The Irish Synodal Pathway
Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
4 October 2026
Baptism ‘enables all believers
to possess an instinct for the truth of the Gospel’
The views and opinions of many different people and of interest groups are important to the Church in discerning ‘the signs of the times’, so that it can determine how best to proclaim the Gospel.
For instance, scientists, many of whom are non-Christians and perhaps even atheists, are often consulted on church policy documents when the subject matter relates to areas in which they have expertise.
Discerning the sensus fidei, however, it is quite different. It doesn’t involve seeking out experts, at least not if by this we mean people with extensive knowledge, outstanding qualifications, or exceptional experience.
Rather, it involves seeking out those who, in their daily lives, try as faithfully as they can to live as disciples of Jesus within the community of the Church, nourished in this by the Word of God, personal prayer, regular celebration of the sacraments, and selfless acts of service.
It makes sense to understand the sensus fidei as residing with such people because it is the faithful living of one’s faith within the church community and keeps alive the gift of being able to appreciate the Church’s faith given at baptism.
Eamon Conway
From ‘Changing to be Faithful – Living Tradition in a Synodal Church’,
Messenger Publications, August 2026
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Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
11 October 2026 • Prisoners’ Sunday
Complexity and perplexity
Critics of Pope Francis have consistently maintained that Pope Francis generated confusion in the Church, whether that be at the individual level – or at the global level – the Synod and the wider synodal process.
I don’t disagree that there is confusion, but I don’t think Pope Francis can be blamed for it. Confusion is an unavoidable consequence of a time when unity is needed but uniformity is no longer possible.
Pope Francis did not invent this plurality; he made it impossible to ignore. The Church is no longer able, if indeed it ever was, to sustain communion by assuming cultural uniformity of a single European grammar for articulating the Gospel. It is a universal Church of diverse peoples with languages and histories, rites and cultures, joys and wounds all of their own.
This is precisely the ecclesiological horizon affirmed by the Synod’s Final Document, which insists that ‘the harmony created by the Spirit is not uniformity’ and that ‘the unity of the Church is not uniformity, but an organic blending of legitimate diversities.
The Final Document also describes the Catholic Church as a ‘Church of Churches’ and sees synodal renewal as fostering ‘an appreciation of local contexts as the place where the universal call from God manifests and fulfils itself. Taking legitimate diversity seriously may mean introducing a measure of complexity and even perplexity into the Church.
Eamon Conway.
From ‘Changing to be Faithful – Living Tradition in a Synodal Church’,
Messenger Publications, August 2026
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Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
18 October 2026 • World Mission Sunday
Synodality – A Missionary Resource
Synodality is not an end in itself. It exists so that the church may proclaim the Gospel more effectively and serve the men and women of our time more faithfully.
We live in a world marked by profound transformations. Wars and violence continue to wound entire peoples. Social inequalities are increasing. Migration is reshaping the face of our societies. New technologies are changing the way we communicate, learn and even understand ourselves. Many people are searching for meaning, hope and authentic relationships. Many look to the church for a credible witness to the Gospel.
Faced with these challenges, synodality appears ever more clearly as a missionary resource. It helps the church to listen more attentively to the questions of humanity, to recognize the signs of the times, to value the gifts of all and to discern together the steps to be taken. In this way, the implementation phase becomes a new stage in the reception of the Second Vatican Council and in the missionary renewal of the church within the concrete realities of ecclesial life.
This is the responsibility that the Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, encourages us to embrace together: not merely to preserve an inheritance we have received, but to make it bear fruit in the life of the churches and in the mission entrusted to the church in our time.
Cardinal Mario Grech,
Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops,
at the extraordinary consistory of bishops, convened at the Vatican 26-27 June 2026
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Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
25 October 2026
Conversation in the Spirit
The synod has been an authentic spiritual experience – indeed, it would be more accurate to describe it as an experience ‘in the Spirit.’ The category of an experience in the Spirit now invites us to adopt it as a key for interpreting the ecclesial processes presently underway.
One of the most significant features accompanying the synodal experience of these years has been the choice of ‘conversation in the Spirit’ as its method. The effort required of everyone – indeed, of everyone – to arrive at a new awareness capable of grasping the substantial difference between spiritual conversation (as a thematic exercise) and conversation in the Spirit (that is, entering into the self-giving and self-communication of the Risen Lord among us through the work of the Spirit) has itself become a testimony to the cry of faith dwelling in ‘Ecclesiae in Synodo perficienda’ [ ‘the church finding its fulfillment in the synod’]. We desire to encounter the Risen Lord; we desire to experience and live concretely our identity as disciples.
Beyond the method itself, what struck so many participants was the discovery that ecclesial discernment consists not primarily in the exchange of opinions or confrontation of ideas, but in a shared search for what the Spirit is saying to the churches today.
Cardinal Mario Grech,
Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, at the extraordinary consistory of bishops, convened at the Vatican 26-27 June 2026
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