“Synodality,” Pope Francis said in the Vatican’s New Synod Hall, “asks us to look beyond the barriers with magnanimity, to see the presence of God and his actions even in people we do not know, in new pastoral approaches, in uncharted mission territories.”
He also warned against “the fear of losing our sense of belonging and identity by opening up to other people and differing viewpoints, which stems from failing to recognize diversity as an opportunity rather than a threat.”
Do not enclose yourselves in your own groups, he stressed.
“These are ‘enclosures’ in which we all risk imprisonment,” the pontiff said. “Let us be attentive: our own group, our own spirituality are realities that help us journey with the People of God, but they are not privileges, for there is the danger of ending up imprisoned in these enclosures.”
He said some of the challenges within ecclesial movements and communities is the temptation to be limited to what the “circle” thinks, or “being convinced that what we do is right for everyone, defending, perhaps inadvertently, positions, prerogatives, or the prestige of the ‘group.’”
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