Nearly 500 people across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis are preparing for a June 7 Be My Witnesses Assembly in St. Paul to help Archbishop Bernard Hebda determine pastoral priorities for the coming years.
They are viewing 13 videos detailing 12 propositions and attending one of four, three-hour morning or evening retreats that include opportunities for confession and Mass with the archbishop. They also are taking advantage of four optional, online gatherings to further discuss the propositions, and participating in service projects such as serving meals to people experiencing homelessness.
The effort is part of implementing Archbishop Hebda’s pastoral letter, “You Will Be My Witnesses: Gathered and Sent From the Upper Room,” which grew out of several years of preparing for and then holding a two-day Archdiocesan Synod Assembly of 470 people in 2022.
In his pastoral letter, the archbishop called for a similar, one-day gathering — Archdiocesan Synod 2025 — as he explained the importance of continuing to listen, discern and adapt to help foster unity, renewal and evangelization in the archdiocese.
Deacon Joseph Michalak, an adviser on the pastoral letter and on faith formation in the archdiocese’s Office of Discipleship and Evangelization, said he has helped lead the retreats and other aspects of the preparation.
“This is for renewal of the whole archdiocese,” Deacon Michalak said. “(Archbishop Hebda) is relying on the whole body of Christ. It’s a collective discernment.”
Mike Cole, 68, of St. Nicholas in Elko New Market, said he has participated in preparation opportunities as he gets ready for the assembly at Cretin-Derham Hall high school. Cole said he did not participate in the first Synod.
“The archdiocese has done a great job providing insight to the meaning of the propositions, and to prayerfully discern how to be open to the Holy Spirit’s direction at the Synod,” Cole said of the videos, which feature Archbishop Hebda and Bishops Michael Izen and Kevin Kenney.
The three-hour retreat offers ways to spiritually prepare for the Synod, and people at the online meeting he attended brought “focus and zeal,” Cole said.
While Cole brings fresh eyes to Synod 2025, Allen Gieske, 76, of St. Bridget of Sweden in Lindstrom, said the June gathering will be his second Archdiocesan Synod.
“I was one of the voting members from St. Bridget of Sweden at the 2022 gathering,” Gieske said. “It was a great experience to be participating with so many others who have committed themselves to promoting the Synod and who are seeking to hear the how Holy Spirit will lead us going forward.”
A Synod proposition he hopes will be promoted is invigorating efforts to bring youth and adults into a fuller understanding of their faith and its importance in their lives, Gieske said.
“We need to be clear, concise and energetic in reaching out to them, and we (need) a message that will touch their hearts,” Gieske said.
Like Cole, Suzanne Wiatros, 63, of St. John the Evangelist in Little Canada, will be new to the Synod Assembly, as will about half of the participants at the June 7 gathering. But Wiatros is part of her parish’s Synod Evangelization Team, or SET group, which helps carry out the three pastoral priorities already set in motion in the archdiocese: Forming small groups in relational evangelization through the Parish Evangelization Cells System; educating the faithful in the beauty, form and meaning of the Mass and the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist; and forming and inspiring parents as the first educators of the faith to their children.
Wiatros said she hopes the Synod encourages people to live and share the faith with the wider community. She hopes to go to heaven, Wiatros said. “But, you know, I want to have other souls go to heaven, too. That’s what I want to see from the Synod.”
12 SYNOD PROPOSITIONS
A dozen propositions out of 40 received the most votes in a gathering of 470 people at the Archdiocesan Synod Assembly in June 2022 as Archbishop Bernard Hebda sought pastoral priorities for unity, renewal and evangelization in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
Three of those propositions are being implemented: Forming small groups in every parish of the archdiocese, particularly following a model called Parish Evangelization Cells System; educating the faithful on the beauty, form and meaning of the Mass, with special emphasis on Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist; and forming and inspiring parents to understand and fulfill their responsibility as the first teachers of their children in the ways of faith.
Those propositions and the remaining eight will considered June 7 at a similar gathering —called the Be My Witnesses Assembly — at Cretin-Derham Hall in St. Paul. The assembly will help Archbishop Hebda discern pastoral priorities for the coming years, and it will culminate with the annual Pentecost Vigil Mass at the Cathedral of St. Paul, also in St. Paul. (All of the faithful across the archdiocese are invited to attend the vigil Mass.)
A one-sentence summary of the remaining eight propositions:
- Develop a faith formation plan at every parish and Catholic school in which parents encounter Jesus, grow in their faith, and are supported in teaching their children.
- Develop at each parish (or collaboratively among parishes) a vibrant youth ministry.
- Teach individuals and families the art of Christian living in the modern world, to be witnesses of the abundant life for which God created us.
- Create or strengthen a formation plan at every parish to help adults and families live and witness to the faith.
- Parishes and their deaneries (geographical groupings of 10 to 15 parishes) work together to provide social and faith-based events to help young adults encounter Christ.
- Foster welcoming and hospitality that seeks to encounter people where they are and opens wide the doors to Christ.
- Build parish community through events and social gatherings, including Mass.
- Encourage and empower the laity to work with clergy in parish leadership.
