SYNOD WILL BE STREAMLINED AND MORE COLLEGIAL

VATICAN CITY, OCT 1, 2005 (VIS) - This morning in the Holy See Press Office, Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, presented some information concerning the Eleventh Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, "The Eucharist: Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church." The synod will be inaugurated tomorrow with a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica presided by the Holy Father and concelebrated by about 350 Synod Fathers and other participants in the general assembly.

  In his talk, Archbishop Eterovic recalled how the Eucharistic synod is taking place on the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Synod by Paul VI, with his Motu Proprio "Apostolica sollicitudo" on September 15, 1965.

  Two hundred and fifty six Synod Fathers from 118 nations will take part in the gathering. This is the highest ever number of participants in a synodal assembly. Among them are 55 cardinals, 8 patriarchs, 82 archbishops, 123 bishops, 36 presidents of episcopal conferences and 12 religious. There are also 32 experts and 27 auditors from five continents.

  The secretary general explained that 12 Churches and ecclesial communities have been invited to send delegates, of which ten have so far given the name of their representative. He made it clear that "the fraternal delegates participate in the work, they may intervene but they cannot vote; this prerogative belongs to the Synod Fathers."

  After pointing out that "23 General Congregations and seven sessions for the Working Groups have been scheduled," Archbishop Eterovic recalled how "Benedict XVI willingly approved some novelties to the synodal methodology, the aim of which is to make the synod meeting more streamlined, more participatory, and therefore more collegial. Considering the synod will last three and not four weeks, and the number of participants is rather high, it has been necessary to reduce the time of the interventions of the Synod Fathers from 8 to 6 minutes, as also the number of the sessions of the Working Groups."

  Another novelty is that of the free discussions in the Synod Hall from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., at the end of the daily General Congregations.

  Furthermore, "the Synod Hall has been modernized, in particular with improvements to the lighting, air conditioning and video services."
SE/NOVELTIES EUCHARISTIC SYNOD/ETEROVIC            VIS 20051003 (390)