Once again the Church sets the example, anticipating politics. If in the civil sphere the aggregation between Municipalities, not to mention the merger, marks the step, the Diocese of Belluno Feltre has urged the parishes administered by a single priest to establish a unitary pastoral council. And in the Belluno area, only Cortina, Lozzo and Limana are autonomous, that is, they have a parish priest all to themselves.
Bishop Renato Marangoni issued a pastoral letter on the continuation of the diocesan synod in which, among other things, he relaunches the recommendation made again last year, because not everywhere the constitution of the unitary organism that represents the different communities that they belong to the same parish priest.
The Synod allowed, in the first year of activity, a very wide consultation of 250 groups, from which the “Bethany Sites” arose, “an image”, as the bishop explains, “which indicates the need for a work that lasts over time, which is not limited to the organization of events, but aims at the realization of listening paths and experiences of lived synodality ».
After a meeting, last Saturday, of the 45 coordinators of as many groups, in these days, the bishop is meeting the parish priests and the representatives of the pastoral councils in the coordination of the six foranial convergences, to present the choice to mark the course of the year in three phases. pastoral. The first, until the end of the year or a little later, to plan the initiatives to be carried out at the level of pastoral collaborations (several parishes).
In the second phase, which will involve the diocese after Christmas and for the whole of Lent, efforts will be made to activate the synodal works, in particular what has been called “the construction of the road and the village”: the intent is to activate a «More courageous listening that reaches the“ vital worlds that usually elude us ”. A construction site that goes on to meet people, situations and experiences not yet heard.
In the third phase, which will last in the time after Lent until the beginning of the summer period, the communities will be invited to renew the pastoral councils. “This”, the bishop emphasizes, “is certainly not a” bureaucratic “operation, but involves a community maturation that develops in a growing sense of hospitality, in a style of co-responsibility and promoting relationships of mutual recognition and trust”.