listening

A survey, released March 9 and conducted by the Episcopal Church, asked all sorts of Christians what their impression was of other Christians. And it asked nonbelievers what they thought of Christians as well.

Bishop Donald Kettler is asking each of our diocese’s 29 Area Catholic Communities to host a synod consultation over the next few months.

“Listening with the ear of the heart” is the theme of this year’s World Communications Day, which most dioceses will mark May 29, the Sunday before Pentecost.

A few weeks before Honduras’ Nov. 28 presidential election, two bishops from the U.S. quietly landed in the country’s capital of Tegucigalpa with a mission Pope Francis has placed on the world’s Catholic prelates: to listen.

Panelists participating in a synod webinar stressed that the Church must be creative in finding ways to reach out to others who may not readily become involved in the process.

To ensure all Catholics have an opportunity to share and to listen as part of the initial process leading up to the Synod of Bishops in 2023, the Vatican has extended the local phase by more than three months.

“We could all stand to pay attention to the kinds of questions we ask, how empathetically we listen and whether or not we approach other people in their complexity and complications, rather than with a caricature of them in mind.”

“The people of God are called over and over to listen, listen, listen. The greatest commandment doesn’t start with love, but with listening: ‘Shema Yisrael’ — Hear, O Israel! St. Benedict’s Rule, for those called into community, starts with the word ‘Listen.'”