VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — The 14 members of the Synod on Synodality who will oversee drafting of the meeting’s final document were announced today by the Holy See.
Seven are elected by the members of the Synod, three are appointed personally by Pope Francis, and the remaining four are part of the commission by virtue of their office: the president and the three secretaries of what is officially termed the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.
As the Synod’s 2024 in-person concludes at the end of October, so too does the multiyear process that officially began in 2021. As previously noted by the Vatican, the Synod’s October task is “to complete the discernment begun in the First Session (October 2023), on the basis of the long process of listening and consultation, and to offer the result of this discernment to the Holy Father in the Final Document envisaged by the Apostolic Constitution Episcopalis communio (art. 18).”
Each stage of the Synod has been marked by a number of documents, but by the end of this month, a special commission will have overseen the drafting of a document that summarizes the October 2024 meetings, which are the summation of the entire process to date.
READ: Here’s what will take place at the Synod on Synodality this October
The full list is as follows:
Members by their office:
President of the Commission:
- Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, S.J. – Relator General of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.
Secretaries:
- Monsignor Riccardo Battochio – Special Secretary of the16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops
- Cardinal Mario Grech – Secretary General of the General Secretariat of the Synod
- Father Giacomo Costa, S.J. – Special Secretary of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishop
Members elected by the Synod members:
Africa:
Central and South America
- Cardinal Luis José Rueda Aparicio
North America
Asia
- Father Clarence Sandanaraj Davedassan
Europe
- Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline
Eastern Catholic Churches and the Middle East
- Archbishop Mounir Khairallah
Oceania
- Archbishop Shane Anthony Mackinlay
Members appointed by the Pontiff:
- Father Giuseppe Bonfrate
- Cardinal Filipe Neri António Sebastião Do Rosário Ferrão
- Sister Leticia Salazar
Assisting in the work will be a number of the “experts” attending the Synod, who do not have voting rights in the event. “The contribution of the Experts will be fundamental to order, analyze and synthesize all these materials, on the basis of Scripture and the living Tradition of the Church,” the Synod secretariat noted.
READ: Pope Francis and Synod leaders defend event against criticism, say Church needs ‘reform’
The special Commission does not directly write the Synod’s final report. Rather, it oversees the drafting of the text that is done via compiling the various small group reports from all the Synod members in the first four (of five) modules in the month.
As such, the Commission oversees the drafting of the final document, which is then presented to the entire Synod for the final module of the month. It is then discussed and the official groups of all the Synod members will have the opportunity to submit amendments.
In 2023, the final document was voted by paragraph, and members voted to approve each paragraph or not. The final results of that vote were presented to the press corps, with full details about the approval rating of each paragraph.
It is presumed that the procedure will be similar this year, and while it is anticipated that the document will be revealed on the final night, no decision has yet been made public by the Holy See Press Office.