Women religious superiors from around the world are expected to share their “synodal experience” during their 22nd plenary assembly in Rome from May 2 to 6.
The meeting of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG), which will bring together about 700 religious of 71 different nationalities, including 521 superior generals, will discuss the theme:”Embracing Vulnerability in the Synodal Journey.”
“There are many ways to make synodality visible,” said Sister Jolanta Kafka, UISG president, in a Vatican News report.
“Our assembly, with its contents and methods, is an experience of synodality of female religious life and we truly hope to experience a privileged space of listening and research accompanied by the Holy Spirit,” said the nun.
She said the gathering will discuss “how we are contributing to the synodal process of the Church, how we can encourage deep listening in a synodal style, and how to enter into a dynamic of common discernment as a Church by recognizing vulnerability as a typically human feature.”
Speakers are expected to lead reflections on the focus theme of synodality from five perspectives: vulnerability, synodal process, religious life and synodality, peripheries, and calls to transformation, said the Vatican News report.
The UISG was founded in 1965 as a global forum for superiors general of institutions of Catholic women religious. Its members include about 1,900 superiors, whose general houses are distributed in 97 countries around the globe.
The organization’s aims provide an International Forum where superiors general can share experiences and information, encourage dialogue and collaboration among religious congregations within the Church and larger society; and assist members in their development as leaders of religious congregations, among others.
