Our Sioux City Diocese is now moving into Phase III of our 2021 – 2023 Synod (For a Synodal Church) Process. I very much want to take this opportunity to extend a sincere thanks to our Deans, our host pastors and parishes for our Deanery-Wide Listening Events, the many parish volunteers who made each of the four listening events very welcoming, to our moderators Fred Shellabarger and Kara Kardell, to Fr. Galles (Co-Chair of the Synod Process) to our administrative staff at the Central Catholic Offices for their coordination, to our Bishop for his guidance and leadership in this process and most especially to all of our priests, deacons and faithful who attended the sessions, shared their thoughts, suggestions and in some cases criticisms with compassion, love and respect.
We have learned much and there is much to do.
What is Phase III? In this phase all of the summary reports from our parishes, individual comments and deanery-wide listening events have been transferred to the Diocesan Communications Office for their writers to review, synthesize and place into a final report draft form for the Bishop’s review. As you may recall we are limited to ten pages on our final report submission to the USCCB. After the draft report has been reviewed and approved by the Bishop, the final report will be completed and submitted to the USCCB by mid to late April 2022.