Convoking the first Archdiocesan Synod on Pentecost Sunday, June 8, Cardinal Donald Wuerl said the widespread effort among local Catholics to build a better Church for the future marked a “new beginning” for the Archdiocese of Washington on its 75th anniversary. In the Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, the cardinal said that just as the Holy Spirit emboldened the hearts of the Apostles at the first Pentecost to bring Christ’s Good News to the world, so too the Synod represented “the Spirit at work in this great archdiocesan Church” and would mark a continuing effort by local Catholics to be Christ’s witnesses in today’s world.

“The time of our Archdiocesan Synod has been a new beginning of renewal in the life of faith. With our hearts revived and transformed by Jesus, with the new life of the Spirit within us, every day going forward in our local Church should be a new Pentecost,” the cardinal said in his homily.

At the Mass, Cardinal Wuerl formally accepted the Synod recommendations, which offer a blueprint for future archdiocesan and parish outreach in the key areas of worship, education, community, service, administration and stewardship. The Synod’s work also resulted in Cardinal Wuerl approving and promulgating statutes for renewed and updated archdiocesan policies and procedures related to those key areas.

Cardinal Wuerl’s convoking of the first Archdiocesan Synod on Pentecost also coincided with the publication of statutes and recommendations resulting from the Synod, and a related pastoral letter by the cardinal. The texts of those three documents can be read online at www.adw.org/synod.

Cardinal Wuerl’s new pastoral letter on the first Synod of the Archdiocese of Washington, “Manifesting the Kingdom,” is his eighth pastoral letter since being installed as the archbishop of Washington in 2006. His other pastoral letters dealt with topics including the Church, the New Evangelization, Catholic education and Confession.

Noting the Synod coincides with the 75th anniversary of the Archdiocese of Washington, the cardinal writes, “Looking back at our heritage, we also look to the future, and it is appropriate during this time to engage in a self-assessment, to ask ourselves if we are the best Church we can be.”

In “Manifesting the Kingdom,” the cardinal noted how the Synod offered an opportunity “to take stock” of the archdiocese’s outreach, so the New Evangelization – the effort for Catholics to deepen and share their faith, as Jesus’s witnesses in today’s world – “might permeate every aspect of the life of our Church.”

The final session of the Archdiocesan Synod on Pentecost marked the culmination of a two-year effort by more than 200 delegates who included lay women and men representing the different regions and diverse communities within the archdiocese, and also included priests, deacons, religious sisters and brothers, and Washington’s bishops. Cardinal Wuerl initiated the effort in Lent 2012, as the delegates began to meet, and local Catholics offered 15,000 suggestions through parish and regional listening sessions and via online surveys. Delegates analyzed that input which set forth spiritual and pastoral priorities for the local Church, and held a series of meetings to refine and summarize the suggestions, and on May 10, the group reached a general consensus in support of the statutes and recommendations resulting from that extensive consultative and collaborative effort.

“Our Archdiocesan Synod has been a time to take stock, with honesty and humility, of the condition of our spiritual home, particularly in the key areas of worship, education, community, service, stewardship and administration,” the cardinal said. “In this prayerful process, input from the faithful was gathered with the goal of providing concrete direction so that we can better prepare ourselves to carry forward the work of the Church into the future.”

The cardinal, who thanked the delegates for their faith and service, said that it was fitting that the Synod coincided with the 75th anniversary of the Archdiocese of Washington, and he noted at the Mass that the Synod marked an effort to build on the archdiocese’s heritage of faith as it set forth “a pathway for the future.”

After Cardinal Wuerl gave his homily, Bishop Knestout, the archdiocese’s Moderator of the Curia who served as chairman of the Synod’s General Preparatory Commission, presented the cardinal with the Synod statutes and recommendations. The bishop noted that the effort represented “a comprehensive reflection on the needs of the people of God of this archdiocesan church.”

The cardinal said the process examining how the Archdiocese of Washington “can be the best Church we’re called to be… has led us to today,” building a better Church for the future, building on the archdiocese’s foundation and heritage of faith.

In his homily, Cardinal Wuerl said the power of the Holy Spirit is ongoing, and that outpouring continued in the work of the Synod, and should continue as local Catholics seek to manifest God’s kingdom in their community, here and now. The Mass concluded with the hymn, “Go To the World.” 

“The conclusion of our Synod is not so much an ending as it is a new beginning,” Cardinal Wuerl said in his homily. “This renewal of faith and fervor in our spiritual family is not meant to be a one-time event for the history books. Rather, it has the purpose of forming, informing and directing the mission and life in the Spirit of our local Church into the future.”

“This first Synod of the Archdiocese of Washington belongs to all of us,” the cardinal said.