LISTENING SESSION. Bishop Frank J. Caggiano with Knights of Columbus.

Diocesan synods may be making a comeback. In a country where such local synods are rare, three U.S. dioceses have recently concluded or launched their own. Earlier this year, the Diocese of Bridgeport convoked a synod that will continue through September 2015, and the Diocese of Juneau and the Archdiocese of Miami completed synods in 2013.

On June 29, Bishop Frank Caggiano of Bridgeport presided over an Evening Prayer service to kick off his diocesan synod, the first of its kind in that Connecticut diocese in 32 years. Inspired by the call of Pope Francis for greater pastoral creativity at the local level, the Brooklyn-born prelate convoked the synod in February with a series of seven listening sessions to hear the concerns of parishioners and formulate a pastoral plan for the future of the diocese.

According to the Diocese of Bridgeport, more than 1,700 local Catholics voiced their concerns to the bishop in the spring listening sessions. The new bishop used what he learned to describe four themes for the upcoming work of the synod: empowering youth, building bridges to those who have left the church, finding new ways to promote charity and justice within the diocese and strengthening local communities.

“Too many of our Catholic brothers and sisters feel unwelcome, as if they don’t belong, and they feel no one misses them, but we do miss them,” Bishop Caggiano told a group of about 650 at the prayer service.

According to Brian Wallace, the Diocese of Bridgeport’s director of communications, Bishop Caggiano wanted to launch the synod in order to get to know his new diocese better before making pastoral decisions about how to care for it. Bishop Caggiano was installed in September 2013.

Of the process, Wallace said, “What struck me was the sense of loss that a lot of people have about Catholics no longer participating in parish life.”

He added, “A lot of people in the youth listening session told the bishop that young people don’t believe. They want him to do something about it.”

The formal work of the synod begins this September with 400 participating delegates from the diocese’s 82 parishes and 32 elementary and high schools. Those delegates will participate in learning sessions at Fordham University that look at best practices throughout U.S. dioceses on issues like pastoral outreach to divorced and nonpracticing Catholics. They will also propose innovative solutions of their own. When the synod concludes its work in September 2015, the delegates will formulate a pastoral plan for the diocese.

One challenge emerging from the listening sessions is the need to serve a diocese with many different perspectives and needs, which is in many ways a microcosm of the larger church. “A lot of people who spoke have children and grandchildren who are divorced,” Wallace said. “They want the church to reach out more clearly to divorced Catholics.

“Some people wanted to see the church more open to liberal issues, while others wanted more conservative things like Latin Mass and adoration chapels,” Wallace said.

According to Wallace, people who attended the sessions had great admiration for Catholic charitable work and Catholic schools. But they also asked Bishop Caggiano for more adult catechesis programs and for other opportunities for ongoing faith formation.

This article appears in July 21-28 2014.

Sean Salai is the author of What Would Pope Francis Do? Bringing the Good News to People in Need (Our SundayVisitor, 2016) and holds an M.A. in Applied Philosophy from Loyola University Chicago. He also holds a B.A. in History from Wabash College, which he attended on scholarship from the Indianapolis Star, and where as editor of the campus newsmagazine he won several Indiana Collegiate Press Association (ICPA) awards as well as a Wesley Pruden Investigative Journalism Award from the Leadership Institute in 2001. Before entering the Jesuits in 2005, he was a metro desk newspaper reporter for The Washington Times and the Boca Raton News, where his articles were picked up by the Drudge Report and other national media outlets. He taught theology and coached forensics at Jesuit High School of Tampa in 2010-2014.

His freelance writing has appeared in America, National Catholic Reporter, Catholic World Report, Busted Halo, Crisis Magazine, Civil War Book Review, Homiletic & Pastoral Review, the Magis Spirituality Center's Spiritual Exercises Blog and other publications. He has been a contributing editor on two reference works for the non-profit Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) and his academic writing has appeared in three publications including the Heythrop Journal. He won two scholarships for outstanding collegiate journalism from the Washington DC-based American Alternative Foundation in 2001 and 2002. He is a graduate of the Institute on Political Journalism at Georgetown University, the Leadership Institute’s Student Publications School in Virginia, the Collegiate Network Foreign Correspondent Course in Prague, and several other journalism programs. His prior internship experience included The Washington Times national desk and Policy Review magazine at the Heritage Foundation.