Salt Lake diocese planning listening sessions

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SALT LAKE CITY — Two days after the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops requested that additional listening sessions be held, Father John Evans, pastor of St. Thomas More Parish in Cottonwood Heights, who is coordinating the synod efforts for the Diocese of Salt Lake City, posted the information on the diocesan website.

“There are two guiding questions (listed below) that we will be considering and we have the liberty to alter,” Fr. Evans wrote in the Jan. 4 post. “There is a deadline for our reporting of April 8, so we will be under a time crunch. …”

The first question is “Where have I seen or experienced successes – and distresses – within the Church’s structure(s)/organization/leadership/life that encourage or hinder the mission?”

The second question is “How can the structures and organization of the Church help all the baptized to respond to the call to proclaim the Gospel and to live as a community of love and mercy in Christ?”

Fr. Evans also noted that “there will be ‘broadening’ effort to continue on a path of conversion in our local churches.  We are to choose three focal areas for our diocese based on the resulting document: A Synodal Church In Mission: Synthesis Report.  There is no submission for this; rather, it is an effort on the local diocesan level to continue the realization of what we value from the results gained.”

Fr. Evans is working with Bishop Oscar A. Solis to organize listening sessions in the diocese. As information is available, it will be reported in this newspaper and also on the diocesan website, https://www.dioslc.org/about-us/synod-of-bishops-2021-2024