Synod delegates urge young Catholics to learn how to listen to others in a polarized world

More than 30 students — most of whom were from the U.S. — from over 10 universities attended “The University Students in Dialogue with Synod Leaders,” an Oct. 18, 2024, event organized by the General Secretariat of the Synod held in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall. / Credit: Synod-va YouTube screenshot

Vatican City, Oct 19, 2024 / 10:00 am (CNA).

More than 30 students — most of whom were from the U.S. — from over 10 universities attended “The University Students in Dialogue with Synod Leaders,” an Oct. 18 event organized by the General Secretariat of the Synod held in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall. 

The event was moderated by four young staff members of the Synod on Synodality’s communications team who presented questions to four guest panelists participating in the second global synodal session at the Vatican: Secretary-General of the Synod Cardinal Mario Grech; Relator General of the Synod Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich; Sister Leticia Salazar, chancellor of the Diocese of San Bernardino, California; and Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas.

An additional 360 people worldwide watched the event live via the synod’s YouTube channel.

Before a predominantly American audience, Hollerich drew attention to the upcoming Nov. 5 U.S. elections and stressed the importance of seeing the person behind the opinion. 

“When I see on television about the elections in the States, there are two worlds that seem to be opposed, and you have to be an enemy of the others — that thinking is very far from synodal thinking,” the cardinal said.

“The person with the different opinion is not an enemy. We are together part of humanity. We live in the same world and we have to find common solutions,” he added. 

Further commenting on the sharp political and ideological divide within the U.S., panelist Salazar encouraged young Catholics in the country to not be afraid of sharing the faith with others. 

“Living in a reality of polarization, synodality really has a gentle way of announcing the good news in a very respectful way,” she said.

“I’m very happy and very hopeful for the United States to see you [young Catholics] here [in the Vatican],” she added. “We have a lot of work to do, we have a journey to walk, but the beauty of this is that we are not by ourselves.”

During the event, synod delegate Flores said students must be “real” to be credible witnesses of the Church in a culture “that has forgotten how to talk to each other.”   

“You can’t keep announcing the Gospel if you don’t have a sense of the reality people are living, and that’s part of what the listening thing is about,” he said. “Open the ears and listen on a deeper level just to hear the reality.”

“I repeat, the hardest part of synodality is listening patiently with someone you have decided is already wrong,” he said. “If somebody tells you about their life it is a gift that you should appreciate as something rather sacred.”