VATICAN CITY (CNS): Calling last month’s Synod of Bishops ‘almost a new beginning’ for the Church, Pope John Paul II urged bishops to courageously promote Church teaching and work for Church unity.
The Pope praised the ‘climate of communion’ he said characterised the month-long bishops’ meeting and said ‘the Church’s strength is her communion; her weakness is division and internal strife’.
‘A credible answer can be given to the challenges that come from today’s social and cultural context only if the deep and convinced unity of the shepherds among themselves and with the successor of Peter – as well as of the bishops with their priests – is clearly perceptible,’ he said during a synod closing Mass on October 28 in St Peter’s Basilica.
Nearly 250 bishops from more than 110 countries attended the synod, which focused on the bishop’s role in the Church.
After four weeks of speech-giving and small group discussions, they issued a message to the world and handed a confidential list of 67 proposals to the Pope.
