Pope Francis gives his blessing during the closing Mass of the Synod of Bishops on synodality in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican Oct. 27, 2024. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Three years after he asked the world's Catholics to walk together in faith on a synodal journey, Pope Francis said that the church cannot risk becoming "static" but must continue as a "missionary church that walks with her Lord through the streets of the world."
"We cannot remain inert before the questions raised by the women and men of today, before the challenges of our time, the urgency of evangelization and the many wounds that afflict humanity," the pope said in his homily during the closing Mass for the Synod of Bishops in St. Peter's Basilica Oct. 27.
"A sedentary church, that inadvertently withdraws from life and confines itself to the margins of reality, is a church that risks remaining blind and becoming comfortable with its own unease," he said.
Pope Francis delivered his homily seated in front of the basilica's newly restored 17th-century baldachin -- the gilded bronze canopy that had been shrouded in scaffolding for restoration work since February.
Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the Synod of Bishops, was the main celebrant at the altar under the baldachin.
The previous day, the pope received the final document approved by the more than 350 members of the synod. The document called for the increased participation of lay men and women in all levels of church life, including in parishes, dioceses and in seminaries.
Pope Francis told the synod assembly Oct. 26 that he did not plan to publish an apostolic exhortation after the synod due to the "already highly concrete indications" in the final synod document, which he ordered published.
Read the entire story at https://www.usccb.org/news/2024/pope-warns-against-becoming-sedentary-church-after-synods-close