On May 20, 2025, the General Secretariat of the Synod published the document “Toward the Assemblies 2027–2028: Stages, Criteria, and Tools,” a text that will guide the implementation process of the Synod on Synodality in local Churches around the world until the celebration of the Ecclesial Assembly in October 2028 at the Vatican.
The document establishes the timeline, methodology, and criteria that will guide dioceses, parishes, episcopal conferences, and continental bodies in receiving and putting into practice the synodal journey begun with the 2021–2024 Synod.
The proposal envisages four major progressive stages, inspired by verbs that express the spiritual and pastoral dynamics of the process:remembering, interpreting, guiding, and celebrating.
The first stage, called “Remembering,” will take place during the first half of 2027 and will consist of diocesan and parish assemblies that will reflect on the experiences gained since the implementation of the Synod’s Final Document.
Subsequently, in the second half of 2027, the “Interpret” stage will take place, with assemblies of national or regional episcopal conferences, which will draft theological-pastoral reports and letters addressed to other local Churches.
In the first four months of 2028, the “Orient” phase will take place, through continental assemblies that will identify priorities and shared paths for strengthening a synodal missionary Church.
Finally, in October 2028, the great ecclesial assembly of the entire Church will be held at the Vatican together with Pope Leo XIV, as a space for discernment and synthesis of the journey undertaken.
The text emphasizes that these assemblies should not be understood as mere sociological surveys or administrative exercises, but as authentic spiritual and ecclesial experiences oriented toward communal discernment, pastoral conversion, and the strengthening of the mission.
One of the keys to the process will be a common question that will accompany all stages:
“In light of the journey undertaken since the conclusion of the 2021–2024 Synod, and with a view to offering its fruits as a gift to the other Churches and to the Holy Father: what concrete face of a synodal missionary Church and what new paths of synodality are emerging in your community?”
The document also highlights the importance of the “exchange of gifts among the Churches,” encouraging each community to share the fruits, lessons learned, and challenges that have emerged in its own synodal process.
Likewise, it underscores the need to ensure broad participation in the assemblies, including bishops, priests, deacons, men and women religious, laypeople, young people, ecclesial movements, culturally diverse peoples, and people in situations of vulnerability or marginalization. It also opens the possibility for the participation of representatives from other Christian Churches and religions.
Regarding methodology, the General Secretariat of the Synod reaffirms the importance of “conversation in the Spirit” as a privileged tool for listening, discernment, and community building.
Cardinal Mario Grech noted that this path “is not an additional task,” but rather an opportunity to recognize what the Holy Spirit is bringing to growth in the Church and to strengthen synodality as the ordinary style of ecclesial life in service to the mission.
From the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon—CEAMA—this new step in the synodal process represents an invitation to continue deepening listening, participation, and communal discernment in the Amazonian territories, strengthening a Church close to the people, committed to the mission, and open to the challenges of the present.