February 5, 2022
Dear Catholic Community @ Stanford,
We have all been invited to take part in an open conversation in and for the Catholic Church that has never taken place before in our lifetimes. Pope Francis has called us on a synodal journey—a time to listen together to the many and varied voices of the universal Church, to hear the Spirit speaking to the Church through the Church. Synodality offers us the chance to seek out those voices at the margins of our Church, to hear and learn from their struggles. And synodality offers us a chance to make our own voices heard, to share the joys and challenges of living our Catholicism with each other here at the CC@S, with our diocese, and with the Universal Church.
Over the past two months, the Synodality Planning Committee has been hard at work preparing how we, the CC@S, might respond to Pope Francis’ radical call. We are writing this letter to share our plans with you—and to ask you to join us, to walk this road with us, and to participate in the activities of prayer, sharing, and discernment we are organizing. Ultimately, we hope that we can articulate together CC@S’ unique answer to the question Fr. Louis Cameli posed in a recent America article: As God’s pilgrim people journeying together, how can we more effectively bring the life-giving power of the gospel to a world so desperately in need of it? And finding our shared answer to this question is only the first step—the next step will be to live it.
Phase One: Response to the San Jose Diocese
We are now beginning a two-part synodal process for our community. The first phase aims to provide a formal response to the questions posed by Bishop Cantú in advance of the Diocesan Synod planned for Advent 2022 and, in doing so, to begin the process of listening to each other and to the Spirit speaking through us.
The first step in our journey is simple. At the end of this letter, you will find a link to a survey asking a few broad and open questions:
What is your experience of ‘journeying together’ as Church?
What joys do you experience in “journeying together”?
What difficulties and obstacles have you encountered?
What current challenges/issues/needs should our Church focus on today?
What is your dream/vision/hope for our Church today and in the future?
We invite you to reflect on these questions and submit your responses, which will be kept anonymous.
The second step of this initial phase will be participation in Listening Circles in the context of one of our town hall meetings. This will give you a chance to share your experiences of the Church and learn of others’ experiences as well! Following the meeting additional survey responses may be submitted. Our town hall opportunities will be:
Sunday, February 13: 10:30 Mass on Wilbur Field followed by donuts, coffee and Listening Circles concluding around 12:15
Wednesday, February 16: in person Listening Circles from 7-8PM in the Old Union. Exact place to be announced when number of participants is determined.
Tuesday, February 22: virtual gathering via zoom 7-8pm
Please register for these events at the button below. If you would be willing to be a note taker or guide for the Listening Circles please let us know at StanfordCatholicSynod@gmail.com. Throughout, our goal will be to bring the Catholic Community @ Stanford’s unique joys and challenges, dreams and fears to the attention of the Diocese and the Church as a whole.
Phase Two: Catholic Community at Stanford Focus
Phase two will deepen our conversation, helping us to embrace the transformative potential of synodality in our life and mission as the CC@S. This will not be an easy journey—if done right, synodality will ask us to listen to stories of disappointment and alienation as well as those of joy and belonging. We trust that if we listen with open and attentive hearts, we will be able to hear that living and active word of God speaking to us, calling us to new life through it all.
In this second phase, we plan on further engaging our students, permanent community members, small groups, Catechesis of the Good Shepherd families, and other CC@S-sponsored communities to share in the transformative conversations of our synodal journey. And events are in the works to invite groups who feel themselves left outside the doors of the Church—minority communities, members of other faith traditions, individuals at Stanford who were raised Catholic but no longer feel at home in the Church, and many others—to join us on our synodal journey. You can expect to hear much more about these events in the coming months—and if you want to get involved in organizing or facilitating them please contact us at StanfordCatholicSynod@gmail.com.
This is an exciting time for our community and our Church. Moments of shared discernment always are. We are asking for your help to hear, to listen, and to dream: to hear the Spirit calling us through the signs of the times, to listen to Christ speaking from the margins of the Church, and to dream of how the CC@S might heed this call and transform our shared faith life. And all this can start with you making the decision to fill out the survey (available here!) and participate in the in-person town hall meeting on February 13, February 16 or virtual meeting on February 22. (Please register in advance using this link).
So… what are you waiting for?
The CC@S Synodality Planning Committee
M’Lis Berry, Terry Connelly, Jane Elizabeth Lord-Krause, Sr Gloria Jones, Fr. Xavier Lavagetto, James Mumby, Rhiannon O'Keefe, Lowell Price, Joseph Sarmenta, Carol Schaffer, Thomas Slabon, Catherine Wolff
