VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Three U.S. cardinals attending the synod on synodality met privately with Pope Francis to speak more in-depth about synodality and the process of discernment, said Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, New Jersey.
“I had asked for the appointment simply because I think the church is always seeking ways to do better what we think we’re called to do,” the cardinal told reporters during a Vatican press briefing Oct. 11.
“I’ve personally found a lot of hope in this emphasis on a way of being church that’s described as synodality. And it’s something that Pope Francis has thought a lot about. It’s something that he’s practiced” as a Jesuit, the cardinal said.
Cardinals Tobin, Robert W. McElroy of San Diego and Blase J. Cupich of Chicago met with the pope early Oct. 10 in the library of the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican. That day, Cardinal Tobin said they met with the pope “to discuss challenges in the United States,” and did not specify further.
He did provide a few more details during a briefing with reporters Oct. 11 when asked what they talked about.
The pope belongs to the Jesuits, a religious order that “has a very strong tradition” in the “difficult” process of discernment, he said.
Discernment is “trying to look at what’s happening under the light of the word of God and listening to people and trying to discover what is God saying to the church and to the churches today. And so that’s what we wanted to talk about,” he said.
Out of the five cardinals and seven bishops attending the synod from the United States, Cardinal Tobin said he and Cardinals McElroy and Cupich met with the pope because the three of them usually talk about these topics.
“It was, as my experience has been with him, was very enriching,” he added.
When asked what he tries to tell his brother bishops who may be more hesitant or unsure about the synodal process, Cardinal Tobin said he sometimes holds up the example of the nationwide “encuentro” process.
The process began at the grassroots level in 1972, and its most recent version culminated in the V Encuentro — the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ multiyear discernment process of pastoral priorities for Latino Catholic leaders that included a national meeting in 2018 and led to a national pastoral plan approved by the U.S. bishops in 2023. The encuentro process has been a new way for bishops and laypeople to listen and work together, finding ways to be united in their common missionary mandate, participants have said. The bishops estimated more than 1 million Catholics had participated in parish, diocesan and regional encuentros in the two years prior to the national meeting in Grapevine, Texas, in 2018.
Cardinal Tobin told reporters Oct. 11, “The Encuentro was remarkably similar to what we’re trying to do on a global scale, that is listening and discerning and proposing.”
“We are blessed” that the United States already has had “a national synodal process that has a proven track record,” he said, which is why he refers to the Encuentro “sometimes to try and sell (synodality) to brother bishops.”
“I said it clearly shows us how the Spirit is speaking to the people of God and what the priorities are. And not only on a national level, but on a diocesan level,” he said. For example, in his archdiocese, the response to the V Encuentro was making it a priority to find “how can we make our communities more welcoming” and providing formation “to be able to be faithful to what we believe we are.”
He said he tells other bishops, “All we have to do is trust this listening that is very evident in the Scriptures and God will be able to do great things through it.”
The cardinal encouraged lay Catholics who “are really struggling with the same old, same old” to stay committed to the synodal process in their parish and diocese even if leadership doesn’t seem to be embracing it fully.
“Don’t go away. Stay there and ask the questions. And, please God, things will change,” he said.