The Irish bishops launched the Irish Synodal Pathway just a few weeks before Pope Francis announced the Global Synod.
The Irish Pathway was quickly linked with the Global Synod.
All 26 dioceses in Ireland took part in the listening sessions using the conversations in the Spirit method and published their Synthesis Reports.
The original question for the Irish Synodal Pathway was “What does God want from the Church in Ireland at this time?”
In 2025, this was distilled into seven priority areas.
- Belonging
- Co-responsibility and lay ministry
- Faith formation and catechesis
- Family
- Healing
- Women
- Young people
Working groups take shape
7 Working Groups were then selected to develop practical and actionable proposals for the Church in Ireland.
It was interesting to note that a bishop was assigned to each of the 7 Working Groups — but the bishop was not made the chairperson.
The Women’s Working Group was made up of 7 women and 3 men.
Submissions still unpublished
The deadline for submissions for the 7 Working Groups was 31 May 2026, but 3 months later, none of these submissions has been published.
All the submissions are being distilled into a smaller, more manageable number to be presented to the National Assembly on 17 October 2026.
A one-day National Assembly
The National Assembly will be made up of around 240 selected delegates made up from all the dioceses and organisations.
They will meet for only one short day to finalise the Working Document, which will be published in September 2026.
Choosing a synodal path
My understanding of Synodality means a new way of organising our church with all the people of God involved at all levels in our church.
We should all be actively working to move from a patriarchal hierarchy to a synodal model.
Will the Irish National Assembly make some important proposals for Pope Leo to consider, or will they opt for plain vanilla?
- Colm Holmes is Chair of We are Church International.