YOUTH SYNOD BEGINS TODAY IN ROME

The Synod for Youth has now begun at the Vatican. 

The Synod of Bishops will gather until October 28th to discuss young people in the Catholic Church. 

Pope Francis will preside over the Synod which brings together more than 300 Cardinals, Bishops, Priests, Religious and lay experts, including young people.

The theme for the Synod is Young people, the faith and vocational discernment.

Synod participants have been given a working document based on input from Bishops' Conferences, Religious Orders, offices of the Roman Curia and Catholic organizations; an online survey open to anyone aged from 16 to 29 years; and a document prepared with the input of more than 300 young people who met in Rome in March at the invitation of the Pope.

Addressing the pre-synod gathering in March, Pope Francis said that young people are the ones who can help the church fight "the logic of 'it's always been done this way,' " which he described as "a poison, a sweet poison that tranquilizes the heart and leaves you anesthetized so you can't walk."

Discernment, according to the Synod working document, is a prayerful process that "leads us to recognize — and become attuned with — the action of the Spirit in true spiritual obedience. In this way, it becomes openness to new things, courage to move outward and resistance to the temptation of reducing what is new to what we already know."

After the Synod, it is expected that an Apostolic Exhortation on the topic of Young people, the faith and vocational discernment will be released. 

This is traditionally what happens after each Synod but is not necessary for the content of the Synod report to be considered part of the ordinary Magisterium of the Church, according to the recent Apostolic Constitution, Episcopalis communio, promulgated by Pope Francis himself.