Professor to attend Synod

Kristin Colberg, CSB/SJU Theology associate professor, was the only indiviudal from the U.S. chosen to particpate in The Synod of Bishops.

The Synod of Bishops is a longstanding dialogue that has existed in the Church before Vatican II began and continues into the modern era with Pope Francis. His synod, which he announced in October of this year, will see CSB/SJU’s Theology Associate Professor Kristin Colberg as an assistant to the Synod’s secretary general.

Colberg is part of the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission, which is a group where the global Catholic Church dialogues with the Anglican Communion to see where they agree or disagree on certain issues.

She is regularly in contact with people from the Vatican due to this commission, and through her work, her name was submitted to be in the Synod.

Colberg has been to Rome already for the introduction of the Synod on Oct. 8 and will go back to Rome in October 2023 for the full meeting.

“It’s very humbling, it’s a huge honor, but it can feel very overwhelming, because obviously I can bring my perspective… but it really teaches you how to listen. The point is not to get your view across as the only view, but to really listen as a group to what is being said and to help the group move forward,” she said.

The synod, as much as it is a dialogue, also represents this overall concept of listening that Colberg mentions.

It is about learning other’s positions on certain topics around the world and expanding one’s own worldview from it.

In this way, the dialogue is not simply ecumenical or church-focused, but rather a meeting of minds akin to UN summits or ancient Greek philosophical debates.

“Synodality is a huge topic; it’s not narrow,” Colberg said. “It’s not trying to fix one problem It’s not trying to find a solution to one issue. It’s this really big thing of, “how in the Church do we listen to each other? How do we include everyone’s voices? How do we realize the dignity of all people and how do our processes and structures represent that?”… We have to be realistic about the steps that it’s going to take to get there.”

Diverse age ranges were included from outside experts to gain different perspective.

“I got to meet with some of the Johnnies that are living and studying abroad in Rome that I had in my Intro to Theo class… it was this dynamic meeting… with people from around the world. Pope Francis really went out of his way to not only include these experts, but he brought about 30 people between the ages of 18-25 because he really wanted to know what young people think about the Church. He wanted to listen to all these voices,” she said of the first meeting.

Colberg is looking forward to the perspectives of others at the Synod.

“[The Synod will involve] meeting people from all over the world who have the same questions that I have, and who love the Church and want to see it be its best self and think about exciting paths for the future.”