to be a leader or part of a small group? Parishes are always stronger faith communities when small groups flourish. Small groups truly make us part of a family of faith, allowing us to grow closer and more accountable to each other in our journey with Christ.

There have been many questions from parishioners about what this training and commitment is all about. Simply put, it is a commitment to go to the training held on Thursdays from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m., starting September 21, 2023. The seven-week training will consist of time for prayer, a section providing you with the education of how to run a small group, and lastly, heartfelt Holy Spirit-inspired discussion.

Sign Up Below.  Registration is closed.

This process was created by the greatest leader in history, Jesus Christ. The SET is simply using the method that Jesus provided. Jesus called his 12 apostles and from those 12 apostles, gathered 72 to be his disciples, sending them forth to grow in faith.

Our parish SET members are actively recruiting Synod Small Group Leaders. However, if you have not been approached and feel called to the Small Group Leadership Training - reach out to a SET member or the parish office with your desire to attend the training.

On behalf of the SET team:
God Bless you! Come Holy Spirit!

SYNOD EVANGELIZATION TEAM:
Fr. Dave Hennen  Deacon Rod Walker  Jill Skaife  Lisa Piotrowski  Laura Stierman  Laurie Donnelly  Tom Donnelly  Pat Regan  Mary Regan  Maxwell Armitage  Pat Butler (SET Prayer Partner)  Scott Lindell (SET Prayer Partner)

Read the letter.  Read the TEXT ONLY letter.

Archdiocese’s Survey for Pope Francis’ Synod on Synodality Casts Wide Net  Take the Survey!

“What is ONE thing that you would like to share with Pope Francis as he guides the Church?” That’s one of the key questions asked in a new survey from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to gather information for Pope Francis’ Synod on Synodality.

The survey is intended for “all the baptized” and aims to reach both practicing and non-practicing Catholics, said Amy Tadlock, a canon lawyer and the archdiocese’s manager of organizational effectiveness.

Pope Francis wants “all the Catholics in the world is to come together, listen to one another, listen to the Holy Spirit, and provide feedback on how he should guide the global Church in the coming years. And every diocese is asked to participate,” said Tadlock, whom Archbishop Bernard Hebda has tasked with overseeing local efforts related to the Vatican’s Synod on synodality, formally titled “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission.”

The survey invites participants to share a written response to the “one thing” question, and then to select five areas “where you think the Catholic Church should focus its greatest attention” from a list of 30 topics, including “pro-life efforts,” “climate change” and “role of women in the Church.”

The survey also asks for some demographic information, but respondents remain anonymous.

In 2020, Pope Francis announced that the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops would focus on “synodality,” which the Synod’s website defines as “a style, a culture, a way of thinking and being, that reflects the truth that the Church is led by the Holy Spirit who enables everyone to offer their own contribution to the Church’s life.” The meeting of bishops is scheduled to take place at the Vatican in October 2023.

A poster advertising the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ survey responding to Pope Francis’ request for feedback for the Synod on synodality. TCS

Leading up to the Synod on Synodality is a two-year process that includes consultation of all the faithful, divided into four phases. The current phase includes gathering information on a diocesan level.

The archdiocese’s survey quotes the Vatican Synod’s preparatory document, which states that the “purpose of the Synod … is not to produce documents, but ‘to plant dreams, draw forth prophecies and visions, allow hope to flourish, inspire trust, bind up wounds, weave together relationships, awaken a dawn of hope, learn from one another, and create a bright resourcefulness that will enlighten minds, warm hearts, give strength to our hands.’”

The archdiocese will share the feedback collected by the survey with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at the end of June. 

The Vatican Synod’s emphasis on “a listening Church” dovetails with efforts well underway in the archdiocese through the Archdiocesan Synod process, which began in 2019. That process included 30 Prayer and Listening Events and focus groups in 2019-2020, through which Archbishop Hebda identified three focus areas for the local Church.

Catholics in the archdiocese gave feedback on those focus areas through Parish Consultations with six-session parish small groups in 2021, and Parish Synod Leadership Team meetings in February and March 2022. That work will culminate in the Archdiocesan Synod Assembly in St. Paul June 3-5, followed by Archbishop Hebda’s discernment of a pastoral letter, expected in November, and a subsequent action plan.

“What we have done here for our own local Synod process has already laid an amazing foundation for the Vatican Synod process that Pope Francis has called,” Tadlock said. “What we’re doing now with this survey is building on that foundation.”

Tadlock said she hopes the survey attracts participation from a wide range of Catholics, including those who attend daily Mass to those who no longer identify with the faith, and everyone in-between.

The survey option makes it possible for the local Church to hear from people “who have not been to church in years, maybe haven’t been to church since they made their first Communion. Or maybe they were hurt by somebody in the Church, or they left because of unfortunate circumstances or because of some pain or even betrayal,” Tadlock said.

“(For) people who have left, this is still their opportunity to say … how they would think the Church can be better. It’s important for them to know that they are still considered members of the Church and we still want to hear from them,” she added. “We still care about them and we still care about what they think. And we can only be better when we hear from all members of the Christian faithful.”