War breaking out in the Holy Land, continuing in Ukraine and violence elsewhere around the world even as delegates gathered for the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican Oct. 4-29 added another dimension of prayerful intensity, a delegate from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis said.
“It has been incredibly moving,” said Cynthia Bailey Manns in a Zoom interview from Rome on Oct. 23. “Some of the sacred stories being told, particularly now that we are in the midst of war in so many places on this earth. We have people here from Ukraine and Palestine, and so it has been really deeply moving.”
Islamist militant group Hamas led an attack with missiles and a ground invasion in southern Israel on Oct. 7. Israel has responded with airstrikes and preparation for a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. Thousands have died in the war.
Bailey Manns, adult learning director at St. Joan of Arc, said Sunday Mass at the Minneapolis parish always includes a minute of silence while praying for peace.
“I knew I would never fully understand and grasp what that means because it’s so big and I’m so far away,” Bailey Manns said of that prayer for peace. “But when you listen to these stories of people, it changes who you are. At least it has changed who I am. So, I will go into those moments of silence in a very different way. Because I’ve heard stories that have seared my heart.”
“I’ve had those conversations one-on-one with people, where they are in the midst of war and talking about their families and friends who have died and they witnessed it, and then being here while wars are going on,” she said.
Bailey Manns, 65, related the listening and awareness she has tried to bring to those telling their stories of war to the rest of the process at the synod on synodality. It is a process of discerning the Holy Spirit’s invitation to be fully with all people, she said.
“That’s something that this process promotes,” Bailey Manns said. “How can we help each other? How can we fully be a Church that supports everyone, that wants everyone to live into their baptismal dignity, if we aren’t even in conversation with each other, if we aren’t in community with each other, if we aren’t noticing the Holy Spirit in each other? That’s what is happening here, and my hope is that I am able to take that back with me and start to implement it in St. Joan’s in a much deeper way.”
The assembly is wrapping up this phase of the synod with a “Letter to the People of God” as a companion piece to a synthesis report on the proceedings. The synthesis report will promote further discussion and study on the synod’s themes of communion, mission and participation in the Church. The report will help lead to a second and final synod assembly of current participants in October 2024, Bailey Manns said. The final report also will go to Pope Francis for his discernment.
Heading into the final week of this assembly, Bailey Manns, one of 10 non-bishop voting delegates chosen by Pope Francis to represent the North American region, and one of four laypeople from the United States appointed by the pope, said she is grateful for the opportunity to participate.
“I think it’s been amazing for us to be in space every day at all different levels,” she said. “We have laity, we have religious brothers and sisters, we have priests, we have deacons, we have archbishops, we have bishops, we have cardinals, we have theologians, we have canon law experts. And all the people who are voting delegates seem to have somehow figured out that we’re all trying to do this together.”
