Walking together: a reflection on synodality with Sr Nathalie Becquart XMCJ

Sr Nathalie Becquart XMCJ likens the Church’s focus on synodality to a pilgrimage, a spiritual and practical journey, with highs, lows and the need for perseverance.

The Undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops is on a fleeting visit to Australia, her first since last year’s Synod on Synodality, to share the Church’s vision for a future of listening and mutual cooperation between laity, clergy and bishops.

‘Working at the Vatican—and this process—is already a pilgrimage; it’s an adventure,’ Sr Nathalie told a gathering of Archdiocese and parish representatives in Melbourne on Monday 25 August. ‘And as you know, when you go on pilgrimage, there are beautiful days … and sometimes you are tired, sometimes it’s difficult. The synodal process is like this.’

This image of pilgrimage sets the tone for how she sees the Church: on the move, listening and learning as it goes. ‘More and more, I realise, first of all, we are all deeply connected, and what we have in common is more important than our differences.’

Central to the synodal vision is what Sr Nathalie calls ‘mutual interiority’: where each part of the Church learns from the other, while maintaining its own identity. Importantly, it continues the moving away from a top-down approach—a movement that started with the Second Vatican Council and gathered pace in the Pope Francis era.

‘It’s not only about the Vatican giving something to the local churches, but it’s really this exchange of gifts,’ she says. ‘When we go to the local churches, we receive a lot. We learn a lot. And when we come back to the Vatican, we bring that.’

Sr Nathalie points to Pope Leo XIV as a longtime participant in the Church’s journey towards synodality, taking part in the process when he was still a bishop in Peru. She says she can testify that he understands the need to engage with the world. ‘When you meet him, you can really feel that he’s a very deep listener, very rooted in spirituality.’

She says Pope Leo has prioritised the mission of peace, which she says is inextricably linked to the synodality of the Church. ‘To serve peace, we need to foster unity and communion in the Church. And that’s why he expressed we want to be a synodal church, because that’s the way … we can serve peace and foster peace-building.’

This link between peace-building and synodality has shown itself in concrete ways, Sr Nathalie says, sharing an example from the synodal process: ‘At one moment, we had on the same table the bishop of Moscow, Russia, and one of the bishops of Ukraine. And they were able to experience together this mutual listening and dialogue.

‘Valuing the diversity of horizons is not only a gift for the Church, but it’s already a gift for the world in these circumstances of today.’

As the first woman undersecretary of the General Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops, Sr Nathalie knows firsthand how difficult it is to navigate a new path within the Church. But she says she doesn’t feel she is doing it alone. ‘We have different charisms, vocations, gifts, ... ministries, but we can only carry on the mission of the Church together.

‘Being a woman there, I feel very connected to many women all around the world, those before me who have been also involved in the Church. Of course, I’m a woman, I’m not a man. I’m a sister. But at the end, what I experienced through synodality is how we are all deeply, deeply rooted in the mystery of the Trinity.’

She calls synodality a ‘prophetic voice for the world’, as envisaged in the final document of the 2024 Synod Assembly in Rome, Pathways for the Implementation Phase of the Synod. It is an important document, Sr Nathalie says, that carries the weight of Church teaching. ‘Pope Francis endorsed directly the final document of the synod. So now it’s part of the ordinary Magisterium, and it is asked now to put it into practice, to implement those fruits with creativity, in the diversity of the context of the local churches.’

Sr Nathalie encourages Australian parishes to continue what they were one of the first to start—referring to the Australian Plenary Council being one of the first examples of a local church embracing the synodal method. One of the most practical and important ways for parishes to be more synodal is to ‘walk with’ the poor and marginalised, she said. ‘In our parish or in our community, we have to go where they are, and I think especially in the Church, we have to partner with those who are already journeying with them.’

Her message is to live synodality through mutual respect and shared responsibility, dialogue and listening, because when we are genuinely walking together in the Spirit, everyone has something to say.