I.- FROM WITHIN A FRUITFUL AND ORDERED ECCLESIAL COMMUNION

Three points converge in the topic of the coming Synod: 1) the renewal of the pastoral ministry of the Bishop in a new era; 2) the Bishops’ life in communion with the Successor of Peter, with the other Bishops and with the other members of the People of God; and 3) the proclamation of the Gospel of hope to the men and women who are beginning this third millennium. The three points are interrelated and it is very difficult to approach one without reference to the other. In whatever way we treat these three themes, the Church’s mission of evangelisation must be our basic and abiding concern. The Synod is not some event in the Church that is looking at herself. Its reflection and examination of the life and ministry of the Bishops makes reference to the proclamation of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus until he comes again. As is already indicated in the introduction to the IL: “The Church, who wishes to share in ‘the joys and hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of this age (GS 1), needs to question herself on the paths humanity is to take in these times in which she is present as the salt of the earth and light to the world (cf. Mt 5,13-14). She needs to ask herself how the true hope of the world, Jesus Christ and his Gospel, are to be proclaimed today” ⁶.

I believe that the interest we can show for the consecrated life and the improvement of relations with the Bishops and the other members of the Church should be made subordinate to this deeper and broader concern.    

            On the other hand, it is obvious that if we want to share responsibility for the proclamation of the Gospel of hope, we must examine the state in which we find ourselves in the process that has been underway since the publication of the document “Mutuae relationes.”