By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald
After the call for local synod discussions within the Diocese of Honolulu, one may have wondered where all the individual parish and group reports went.
The answer is to Faith Leasiolagi, the chair of the Diocese Pastoral Council. She and the DPC are going over all the forms to “create a synthesis of all their responses” that Bishop Silva will then look over.
In October 2021, Pope Francis opened up the process for the Synod of Bishops in October 2023, themed “The Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission.”
Every Catholic diocese was asked to participate in giving feedback.
While ten themes were posed for discussion by Pope Francis, Bishop Silva asked Catholics in Hawaii to focus on one key question: How can all the members of the Catholic Church be more effective in proclaiming the living Jesus Christ to the world?
Leasiolagi said that if Bishop Silva hadn’t done that, she thinks it would have been harder to compile all the local responses.
“Even with the one question, it still allowed for those different responses from people,” she said.
About 70 percent of the responses came from ministry groups at parishes. A common theme among the feedback was “advocating for more catechesis” for all ages, Leasiolagi said.
Encouraging youth to return to the church was another theme.
As for undergoing this local feedback on the synod process, she thinks it’s vital.
“I think it’s very important that we did this as a diocese,” she said. “We do this within [pastoral] councils, and I thought it was pretty cool that it was on the diocesan level. That was pretty nice to hear, that what we have to say has some importance.”
