The University of Notre Dame Australia is honored that two of its academic staff - Professor Fr Eamonn Conway and Professor Renee Kohler-Ryan - have been invited by Pope Francis to attend the upcoming Synod on Communion, Participation, and Mission at the Vatican in October this year and next year.
The synodal assemblies will see about 400 Catholics from around the world gather to prayerfully consider how the Church can thrive in the contemporary world.
In a first for the Church, Pope Francis has ruled that lay people will join Bishops as voting members, giving them an unprecedented opportunity to help shape the future of the Church.
Professor Kohler-Ryan, who is Head of Notre Dame's School of Philosophy and Theology, said the synod was a significant moment in the Church's history and she was humbled to have been invited as a lay person to represent Australian Catholics.
"Synods bring together people from all walks of life within the Church - in the past this has not always been as evident," Professor Kohler-Ryan said. "Now, this synod will meet to discuss how we can be more mission-focused, more participatory and more in communion with each other.
"Not only Bishops will have voting rights – this is something new and something that we will need to grow into together. But it is the natural development of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council that Catholics have a common baptism and so a common calling."
Professor Fr Conway is Notre Dame's inaugural Chair of Integral Human Development and a priest of the archdiocese of Tuam in West Ireland. He will attend the synod as an expert and facilitator. He said it was a privilege to be among the 400 Catholics invited to participate in what he said was the most significant synod in almost 70 years.
"My role is to assist in analyzing and synthesizing the many diverse perspectives and contribute to the discernment process of in regard to what the Holy Spirit is asking of the Catholic Church at this time," Professor Fr Conway said.
