"The path of Synodality is the path God expects of the Church"

"It is very important to know how to hear and the Synodality process is a moment of listening". With these words the Rector of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Isabel Capeloa Gil, opened the conference "Synodality in the life of the Church", which was held today at the headquarters of the UCP in Lisboa, organised by the Higher Institute of Canon Law.

At the opening of the meeting, the Rector said that this "is a moment of particular importance for the Universidade Católica Portuguesa to listen to Monsignor Edgar Peña Parra, at a time when the new Synod is being prepared".

The director of the Higher Institute of Canon Law, Father João Vergamota, said that with this "meeting, the Institute wants to join and contribute to the synodal dynamic proposed by the Holy Father for the whole Church", assuming "that canon law has a fundamental place in the synodal dynamic at the heart of the Church, since in its essence, canon law seeks to help the Church live, with justice and fidelity, the mission entrusted to it by its divine founder, and part of this mission is life in communion with God and with others".

Thanking the Universidade Católica Portuguesa for the invitation to participate in the conference, Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra stressed "the enormous joy of being able to be close to the family that this University represents," adding that "Catholic schools are not schools like the others."

The Substitute of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See also took the opportunity to stress that "the path of Synodality is the path that God expects of the Church in the third millennium", adding that "the Supreme Pontiff has proposed a pastoral challenge to the Church".

A challenge which, according to Edgar Peña Parra, is treated, in the conference, in two phases: "the first, where the Synodality is presented in general terms" and the second where "the particularities of Synodality are explained from a canonical perspective".

"Synodality involves everyone. It means the Church's specific way of living, understood from the bottom up and from the top down," he concluded.

The event was closed by the High Chancellor, D. Manuel Clemente, who referred to the way in which "Synodality has been strengthened with the pontificate of Pope Francis," recalling that "we are included in the thought and practice that the Pope has implemented in the life of the Church" and that it is a "sign of a world that can only solve its problems in community".

Inserted in the experience of the Synodal Process 2021-2023, convened by Pope Francis, with which he intends to deepen and promote the experience of communion, participation and mission of all in the life of the Church, the conference "Synodality in the life of the Church" was also attended by the Apostolic Nuncio, D. Ivo Scapolo.