Ireland’s Synodal Assembly 17th Oct 2026 – Working Document

Sep 7, 2026

The working document for Ireland’s Synodal Assembly on October 17th 2026 – entitled  “Is not this what God asks of you?” – is now available here.

The assembly itself will happen at the City North Hotel, Gormanston, Co. Meath.  As a one-day event it will have a packed programme – centred on five proposed pathways for renewal of the Catholic Church in Ireland:

  • Pathway 1: The Church that Proclaims the Gospel
  • Pathway 2: The Church as a Community of Belonging
  • Pathway 3: The Church as a Place of Healing
  • Pathway 4: The Church that Accompanies
  • Pathway 5: The Church that Empowers for Ministry
    and Co-Responsibility

As this working document relies especially on the reports of the seven working groups commissioned to deliberate on priorities identified by the Irish synodal process begun in 2021, we provide links to these reports below.

ACI will be represented at the Assembly by three delegates. We welcome feedback on the working document, and, with too little time now to arrange a Zoom meeting, we have sent our members an email invitation to complete a survey on their personal responses to the working document.

If you have not received your invitation with the link to this survey, please email us at info@acireland.ie

The email address info@acireland.ie can also be used to send us your thoughts, as well as the commenting options below this and below the feature article ‘Ireland’s Synodal Pathway to be Centred on Family‘.

For an account of ACI’s contributions to the synodal process so far – and links to all major documents relating to the synodal process, click here.

~

Appendices to Working Document – Reports from Seven Working Groups

Belonging
Co-Responsibility – Lay Ministry
Faith Formation – Catechesis
Family
Healing
Women
Youth

 

For Commenting Guidelines Click Here.

0 Comments

ACI’s Campaign for Lumen Gentium 37

The Promise of Synodality

What we have experienced of synodality so far gives ACI real hope that a longstanding structural injustice in the church may at last be acknowledged and overcome.

As all Irish bishops well know, the 'co-responsibility' they urge lay people to share - as numbers and energies of clergy decline - has been sabotaged time and again by canonical rules that deny representational authority and continuity to parish pastoral councils.  ACI's 2019 call for the immediate honouring of Lumen Gentium Article 37 becomes more urgent by the day and is supported by the following documents - also presented to the ICBC in October 2019.

The Common Priesthood of the People of God and the Renewal of the Church
It was Catholic parents and victims of clerical abuse who taught Catholic Bishops to prioritise the safeguarding of children in the church

Jesus as Model for the Common Priesthood of the People of God
It was for challenging religious hypocrisy and injustice that Jesus was accused and crucified. He is therefore a model for the common priesthood of the laity and for the challenging of injustice - in society and within the church.

A Suggested Strategy for the Recovery of the Irish and Western Catholic Church
Recovery of the church depends upon acknowledgment of the indispensable role of the common priesthood of the lay people of God and the explicit abandonment by bishops and clergy of paternalism and clericalism - the expectation of deference from lay people rather than honesty and integrity.

For the full story of ACI's campaign for the honouring of Article 37 of Lumen Gentium, click here.

Prayer

"Come Holy Spirit, Renew Your wonders in this our day, as by a new Pentecost. Grant to Your Church that, being of one mind and steadfast in prayer with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and following the lead of blessed Peter, it may advance the reign of our Divine Saviour, the reign of truth and justice, the reign of love and peace. Amen."

Saint Pope John XXIII, 1962 - In preparation for Vatican Council II, 1962-65.

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This