The Synod of Bishops into the Ninth Session of Friday

(October 11, 2008) The Synod of Bishops continued into the Friday Afternoon into its 9th Session reflecting on the Theme: The Word of God in the Life and the Mission of the Church. The Holy Father presided over the session and Cardinal George Pell was the President delegate on Duty. Card. Angelo SCOLA, Patriarch of Venice, presented the first report on the implementation of the Document, “Sacramentum Caritatis”. Nearly 25 Prelates intervened during the Session expressing their concern of building the word of God in the life of the Church. The African Bishops clarified that there is a visible growth of the Church in Africa and there is the growing thirst and hunger for the Word of God. It is necessary and urgent to put the Sacred Scriptures into the hands of the faithful as it draws its inspiration of the life and activities of the Small Christian Communities. There was a deep concern regarding the Jews that Christians have always been tempted to speak about the Jews in the past tense and that our reading of the Old Testament should leave space for the Jewish reading; that our reading of the NT should not create antisemitism; to speak about Jews in the present tense. The Latin American Bishops suggested that in the current context of Latin America and the Caribbean it is necessary and urgent that the formation project and the planning of seminaries, other than privileging an academic formation in the Holy Scriptures, takes greater care to train the young in a solid Biblical spirituality, paying particular attention to the Lectio Divinis. Persecution and suffering goes with the word of God. It is said that the whole Bible, from the Book of Genesis to Revelation, tells us that faithfulness to the Word of God leads to persecution. The first persecuted person, par excellence, is Jesus Himself, who experienced this throughout his life. Moving on to the 10^th Session of the Synod on Saturday, the Members expressed that Priests play an important role in promoting the Word of God in the life and ministry of the Church. Thus, formators must cultivate in seminarians “Word of God” spirituality. To ensure such formation, seminary formators - especially Bible professors - must be adequately equipped.